All of Agatha: At Bertram's Hotel

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Agatha Christe was seventy-five years old when she published At Bertram's Hotel in 1965 so she was (more or less) the age that Miss Marple is when she revisits a London hotel she visited when she was a girl. [by contrast, she was in her 30's when she wrote Murder at the Vicarage]. Indeed, the complaints mentioned in the beginning do sound old-lady-ish (...so many modern armchairs, stop halfway between the high and the knee, thereby inflicting agony on those suffering from arthritis and sciatica...). One theme that runs throughout is looking at the past. Miss Marple doesn't go to museums or shows when she's in London, she goes to places she used to know, places where people she used to know lived, shops she visited with her aunt, eg the Army Navy stores, etc.

When Miss Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she's looking for at Bertram's: traditional décor and impeccable service. But she senses an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer.

So Things aren't What They Seem.

And Miss Marple concludes: one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back--that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a One Way Street, isn't it?"

This is what I personally think. I hate looking back. I never plan to visit the area where I grew up. I have absolutely no desire to even think about the past.

They make a big deal about muffins and seed cake. That we Americans think muffins are a kind of tea cake with raisins. I'm not sure what that's all about.

But it's a good story. Of course, Agatha has to be very high-handed about Mummy Issues. And it's nice and quaint to think about a crime syndicate being run out of an old-fashioned hotel and not, say, the White House :)

Next up: The Third Girl!

Comments

[smallhobbit]

I do like At Bertram's Hotel, although it is rather implausible. But it has Miss Marple who remains as astute as ever.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes, I like it, too!

[fred_mouse]

On muffins: when I was a kid, muffins were a flattish bread that came in a six pack. Roughly 10cm diameter circle, 2-3cm high. We would cut them in half and toast them. The crumb was heavier than sliced bread. The oversized cup cake 'muffins' that are now sold everywhere are referred to as American muffins, and the ones I remember have been renamed as English muffins.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes, it's the same here. Well, we just call them muffins and English muffins but I assume Lady Selina had an American muffin in the US and is relishing the real English muffin at Bertram's.

[fred_mouse]

I was responding to your line "* That we Americans think muffins are a kind of tea cake with raisins. I'm not sure what that's all about.*" - because from my perspective American muffins are a weird tea cake.

[debriswoman]

Not aware of any muffins with raisins in them. Regarding the past…some wistfulness here…but yes, it’s another country.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

We have English muffins here (which I assume is what Lady Selina is gushing about at Bertram's). American muffins (which we just call muffins naturally) can have raisins but most of the time they are blueberry. Once in while corn or chocolate or something else like orange-cranberry but there are bran muffins and those tend to have raisins.

:)