Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării şi Tineretului Liceul Teoretic
„Gheorghe Lazăr”
Pecica, judeţul Arad
Agatha Christie
Coordonator ,
Candidat,
Prof . Gudea Alina
Brumar Alexandra-Flavia
2014
Agatha Christie
Content Argument
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Introduction
3
I.
II.
III.
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Life and career
1. Childhood
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2. First marriage
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3. First novels
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4. Dissapearance
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5. Second marriage and later life
8 10
Work
1. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple
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2. Formula and plot devices
11 12
Archeology
1. Archaeological influences in her writing
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2. Characters
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3. Spirituality
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Bibliography
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Agatha Christie
Argument I wrote this paper about Agatha Christie because she is my favorite novelist since childhood. She also is my grandmother’s favorite author so instead of children tales, my grandmother read me stories with Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. As I grew up, I started playing games inspired by Agatha Christie’s books and watching movies with her famous detective Poirot. I enjoy reading Agatha Christie’s books because I always find out something new about life and about people. It’s fascinating how humans act in conditions of stress and how hard they try to hide their mistakes. The psychology of murder it is an important part of her masterpieces. She had always tried to reveal the human condition and that made her an exceptional wr iter. Most of her books are inspired by the places she had visited while she was married with Max Mallowan. She found the archeological life an interesting surrounding for her stories and tried to describe in detail every scenary. In conclusion, I choose to write about Agatha Christie because she is the best writer I have ever known and her life and work has always fascinated me. Her sense of curiosity and the mystery she had created in her books are the tools that made every single one a masterpiece. My favorite book is Murder on the Orient Express but I intent to read t he whole collection.
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Agatha Christie
Introduction Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (born Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple and Tommy and Tuppence. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, ―The Mousetrap‖. Born to a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, Christie served in a hospital during the First World War, before marrying and starting a family in London. Although initially unsuccessful at getting her work published, in 1920, The Bodley Head press published her novel ―The Mysterious Affair at Styles‖, featuring the character of Poirot. This launched her literary career. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 4 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works rank third, after those of William Shakespeare and the Bible, as the world's most-widely published books. According to Index Translationum, Christie is the most-translated individual author, and her books have been translated into at least 103 languages. ―And Then There Were None‖ is Christie's best -selling novel with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the bestselling books of all time. In 1971, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Christie's stage play ―The Mousetrap‖ holds the record for the longest initial run: it opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 25 November 1952 and as of 2012 is still running after more than 25,000 performances. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honour, the Grand Master Award, and in the same year Witness for the Prosecution was given an Edgar Award by the MWA for Best Play. Many of her books and short stories have been filmed, and many have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics.
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Agatha Christie
I. Life and career 1. Childhood On September 15, 1890, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born the daughter of Frederick Miller and Clara Miller (née Boehmer) in the seaside resort town of Torquay, England. Frederick, an easy going, independently wealthy American stockbroker, and Clara, an Englishwoman, raised their three children -- Margaret, Monty, and Agatha -- in an Italian-style stucco mansion complete with servants. Agatha was educated in her happy, peaceful home via a mixture of tutors and ―Nursie,‖ her nanny. Agatha was an avid reader, especially Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. She and her friends enjoyed acting out gloomy stories where everyone died, which Agatha wrote herself. She played croquet and took piano lessons; however, her extreme shyness kept her from publicly performing. In 1901, when Agatha was 11, her father died of a heart
attack.
investments,
Frederick leaving
had his
made family
some
bad
financially
unprepared for his untimely death. Although Clara was able to keep their home since the mortgage was paid, she was forced to make several household cuts, including the staff. Rather than home tutors, Agatha went to Miss Guyer’s School in Torquay; Monty joined the army; and Margaret married. For high school, Agatha went to a finishing school in Paris where her mother hoped her daughter would become an opera singer. Although good at singing, Agatha’s stage fright once a gain prevented her from publicly performing. After her graduation, she and her mother traveled to Egypt. She visited such ancient Egyptian monuments as the Great Pyramid of Giza, but did not exhibit the great interest in archaeology and Egyptology that became prominent in her later years.
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Agatha Christie
2. First marriage Christie was searching for a husband, and entered into short-lived relationships with four separate men and an engagement with another. She then met Archibald "Archie" Christie (1889-1962) at a dance given by Lord and Lady Clifford of Chudleigh, about 12 miles (19 kilometres) from Torquay. Archie had been born in India, the son of a judge in the Indian Civil Service. In England he joined the air service, stationed at Devon in 1912. The couple quickly fell in love. Upon learning he would be stationed in Farnborough, Archie proposed marriage, and Agatha accepted. 1914 saw the outbreak of World War I, and Archie was sent to France to do battle with the German forces. Agatha also involved herself in the war effort, joining the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) and attending to wounded soldiers at the hospital in Torquay. In this position she was responsible for aiding the doctors and maintaining morale; performing 3,400 hours of unpaid work between October 1914 and December 1916. As a dispenser, she finally earned £16 yearly until the end of her service in September 1918. Agatha married Archie on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. They met throughout the war every time he was posted home. Rising through the ranks, he was eventually stationed back to Britain in September 1918 as a colonel in the Air Ministry. They settled into a flat at 5 Northwick Terrace in St. John's Wood, Northwest London.
―With my husband, Archie, after his investiture in 1919.‖-Agatha Christie.
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Agatha Christie
3. First novels Christie had long been a fan of detective novels, having enjoyed Wilkie Collins' ―The Woman in White‖ and ―The Moonstone‖ as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories. She wrote her own detective novel ―The Mysterious Affair at Styles‖ featuring Hercule Poirot, portrayed as a former Belgian police officer noted for his twirly large "magnificent moustaches" and eggshaped head, who took refuge in Britain after Germany had invaded Belgium. Christie's inspiration for this stemmed from real Belgian refugees who existed in Torquay. The Styles manuscript was not accepted by such publishing companies as Hodder and Stoughton and Methuen. However, John Lane at The Bodley Head kept the submission for several months, then offered to accept it provided Christie change the ending. She duly did so, and then signed a contract that she later felt was exploitative. Christie meanwhile settled into married life, giving birth to daughter Rosalind at Ashfield in August 1919, where the couple – having few friends in London – spent much of their time. Archie left the Air Force at the end of the war and started working in the City financial sector at a relatively low salary, though they still employed a maid. Christie's second novel, ―The Secret Adversary‖ (1922), featured a new detective couple Tommy and Tuppence. Again published by The Bodley Head, it earned her £50. A third novel again featured Poirot, ―Murder on the Links‖ (1923), as did short stories commissioned by Bruce Ingram, editor of Sketch magazine. In order to tour the world promoting the British Empire Exhibition the couple left their daughter Rosalind with Agatha's mother and sister then travelled to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. They learned to surf prone in South Africa, then in Waikiki were among the first Britain’s to surf standing up.
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Agatha Christie
4. Disappearance In late 1926, Archie asked Agatha for a divorce. He was in love with Nancy Neele, who had been secretary to Major Belcher, director of the British Empire Mission, on the promotional tour a few years earlier. On 3 December 1926, the Christies quarrelled, and Archie left their house, Styles, in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to spend the weekend with his mistress at Godalming, Surrey. That same evening, around 9.45 pm, Christie disappeared from her home, leaving behind a letter for her secretary saying that she was going to Yorkshire. Her car, a Morris Cowley, was later found at Newlands Corner, by a lake near Guildford, with an expired driving license and clothes. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public. The Home Secretary, William Joynson-Hicks, pressured police, and a newspaper offered £100 reward. Over a thousand police officers, 15,000 volunteers and several aeroplanes scoured the rural landscape. Christie's disappearance featured on the front page of ―The New York Times‖. Despite the extensive manhunt, she was not found for 10 days. On 14 December 1926, Agatha Christie was found at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now the Old Swan Hotel) in Harrogate, Yorkshire, registered as 'Mrs Teresa Neele' from Cape Town. Christie never explained her disappearance. Although two doctors diagnosed her as suffering from psychogenic fugue, opinion remains divided. A nervous breakdown from a natural propensity for depression may have been exacerbated by her mother's death earlier that year and her husband's infidelity. Public reaction at the time was largely negative, supposing a publicity stunt or attempt to frame her husband for murder. Author Jared Cade interviewed numerous witnesses and relatives for his sympathetic biography, ―Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days‖, revised 2011. He provided substantial evidence to suggest she planned the event to embarrass her husband, never supposing the resulting escalated melodrama. The 1979 Michael Apted’s film ―Agatha‖ starring Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman and Timothy Dalton depicts Christie planning suicide, to frame her husband's mistress for her "murder". An American reporter, played by Hoffman, follows her closely and stops the plan. The Christies divorced in 1928, and Archie married Nancy Neele. Agatha retained custody of daughter Rosalind, and the Christie name for her writing. During their marriage, she published six novels, a collection of short stories, and a number of short stories in magazines.
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Agatha Christie
5. Second marriage and later life In 1930 Christie married archaeologist Max Mallowan, having met him in an archaeological dig. Their marriage was always happy, and it continued until Christie's death in 1976. Max introduced her to wine, which she never enjoyed - preferring to drink water in restaurants. She tried unsuccessfully to make herself like cigarettes by smoking one after lunch and one after dinner every day for six months. Christie frequently used settings that were familiar to her for her stories. Her travels with Mallowan contributed background to several of her novels set in the Middle East. Other novels (such as ―And Then There Were None‖) were set in and around Torquay, where she was raised. Christie's 1934 novel ―Murder on the Orient Express‖ was written in the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, the southern terminus of the railway. The hotel maintains Christie's room as a memorial to the author. The Greenway Estate in Devon, acquired by the couple as a summer residence in 1938, is now in the care of the National Trust. Christie often stayed at Abney Hall in Cheshire, owned by her brother-in-law, James Watts, basing at least two stories there: a short story "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding", in the story collection of the same name, and the novel ―After the Funeral‖. Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all its servants and grandeur being woven into her plots. The descriptions of the fictional Chimneys, Stoneygates, and other houses in her stories are mostly Abney in various forms. During the Second World War, Christie worked in the pharmacy at University College Hospital, London, where she acquired a knowledge of poisons that she put to good use in her post-war crime novels. For example, the use of thallium as a poison was suggested to her by UCH Chief Pharmacist Harold Davis (later appointed Chief Pharmacist at the UK Ministry of Health), and in ―The Pale Horse‖, published in 1961, she employed it to dispatch a series of victims, the first clue to the murder method coming from the victims' loss of hair. So accurate was her description of thallium poisoning that on at least one occasion it helped solve a case that was baffling doctors. Christie lived in Chelsea, first in Cresswell Place and later in Sheffield Terrace. Both properties are now marked by blue plaques. Around 1941 – 1942, the British intelligence agency, MI5, investigated Agatha Christie. A character called Major Bletchley appeared in her 1941 thriller ― N or M?‖, a story that features a hunt for two 8
Agatha Christie
of Hitler's top secret spy agents in Britain. MI5 was afraid that Christie had a spy in Britain's topsecret codebreaking centre, Bletchley Park. The agency's fears were allayed when Christie commented to codebreaker Dilly Knox that Bletchley was simply the name of "one of my least lovable characters." To honour her many literary works, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honours. The next year, she became the President of the Detection Club. In the 1971 New Year Honours, she was promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, three years after her husband had been knighted for his archaeological work in 1968. They were one of the few married couples where both partners were honoured in their own right. From 1968, owing to her husband's knighthood, Christie could also be styled Lady Mallowan. From 1971 to 1974, Christie's health began to fail, although she continued to write. In 1975, sensing her increasing weakness, Christie signed over the rights of her most successful play, ―The Mousetrap‖, to her grandson. Recently, using experimental textual tools of analysis, Canadian researchers have suggested that Christie may have begun to suffer from Alzheimer's disease or other dementia. Agatha Christie died on 12 January 1976 at age 85 from natural causes at her Winterbrook House in the north of Cholsey parish, adjoining Wallingford in Oxfordshire (formerly part of Berkshire). She is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Mary's, Cholsey. Christie's only child, Rosalind Margaret Hicks, died, also aged 85, on 28 October 2004 from natural causes in Torbay, Devon. Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, was heir to the copyright to some of his grandmother's literary work (including ―The Mousetrap‖) and is still associated with Agatha Christie Limited.
. Agatha Christie and Max Mallowan with an archeologist on a site.
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Agatha Christie
II. Work 1. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple Agatha Christie's first novel ―The Mysterious Affair at Styles‖ was published in 1920 and introduced the detective Hercule Poirot, who became a long-running character in many of Christie's works, appearing in 33 novels and 54 short stories. Miss (Jane) Marple, who also became well known, was introduced in the short stories ―The Thirteen Problems‖ in 1927 and was based on Christie's grandmother and her "Ealing cronies". Both Jane and Gran "always expected the worst of everyone and everything, and were, with almost frightening accuracy, usually proved right". Miss Marple appeared in 12 of Christie's novels. During the Second World War, Christie wrote two novels, ―Curtain‖, and ―Sleeping Murder ‖, intended as the last cases of these two great detectives, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. Both books were sealed in a bank vault for over thirty years and were released for publication by Christie only at the end of her life, when she realised that she could not write any more novels. These publications came on the heels of the success of the film version of ―Murder on the Orient Express‖ in 1974. Like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, Christie was to become increasingly tired of her detective Poirot. By the end of the 1930s, Christie wrote in her diary that she was finding Poirot "insufferable," and by the 1960s she felt that he was "an egocentric creep." However, unlike Conan Doyle, Christie resisted the temptation to kill her detective off while he was still popular. She saw herself as an entertainer whose job was to produce what the public liked, and the public liked Poirot. Feeling tied down, stuck with a love interest, she did marry off Hastings in an attempt to trim her cast commitments. In contrast, Christie was fond of Miss Marple. However, the Belgian detective's titles outnumber the Marple titles more than two to one: this is largely because Christie wrote numerous Poirot novels early in her career, while ―The Murder at the Vicarage‖ remained the sole Marple novel until the 1940s. Christie never wrote a novel or short story featuring both Poirot and Miss Marple. In a recording discovered and released in 2008, Christie revealed the reason for this: "Hercule Poirot, a complete egoist, would not like being taught his business or having suggestions made to him by an elderly spinster lady".
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Agatha Christie
Poirot is the only fictional character to have been given an obituary in ―The New York Times‖, following the publication of ―Curtain‖. It appeared on the front page of the paper on 6 August 1975. Following the great success of ―Curtain‖, Christie gave permission for the release of ―Sleeping Murder ‖ sometime in 1976 but died in January 1976 before the book could be released. This may explain some of the inconsistencies compared to the rest of the Marple series — for example, Colonel Arthur Bantry, husband of Miss Marple's friend Dolly, is still alive and well in ―Sleeping Murder ‖ despite the fact he is noted as having died in books published earlier. It may be that Christie simply did not have time to revise the manuscript before she died. Miss Marple fared better than Poirot, since after solving the mystery in ―Sleeping Murder ‖ she returns home to her regular life in St. Mary Mead.
2. Formula and plot devices Agatha Christie's reputation as "The Queen of Crime" was built upon the large number of classic motifs that she introduced, or for which she provided the most famous example. Christie built these tropes into what is now considered classic mystery structure: a murder is committed, there are multiple suspects who are all concealing secrets, and the detective gradually uncovers these secrets over the course of the story, discovering the most shocking twists towards the end. At the end, in a Christie hallmark, the detective usually gathers the surviving suspects into one room, explains the course of his or her deductive reasoning, and reveals the guilty party.
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Agatha Christie
III. Archaeology While accompanying Mallowan on countless archaeological trips (spending up to 3 – 4 months at a time in Syria and Iraq at excavation sites at Ur, Ninevah, Tell Arpachiyah, Chagar Bazar, Tell Brak, and Nimrud), Christie not only wrote novels and short stories, but also contributed work to the archaeological sites, more specifically to the archaeological restoration and labelling of ancient exhibits which includes tasks such as cleaning and conserving delicate ivory pieces, reconstructing pottery, developing photos from early excavations which later led to taking photographs of the site and its findings, and taking field notes. So as to not influence the funding of the archaeological excavations, Christie would always pay for her own board and lodging and her travel expenses, and supported excavations as an anonymous sponsor. After the Second World War, she chronicled her time in Syria with fondness in "Come Tell Me How You Live". Anecdotes, memories, funny episodes, are strung in a rough timeline, with more emphasis on eccentric characters, lovely scenery, than factual accuracy.
1. Archaeological influences in her writing Many of the settings for Agatha Christie's books were directly inspired by the many archaeological field seasons spent in the Middle East on the sites managed by her husband Max. The extent of her time spent at the many locations featured in her books is apparent from the extreme detail in which she describes them. One such site featured in her work is the temple site of Abu Simbel, depicted in ―Death on the Nile‖. Also there is the great detail in which she describes life at the dig site in ―Murder in Mesopotamia‖.
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Agatha Christie
2. Characters Among the characters in her books, Christie has often given prominence to the archaeologists and experts in Middle Eastern cultures and artefacts. Most notable are the characters of Dr. Eric Leidner in ―Murder in Mesopotamia‖ and Signor Richetti in ―Death on the Nile‖, while many minor characters in ―They Came to Baghdad‖ were archaeologists. Indirectly, Christie's famous character Hercule Poirot may be compared to an archaeologist by the manner of his detailed scrutiny of all facts both large and small. Cornelius Holtorf, an academic archaeologist, cites an archaeologist as a detective as being one of the key themes of archaeology in popular culture. He describes an archaeologist as a professional detective of the past who has the ability to reveal secrets for the greater good of society. Holtorf's description of the archaeologist as a detective is very similar to Christie's depiction of Poirot, who is hugely observant and is very careful to look at small details as they often impart the most information. Many of Christie's detective characters show some archaeological traits through their careful attention to clues and artefacts alike. Miss Marple, another of Christie's famous characters, shares these characteristics of careful deduction though the attention paid to the small clues.
3. Spirituality Christie's life within the archaeological world shaped not only the settings and characters for her books but also the issues she highlights. One of the stronger influences is her love of the mystical and mysterious. Many of Christie's books and short stories set both in the Middle East and back in England have a decidedly otherworldly influence in which religious sects, sacrifices, ceremony, and seances play a part. Such stories include "The Hound of Death" and "The Idol House of Astarte". This theme was greatly strengthened by those times Christie spent in the Middle East where she was consistently surrounded by the religious temples and spiritual history of the towns and cities they were excavating during Mallowan's archaeological work.
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Agatha Christie
Bibliography Books:
1. Thompson, Laura (2007), Agatha Christie: An English M ystery, London: Headline Review 2. Osborne, Charles (2001), The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, St Martins 3. Cade, Jared (1997), Agatha Christie and the Missing Eleven Days, Peter Owen External links:
1. Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie 2. MysteryNet : http://christie.mysterynet.com/ 3. About.com: http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/a/Agatha-Christie.htm 4. Official website: http://www.agathachristie.com/ 5. Famous authors.com: http://www.famousauthors.org/agatha-christie
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