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Other Christie books discussions

Agatha and the supernatural

drdavid 22 Oct 08 at 9:39 p.m. GMT

I would like to open a thread on the supernatural stories of Agatha Christie and invite any comments particularly on the volume The Hound of Death and other stories. After reading several biographies I know that Agatha was intrigued, though sceptical, when it came to the supernatural

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MissQuin 01 Feb 10 at 4:26 p.m. GMT

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I have a deep fascination with the supernatural. AC stories with supernatual elements..

I love the Mr Quin stories as they are mysterious. Its not until the later Mr Quin's until you realise just why Mr Q is so unusual..

The pale horse but I havnt read that one yet.

Murder is easy isnt exactly supernatural, but there is Satanism/witchcraft featured. It is very creepy!

The sittaford mystery with the table turning. But sadly the supernatural elemant is lost before mid way and is replaced with a more sprightly, light hearted feel which spoilt it for me!

some of the short stories that have meen already mentioned.

Then theres senances and meduims seen in a different sceptical light... In Poirot there was a senace in Peril at End House, but that was done in a humouress way, seeing as hastings was the meduim! Taken at the flood has Mrs Cloade who tells Poirot the spirits advised her to seek his help. But theres a strong impression that the shrewd Mrs Cload has taken it upon herself to seek out Poirot. Dumb witness had two supposed mediums. The tragedy at Marsdon manor, a dead husband has seemed to have come for revenge, though that one turns out to have a more logical explanation!

drdavid 26 Mar 09 at 5:59 p.m. GMT

I am grateful to all the contributors who have pulled at this thread, it has certainly given me even more food for thought regarding AC and the charlatanism involved in the research into the supernatural as well as the number of books in which there is a supernatural question debunked that leads to the truth of the matter. I am particularly fond of her short stories in which the supernatural is incorporated ~ The Hound of Death is the best example of this and I would urge readers here to revisit those stories as I think they are a neglected treasure.

lava 24 Mar 09 at 4:48 a.m. GMT

I think the pale horse is perfect to show that agatha christie had alittle bend towards supernatural theories and things

HarleyBarley 30 Nov 08 at 8:03 a.m. GMT

Det. Paul John, It certainly is. But my personal favourite is Harlequin's Lane - except for the part when I realise he was gone and God knows when he will be back (although I later found out when I bought Problem at Pollensa Bay). Fantastic work.

detectivepauljohn 30 Nov 08 at 1:21 a.m. GMT

JessieL

I really love that story. I also like the Voice In the Dark. When the mystery was revealed, it was totally surprising!

HarleyBarley 29 Nov 08 at 4:39 p.m. GMT

To detectivepauljohn: You mean The Shadow on the Glass? I like it too, but I prefer stories where Quin is more directly involved. One thing puzzles me: how can one hold a séancé with the person still alive? Such as in The Bird with the Broken Wing.

detectivepauljohn 28 Nov 08 at 10:08 a.m. GMT

JessieL

Many people dislike this book but for me I like it specially the 2nd story.

HarleyBarley 28 Nov 08 at 3:31 a.m. GMT

Where there's mystery, I, well, think of - Harley Quin! The most supernatural ones are Harlequin's Lane, The Voice in the Dark, The Bird with the Broken Wing, and The Harlequin Tea Set (in a seperate book). I love these stories. Quin is my favourite.

Marc_Anton 26 Oct 08 at 5:59 a.m. GMT

DrDavid, you are right that Christie used the theme of 'influence of the dead on the living' many times, not only dead persons but also events, like shadows from the past. I am thinking of Five Little Pigs and Sleeping Murder. It is very 'Rebecca'. Also in Nemisis there are a lot of dark and unsolved events from the past that still have a hold on many of the main characters in the novel. In this book the theme as guilt-as-a-factor works best. Not only the feelings of guilt of the murderer but also at least three other characters suffer from the feelings that things haven't been done right in the past and there are still some loose ends. I agree that in this Christie was very much influenced by the many 19th century novels she read, like Dickens.

GKCfan 25 Oct 08 at 8:43 p.m. GMT

I believe that the radio frightening story is "Where There's A Will."

drdavid 25 Oct 08 at 6:31 p.m. GMT

Excellent work, marc anton. agatha does use the supernatural a great deal in a lot of her books. that is the line I have been taking especially since "the dead have no voice" apparently. Your ref to Peril at End House is particularly good since the seance revealed the guilty party. Also looking at the wider picture Agatha often uses the effects the dead have on the living. I have recently been rereading Ordeal by Innocence and realise it is one of her masterworks as she invented a whole new tributary to the genre, it concerns the devastating effect that innocent death can have on the innocent and that guilt is as much a killer as any poison/dagger/revolver. In this she has referred to many works of classic literature. We must all remember that Agatha was an avid reader and she took in everything she read to reference later.

Marc_Anton 25 Oct 08 at 11:30 a.m. GMT

Since I don't have so much affinity with the supernatural myself and I normally do not go for ghost stories, I would like to make an input of Christie stories where she introduced some elements of the 'supernatural' but that in the end were only used to frighten people or to confuse the plot and give it a ghostly twist; the supernatural as a fraud so to say. The already mentioned Pale Horse comes to mind. There is of course a 'fixed' séance in The Sittaford Mystery and in the last chapter of Peril at End House one character has a return from the other world. There is a ghostly appearance in Murder in Mesopotamia and in Endless Night a fortune telling gypsy is not all what it seems. And the participants of the séance in Dumb Witness witnessed some spooky events but they were not so supernatural as they first seemed to be. There must be lots of short stories too, Miss Marple's The Blue Geranium for one. And that story about the man who fixed the radio to frighten to death his aunt, I forgot the name.

detectivepauljohn 25 Oct 08 at 8:28 a.m. GMT

"The Mysterious Mr. Quin" is a real excellent book by Dame Agatha Christie. It contains 12 short stories with Harley Quin who appears and dissapears without people around them knowing and his friend Mr. Satterwhaite. They solve cases/mysteries by only talking about these cases/mysteries until they will go deeper and finally will solve it. It is very supernatural in Mr. Quin's part. The first chapter is the case of Derek Capel's suicide, the second story is the murder case of two people in the party, the third is the disappearance of a good looking man, the fourth is the murder case of Vivien Burnaby, the fifth is entitles "The Soul Of the Croupier", the sixth is about an opal missing, the seventh is about a voice that was being heard by a girl named Margery, the eighth is entitled "The Face Of Helen", the ninth is about a suicide or murder of a man, the tenth is a murder in a party which Mr. Satterwhaite was invited, the eleventh is entitled "The Man From the Sea" and the last is entitled "Harlequin's Lane".I recommend you to read this book...

Jilly 24 Oct 08 at 7:59 p.m. GMT

The Pale Horse , has to be one of her most Supernatural themed books ever. The world of the supernatural was a common past time in the early part of the 20thC .

go_leafs_nation 23 Oct 08 at 10:22 a.m. GMT

"The Sittaford Mystery" was a very good experimentation into the supernatural as well.

GKCfan 23 Oct 08 at 2:53 a.m. GMT

Some of my favorite supernatural stories are "In A Glass Darkly," "The Red Signal," 'The Hound of Death," "The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael," "The Call of WIngs," and the supernatural-themed Harley Quin mysteries. In some of these, the supernatural has a very small role, but all of these are an interesting variation on her usual patterns.