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Thirteen Things You Know About Christie Are Wrong!

06 Jan 10 8:11AM

By Chris Chan

 Agatha Christie is one of the most famous writers in the world, and like many celebrated authors, there are plenty of misconceptions about her and her work.  Numerous critics and pundits have contributed to the spread of misinformation by drawing erroneous generalizations about her work, and lots of people who have not read her work extensively have popularized false statements about her books, plots, and worldview.  All of the following claims have been made in articles about Christie, in locales ranging from so-called "informational" magazines to Wikipedia (although some of these have been removed from Wikipedia, given the nature of the medium, false statements regarding Christie continually appear and disappear on the website over time).  Due to the fact that there have been few organized attempts to combat these falsehoods, the misconceptions continue to spread.  This essay is an attempt to confront these distortions of the Christie legacy.  There are many more false assertions about Christie's work, but these are some of the most prevalent ones. Some of the following responses are open to debate, since some of these topics are too complex to be addressed in a few paragraphs.  One could probably get a rather interesting dissertation out of some of them.  Debate over the accuracy or inaccuracy of some of the following conclusions and refutations is encouraged.

THE FOLLOWING ESSAY CONTAINS LOTS OF CHRISTIE-RELATED SPOILERS!  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

 1. The butler did it!

            When butlers appear in Christie novels, they are usually ancillary characters.  In And Then There Were None, like all the characters on the island, the butler is a murderer, having allowed his past employer to die of a heart ailment in order to collect an inheritance, but he is not the murderer in the book.  In another book, a killer disguises himself as a butler in order to commit a murder, and then fakes the butler's disappearance, but Christie never made a real butler a killer in one of her novels.

 2. The doctor did it!

           Some waspish critics assert that the best way to catch the killer in a Christie book is to point the finger at the medical man.  This is not entirely wrong.  The doctor is guilty in four of Christie's novels.  A nurse, a dentist, and a pharmacist are also killers in three other books.  In another, the doctor is a killer, having caused a death due to operating while drunk, but he is not the main murderer of the book, and a doctor tries and fails to kill Poirot in another book, but there are dozens of other, far less bloodthirsty doctors throughout the Christie canon.  Some other commonly held professions by Christie's killers are politicians, secretaries, actors, socialites, police officers, teachers, playboys, housewives, companions, military men, and career criminals, all of whom are guilty parties in at least two, and in most cases, three or more instances.

 3. Nothing Christie wrote after WWII is worth reading!

            A number of critics have claimed that the last couple of decades of Christie's career saw a distinct falling-off in quality.  There is some truth to this; Passenger to Frankfurt and Postern of Fate, written when Christie was plagued by ill-health in her final years, are consistently ranked among her least successful novels.  However, most of her mysteries from the late 1940's are considered classics.  From the 1950's, A Murder is Announced, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, 4:50 from Paddington, and Ordeal by Innocence are critically well-respected; as are The Pale Horse and Endless Night from the 1960's.  In actuality, nearly all of Christie's books have vociferous supporters- as well as some detractors.  Although most (certainly not all) of Christie's most acclaimed and popular works were published between 1930 and 1950, many of Christie's fans have many good things to say about what was printed in the earlier and later periods.

4. Christie's books are sexist!  She hated women who worked outside the home, had a double sexual standard, and condoned rape and spousal abuse!

            Considering that Christie developed one of the most successful writing careers in the history of the world, it's surprising that so many people are willing to attack her.  Christie was inculcated in Victorian social mores during her formative years, but her books are full of strong, intelligent, courageous women.  Frankly, it's surprising that Miss Marple hasn't been embraced as an "alternative feminist icon," since she shows how women can be independent, perceptive, and respected throughout their lives.

            Robert Barnard once quipped that the portrayal of Lady Westholme in Appointment with Death showed how Christie hated professional women, but that book also contains the character of Dr. Sarah King, a young medical woman who is good at her job and doesn't care for gender politics.  Lucy Eyelesbarrow, Mrs. Oliver, Miss Lemon, Mrs. Maud Dane Calthorp, Megan Barnard, and plenty of other female characters, especially the young heroines, are portrayed as strong women in an extremely positive light.  Yes, most of her heroines find the right man and live happily ever after, but it's implied that the men need their women in order to find true fulfillment in life just as much as the women need their men. 

            True, most of Christie's heroines have no wish to put their careers first. The ending of Evil Under the Sun, where a woman happily jettisons her successful clothing business in order to marry the man she's loved since childhood, has struck many readers as sexist, especially since her paramour says that if she doesn't stop working she'd be "no good to him."  Perhaps this does show a sexist bent, but this is one instance out of many.

            It should also be pointed out that some of Christie's strongest female characters are murderesses.  Many female killers are far cleverer than the men with whom they associate.

            The allegation that Christie condoned rape and spousal abuse has proliferated recently, but there is no textual support for this.  In Dumb Witness, a woman makes false allegations that her husband is physically abusing her children, but the actual crime of abuse is never treated lightly.  A couple of characters state in Nemesis that some young women engage in illicit consensual sexual activity and then falsely claim rape later on when caught, but this reflects certain characters' views rather than Christie's own.  In the whole of the Christie canon, rape is almost never mentioned, but when it is, it is never treated lightly.  Christie was not interested in sex crimes, but to assert that she belittled sexual violence is a monstrous slur against her.

5. Christie's books are racist!

             Once again, this view is based on cherry-picking bits from Christie's works.  There are several characters who use epithets and express other offensive views, but these characters tend to be portrayed negatively overall.  The most commonly cited allegation of Christie's racial insensitivity is And Then There were None's original title.  I am not trying to mitigate the nastiness of the term, but at the time of the book's publication the use of the term was not widely recognized as hurtful or insulting.  In any case, minority groups rarely factor in Christie's books.  Practically all of Christie's villains are Caucasian, save for the Chinese criminal mastermind in The Big Four and some other murderous Asians in the short story "The Lost Mine."  The murderer in Death Comes as the End is an Egyptian, but so is every other character in that book.  People of color are victims of murder and assault in The Big Four, A Caribbean Mystery, and Ordeal by Innocence.  A proposed interracial union is presented approvingly in Ordeal by Innocence, and young people of different ethnic backgrounds are friends in Hickory Dickory Dock.  

6. Most of Christie's murderers are gay!

            If you believe this one, you have watched some of the recent television adaptations of Christie mysteries without having read the books.  The Body in the Library, Cards on the Table, and several other recent productions have either changed the sexual preference of heterosexual murderers or changed the gender of a conspirator to create a homosexual relationship. This is not a wholly recent phenomenon, the 1989 version of Ten Little Indians turned the severe and self-righteous spinster into an overdramatic lesbian actress. 

            In any case, none of Christie's killers are definitely gay, save for a character in her short play The Rats, where it is strongly implied that a man has committed a murder to avenge the death of a straight man with whom he was infatuated.  In a couple of other instances, the sexual preference of a killer is ambiguous ( Nemesis is one commonly cited example), but nothing is definitive. 

            Recent adaptations have frequently changed the sexual preference of many minor characters.  For example, in the recent McEwan adaptation of A Murder is Announced, the characters of Miss Hinchcliffe and Miss Murgatroyd are overtly lesbian, although their relationship is far more vague in the book.  Indeed, some parallels in their relationship to that of two characters in the short story "Greenshaw's Folly" imply that it is possible that the two are actually illegitimate half-siblings.  Some productions of The Mousetrap depict Christopher Wren as gay, but many others do not, for reasons such as the argument that if Christopher is obviously attracted to men, then Giles's jealousy towards Christopher and Mollie's developing friendship makes no sense.  In the entire Christie canon, there is only one openly gay character: the friend of Raymond West who housesits for Miss Marple while she vacations in the Caribbean, and he never actually appears in the book.  Incidentally, the word "lesbian" only appears once in Christie's books.  A teenaged boy trying to appear worldly says the word when inquiring about a young woman's past in Hallowe'en Party.

7. All of Christie's plots are the same!

            Well, in the sense that all of Christie's mystery novels have a plot where someone gets murdered and someone figures out who did it, then yes, Christie's books are all pretty much the same.  But when you consider how different her characters, settings, motives, solutions, and storytelling methods are from book to book, Christie's books are actually substantially different.  Some, like And Then There Were None, The A.B.C. Murders, Endless Night, and others, have radically different plots from all of her other books.  Christie's thrillers are often very different from her other books, and the twists and turns of most her books are distinctive enough to distinguish them from her other works.

8. Christie's books are all about rich people living in giant mansions with secret passages!

            A substantial number of Christie's books do focus on rich people who understandably live in dwellings befitting their social status.  Part of this reflects the fact that money is an excellent motive for murder, which is why so many of her victims are wealthy.  While a lot of her books are country house mysteries, others are set in metropolitan London.  There is a secret panel in the titular End House where the murder weapon is hidden, but priest's holes and concealed rooms are rare in Christie's country estates.  If you want secret passages, play a game of Clue (Cluedo if you live in England).  

9. It's always the least likely person!

            Christie was a master of misdirection.  She devised numerous ways to make people leap to the false assumption that a character was above (or below) suspicion.  Christie knew that most readers would never suspect the narrator, or a detective, or an elderly lady, or a child, or a recurring character.  If you don't suspect the killer, it's your own fault.

            A number of second- and third-rate authors have gone out of their way to make their killers unlikely.  In these books, the killer only makes a cameo appearance, appearing in only a few sentences early in the book and then coming back at the end to be identified as the guilty party, by which time the reader has completely forgotten about that person.  Christie never did that- every one of her killers plays a significant role in the book, and she never stooped to comically implausible solutions, such as "the gerbil did it."  

10. Christie hated non-British people, especially Americans!

            This statement is simply laughable.  If she despised people who weren't British, why would she make her most prominent detective a Belgian?  Indeed, throughout her books, Christie takes shots at British insularity.  There are numerous characters who state their dislike for certain nationalities or use offensive stereotypes, but it is wrong to assume that these characters reflected Christie's own views. 

            As for Christie's treatment of Americans, there are a few odious characters from the United States, such as Ratchett in Murder on the Orient Express, the incredibly wealthy Number Two in The Big Four and Mrs. Boynton in Appointment with Death, but these are exceptions.  Americans do not appear often in her work, but Christie's books have plenty of sympathetic Americans, such as the traumatized Boynton children in Appointment with Death.  The Secret Adversary and Endless Night have similarly congenial Americans, and an at-first-sight sullen and grumpy American in They Do It With Mirrors (Murder with Mirrors) becomes much happier and agreeable once his European-raised wife decides to recommit herself to the marriage, move to the United States with him, and "become one hundred percent American."  In The Labors of Hercules, a particularly friendly American man saves Poirot's life, or at least saves him from torture and disfigurement, a distinction shared by very few characters.  In any case, it should be pointed out that the vast majority of the killers in Christie's books are British!

11. Christie was a social-class snob!

            As stated earlier, part of the reason why so many of Christie's murders take place in wealthy (or at least comfortable) circles is because money was more often than not the primary motive for murder.  Class conflict appears in several of Christie's books, most prominently in After the Funeral and Endless Night, and it's a minor theme in many others, but throughout her fifty years of work, Christie's sympathies do not lie squarely with the privileged aristocracy or the working classes, but in individuals who are decent and kind.  Some of Christie's millionaires are lovely, others odious.  Servants in Christie's books range from sympathetic to murderous.  Christie passes judgment based on the quality of one's character, and it is for this reason that Christie really shouldn't be labeled a class snob.  Christie does frequently imply that it's much easier to have money than not to have it, and who can argue with that?

12. Christie's books are full of untraceable poisons and outlandish murder methods!

            Christie never used imaginary poisons with impossible side effects.  There are occasions where she used a made-up name for a drug, such as "Calmo," a sedative that turns deadly when mixed with alcohol in The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, but the symptoms and reactions are analogous to real-life medications.  Christie probably didn't want to use a actual brand-name drug because the manufacturers would probably become very upset if their product was prominently advertised as a deadly chemical in one of her books.

            As for "outlandish" murder methods, Christie's killers use all sorts of ingenious tactics to set up alibis and escape detection, but if you're looking for murder by pistol-packing baboons or deadly gases or explosives, look for the "shocker" novels of other writers.  Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu novels, for example, use murder methods such as a deadly snake being used as the head of a cane and other creepy death-dealing devices, but Christie's murders are usually pretty ordinary, such as a simple sprinkling of poison into food, or a commonplace gunshot, stabbing, clubbing, or strangling.  Sure, there's the odd electrified chessboard ( The Big Four) and blowgun dart ( Death in the Clouds), but Christie's weapons are by and large pretty undramatic means of killing people.

            Christie actually mocked the misconception of her specializing in flamboyant means of death.  Her literary self-portrait, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, is famous for using outrageous ways to kill people.  In Parker Pyne Investigates, Mrs. Oliver notes that she doesn't much care for scenarios such as underground rooms slowly filling with water, but that lots of other people seem to enjoy them.  Similarly, she quips that the "people who read [her] books like untraceable poisons" in Cards on the Table.  Since nearly every poison used in one of Christie's books is detected, apparently Mrs. Oliver's murder mysteries are different from Christie's.

13. Christie's plots are full of mystery clichés!

            Technically, that's true from a twenty-first century perspective, but that's because Christie invented most of the plot points and revelations that became clichés!  Tropes like "strangers arrive at a deserted house and then they're murdered one by one" started with And Then There Were None, to cite one of many examples.  If you read a Christie novel and think that you've seen this plot twist before, the odds are that somebody has ripped off Agatha Christie!

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15 comments

Saulisa 06 May 12 at 8:00a.m.

Excellent article -- very fun to read. I'm a little surprised you didn't deal with Taken At the Flood for the sexist charge. To me, that's the only book that gave me pause on that issue -- Lynn remarking that girls probably "ask" to be raped. Yipes! But then Lynn is a strange character who is all for excitement. I mean, she only fully falls in love with Rowley after he nearly strangles her to death!

As to Kylie's comment, I find it plausible that Hinch and Murgatroyd are not lesbians. Not saying that they are not, but it's possible, in my opinion. I agree that Mr. Pye is "clearly gay"; however, I strongly disagree that Mr. Satterthwaite is. Although he is sensitive and well-aware of how women think, etc., in The Mysterious Mr. Quin, he recalls how he stole a kiss from a maid and how he nearly proposed to a young girl in his youth (I think the latter is also mentioned in Three-Act Tragedy). It is clear that he remembers both events romantically (one fondly, one sadly). There is no indication at all that they were attempts to conform to convention.

Anyway, this article was a great read!

robert123 16 Dec 10 at 10:35a.m.

Its a long read! Good to read the post.

vibrators

LuvAgathaChristie26 03 Nov 10 at 5:20p.m.

People who said those things definatly never read an agatha christie or took the time to get to know her writing. All of the books and movies are always thrillers even when there's no murder. But I have noticed in a couple of movies I've seen she does like to drown people in the bathtub. As for plots always being the same that person never even read the back of an Agatha Christie. I certainly agree that statement #10 is laughable. The forgiener isn't the murderer most of the time. And the person who said that Christie's books are racist either skimmed the book or never bothered to think of the time that her books were written when people were a little prejudice.

Ravin 10 Sep 10 at 12:49p.m.

brilliant observations!

Her stories are indeed well crafted, interesting to follow. There is always a false scent to throw you off until all is read out by the detective in the end. The most ingenius are the murders alibies, specially on stories such as "death on the Nile" or "Evil under the Sun"

what sometimes become too hard to swallow is

-How the witness's will die just a few moments before they would testify or confide, and the dying witness never names anyone, "it was she, she wasn't there.. she wasn't there" (in the sotry murder is announced and numerous others) .

-And the murderer will only set out to achieve his goals when a world renound investigator has just arrived, & most of the times these murderers will go on killing people out of the same small group until they have left some cyptic clue only the privite investigator can recognise. Only on a rare case does the detective arrive after the murder, its usually within their social circle, amongst the best of friends or Marple's relatives.

-The police never find any finger prints, or verify indentities, even a murder inquest is closed without a post mortem (3 act tragedy, the murder of the priest is dismissed as a natural death since there was no poison in the cocktail, his system is not checked for poison).

-Even when the cryptic clues have been collected by the detective, it is all becoming clear to Poirot, there might still be time for another murder, most often the case is cracked after all possible murders have been committed.

-Quite often before the investigation begins the detectives clearly know which suspect to dismiss, what objects might be worthy evidence, Murder on the links - Poirot arrives on the crime scene and at one knows at once the metal bar is a key peice of evidence.

-All crimes commited leave little or no evidence for the police, "Murder in Mesopotamia" an assault with a millstone to the head and there is no blood splatter just a spot of it on the mattress, stragulation victims never leave any marks on the assilant.

GKCfan 20 Jul 10 at 3:19a.m.

The "foxglove in the salad" is first used in the Miss Marple short story "The Herb of Death." It is found in "The Tuesday Club Murders." The murder method is used again in the Tommy and Tuppence novel "Postern of Fate."

idgie 09 Jul 10 at 4:34a.m.

I have come to this a little late, but I wanted to say this was a well-written piece that went a long way to laying to rest some of the myths about Christie's work.

I completely agree that Christie's plots are *not* all the same, mostly because of her good eye for character.

But then... I have a memory stirring in the back of my mind of recycled murder methods. I'm fairly certain that one of her later stories reuses the 'foxglove leaves in the salad; everyone gets sick; one person dies of digitalis poisoning' method. But I can't for the life of me remember which texts use this. Am I imagining this?

ramloser 21 Jun 10 at 7:20p.m.

Another very interesting essay, I must say Chris, but on the other hand: those prejudices about AC's works are not common in Denmark. The racial stuff is sometimes pointed out, and of cause some of the comments on jewish people are rather embarrassing in the early thrillers! Later on AC was more carefull, due to the sympathy she felt for the jews in Germany after the Nazi regime had entered the scene. And I guess the experiences from the travels with Max Mallowan to the far east in the 30'ies lead her in the same direction.

The Least Likely Subject theme is notable, too, but AC's skills went far behind the cliché. She invented the "one you never suspect" theme, but didn't repeat it constantly.

Last point: In Denmark the "queen of the social class snobs" is not named Agatha Christie, but Dorothy L. Sayers. Christie toys with snobbish statements with cunning use of the prejudices some readers might have in mind, Sayers bows in the dust for snobbery!

wsded 26 Feb 10 at 2:05a.m.

Thank you for taking the time to research and write this paper. I enjoyed reading it and found it very informative

Fel 03 Feb 10 at 7:50a.m.

Thanks Chris! Well thought out. One comment re the social snob. Ariadne Oliver once commented that she wrote about people she knew -boarding houses, holidays and country homes. Agatha probably did the same?

DagaL 29 Jan 10 at 4:15p.m.

Very impressive! Well done.
It was great pleasure to read it. I must say that for me some of these 'accusations' make the spirit of Christie, I mean I absolutely adore the wealthy milieu of the XX century England, the poisons, schematic murders, which turn out to be brilliantly plotted crimes with not-so-obvious a murderer. This is THE Christie!

HeiseiHolmes 25 Jan 10 at 5:28p.m.

This must have been fun to write. I know it was fun to read!

Rubyy321 10 Jan 10 at 9:11p.m.

Very well done! Opinions matter, but I do have to agree with Nofret's comment, there are very few exceptions when the servent cmmits or aids to commit the crime.

Nofret 08 Jan 10 at 4:34p.m.

Another excellent, well researched paper.
Regarding the accusation that Christie was a social snob, it is true that many of her early books deal with the country house milieu, as this was the setting with which she was most familiar at the time.
However, in so many of these books the many servants necessary to run such a household are simply not considered as suspects, for the implicit reason that a mere servant would not have the intelligence to commit a crime in a way that would baffle their superiors!
There are a few exceptions, Horbury, the shifty manservant in Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Ursula, in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (but she was a "lady" in disguise!), and poor Gladys from A Pocketful of Rye, who was, of course, being controlled by the real murderer!
But I've always found it rather "politically incorrect" that Christie dismisses so many potential suspects from the working classes with a throwaway "and of course the servants all slept right through it"!

Lone_Wolf 08 Jan 10 at 8:06a.m.

"The Big Four" is really ridiculous, right? Half of your negative examples come from that mismash.

AC was sometimes prone to recycling her basic plotlines ("Peril at End House" - "The Mirror Crack'd", "Death on the Nile" - "Evil Under the Sun"). These are the exceptions, though.

I have to admit, it's hard to be very surprised by the solution when you suspect everyone with a name. AC manages to mildly surprise me still, though.

Ms_Kylie_Menage 07 Jan 10 at 7:36a.m.

Bravo Chris! Very well researched. I don't think it's really plausible Hinch and Murgatroyd AREN'T lesbians though... Dame Agatha would have found it distasteful to make the evidence more explicit, and the same for Mr Satterthwaite and Mr Pye who also are very clearly gay. I'm glad to say none of these characters are unsympathetic. She would have had many gay friends behind the scenes of the theatre world she also lived in after all.