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Why I love …. Agatha Christie
The true endearing love of Agatha Christie novels is how the class system is ruthlessly employed. Servants are servants, common untrustworthy lazy and so on, the vicar is always middle aged, forgetful, mousy, the young man is always wild; ‘a bad hat’. And the main deceive is always superior and over bearing.
Does anything typify English culture better than Miss Marple and her village St Marymead? An evil gossiping old women who knows everything, the church being the only entertainment, the lord of the manor as either colonel or a ‘tycoon’ and a collection of all village stereotypes from the stupid westcountry maid to the tear away child. The novels harken back to a time where people knew their place in society and anyone not called ‘Bunny’ or ‘Topper’ or without a knighthood was to be treated with suspicion and contempt. Her main detectives Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple are classic characters who treat almost everyone as stupid and common and always solve the case within the week. The classic scene in an Agatha Christie novel is the grand finale exposition of the murder. Rather than just saying ‘he did it and this is why…’ they always have a drawn out process where the detective goes through everyone in the room as possible murderer but ends on the actual one (who is always the least suspected and replies, ‘but you haven’t got a damn shred of proof’ then either accepts it like an offer of a cake or kills themselves). In conclusion then Agatha Christie novels are great because they’re predictable. Same plot, same characters, same locations, same endings. They were written when toffs smashed working class filth and society was nice and peaceful, ah those were the days! Classic Agatha Christie novels include ‘the murder of Roger Ackroyd’ (Poirot) and ‘the body in the library’ (Miss Marple). |
