Biography of agatha christie summary. Brief biography of agatha christie

AGATHA CHRISTIE

“I'm just a fantastic sausage production line,” Agatha Christie said about herself in an interview. She meant, of course, her prolific writing, not the quality of her work. The best evidence of quality is the love of readers: to date, more than two billion of her books have been sold. The "Queen of the Detective" managed to make a fabulous fortune on murders without committing a single crime.

The father of the virtuoso English writer was an American. née Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born, raised, and bred to a truly English upbringing on the seaside town of Torquay, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of her chief literary role models, composed The Hound of the Baskervilles. Her mother awakened her interest in writing when she once asked her to come up with a story to pass a rainy day.

In 1914, Agatha married Archibald Christie, a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. During the First World War, she worked as a nurse in a hospital. There, Christie acquired a deep knowledge of poisons and how they affect the human body. "Give me a cute, deadly vial instead of a toy - I'm happy," she once said. Indeed, about half of the murders that occur in her novels are poisonings.

After the end of the war, Christie worked on her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, for almost a year and a half. Here, for the first time, the chubby Belgian detective Hercule Poirot appears before readers. However, the book sold at such a snail's pace that the writer did not earn a penny from the percentage of sales. Six years later, when The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was published, everything changed overnight. Original plot twists and a striking denouement revolutionized the sedate and measured detective genre. And off we go! Christie has written and published ninety-three books and seventeen plays, including six romance novels, written under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. Her works have been translated into 103 languages ​​(in this matter, she even overtook Shakespeare). In addition to Poirot, the list of her most famous characters includes the stubborn old English woman Miss Jane Marple, the enigmatic Colonel Race, and the indefatigable married couple of detectives Tuppence and Tommy Beresford.

Christie's crime and investigative novels invariably had a graceful and English neat ending. But in the personal life of the writer, everything was by no means so smooth. Her first marriage ended in divorce in 1928 when she found out that Archie was cheating on her. In 1930, Agatha married again, this time to the archaeologist Max Mallowan, who ... also cheated on her. Despite this, they managed to stay together for forty-five years, during which Agatha often traveled with her husband to excavations in Iraq and Syria. In these exotic oriental scenery, she created several books.

In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. She was also awarded the title of Dame of the Order of the British Empire (1971). Many of her novels were filmed in the form of films and television films - and most of these adaptations, according to Agatha herself, were completely useless. She did, however, approve of Murder on the Orient Express (1974); Actor Albert Finney, who played the role of Poirot in this production, was nominated for an Oscar. Undoubtedly, the writer would be very surprised to see Agatha Christie's Great Detectives, an anime series that aired in 2004 on the Japanese channel NHK and in which the writers added a love line between two of the most famous detectives - Poirot and Miss Marple. Be that as it may, this series, where classic Agatha Christie characters are given a new look and where several new characters (including a talking duck), proves that the works of the "Queen of the Detective" have not been erased from people's memory.

Agatha Christie died in 1976, enjoying the title of the world's most famous mystery writer. The Guinness Book of Records calls Agatha Christie the "best-selling" author of fiction of all time. Her play "The Mousetrap", first staged in London in 1952 and still present in the repertoire of the same theater, is recognized as the most "long-playing" production in the world. Not too bad for a "sausage assembly line" and a woman who took up literature only because she thought, "It must be fun to try and write a detective story."

VICTIMS OF CARPIST SYNDROME?

Despite her reputation as one of the most prolific writers in the history of literature, Agatha Christie has never touched pen to paper in her life. She suffered from dysgraphia, a writing disorder, so she wrote with great difficulty. Christie had to dictate her novels. One can only hope that her typist, in addition to her salary, also received “combat” ones.

THE 1907 WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD BY PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS IS RECEIVED…

In her youth, Christie considered herself a good housewife and was very proud of it. In her autobiography, she described how she once deftly chloroformed a hedgehog entangled in a tennis net in order to free it.

AGATA AND "THE BAD WORD"

One of Agatha Christie's most popular books, And There Were None, has been filmed multiple times and spawned many theatrical productions. It was the inspiration for a television movie, a parody musical, and a song written by popular 1970s singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. How? Have you ever heard of such a novel? This is not surprising, because earlier it was published under a different name - "Ten Little Indians". Later, due to political incorrectness, the book was renamed "Ten Little Indians", and when this name was no longer considered correct, the book began to be republished under the title "And There Were None".

Pitiful fat Belgian freak

The imperturbable Hercule Poirot (whose surname, according to one version, comes from the French word meaning "simple") is one of the literary detectives most beloved by readers. The writer herself did not at all lead the ranks of his admirers. Having dedicated her second novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), to the pompous Belgian, Agatha Christie soon got tired of him. In the 1930s, she stated that she found Poirot unbearable. And in the 1960s she ridiculed him as a "self-centered hypocrite." However, Poirot helped her pay the bills all along. "I can't stand him," Christie once stated, "but I have to keep writing about him because that's what readers want."

Despite her dislike, Agatha Christie zealously defended the image of Poirot. When The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was going to be staged in the theater and the director offered to “refresh” her character by “cutting off Poirot for twenty years, calling him Handsome Poirot and surrounding girls in love with him,” the writer strongly opposed this.

MAYBE SHE JUST READ THE SCRIPT?

Another popular Christie heroine, the elderly detective Miss Jane Marple, liked her creator much more. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are portrayed as Milo Perrier and Jessica Marbles in the 1976 parody detective film Dinner with Murder, based on the script by the famous American playwright Neil Simon. Unfortunately, Agatha Christie never lived to see the premiere.

SCABIES ON THE ORIENTAL EXPRESS

One of her most famous novels, Murder on the Orient Express, was written by Agatha Christie in room 411 of the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. Now this room is called the “Agatha Christie Room”, guests are no longer accommodated there, and the room is preserved in the form in which it was when the great writer stayed there. The journey from Paris to Istanbul, which Christie herself made on the Orient Express, was not so cloudless, and she preferred to omit some details in her book. Bed bugs pestered her all the way.

I DIDN'T SAY THIS!

Although Agatha Christie loved aphorisms, the phrase most often attributed to her is: “The best husband a woman can dream of is an archaeologist. The older the woman gets, the more infatuated he is with her,” she never really said. Her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, clearly wasn't all that keen. He changed a whole string of mistresses, and married one of them just a year after Agatha's death.

AGATA CHRISTIE SUFFERED WITH DYSGRAPHY AND THEREFORE I ALWAYS COULD NOT WRITE BY HAND. ALL OF HER NOVEL WERE DICCTATED.

The biggest secret associated with Agatha Christie lies not in her works, but in her biography. In December 1926, the thirty-six-year-old writer mysteriously disappeared for eleven days. The police suspected that Christie was the victim of some kind of crime, but her walking hubby Archibald Christie had an ironclad alibi. During the disappearance of his wife, he was in the arms of his mistress. On a tip from a sly waiter, the police found Agatha in a Yorkshire hotel. She was staying there under an assumed name. At first, Christie pretended to suffer from amnesia, but many years later it turned out that this incident was part of a plan drawn up by an angry Agatha to take her husband away from her mistress. However, whatever her true intentions, the idea failed. The couple divorced two years later. Released in 1979, Agatha, starring Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha and Timothy Dalton (one of the James Bonds) as Archie, is the tale of that strange event brought to the screen.

THANK YOU FOR THE CLARIFICATION

In her autobiography, Agatha Christie listed in detail what she loves and what she doesn't. The list of things that caused the most irritation included: “crowds; when I am squeezed among people; loud voices; noise; long conversations; parties, especially cocktail parties; cigarette smoke and smoking in general; any alcoholic beverages, except for their use in cooking; marmalade; oysters; slightly warm food; bird's paws or even the whole bird" - and, most importantly, "the taste and smell of hot milk."

This text is an introductory piece.

Gwendolyn Christie. Brienne Tarth Gwendolyn Christie was born on October 28, 1976 in the English city of Worthing. As a child, Gwendoline attended rhythmic gymnastics classes and dreamed of a sports career, but a spinal injury broke her plans. Then Gwendoline decided

7. Christie Crazy I want big love, I want big love. "Led Zeppelin" I cooked food for Christy. She has at home. Baby and Sweet remained somewhere far away, on the other side of life. I fried onions, garlic and Italian sausages, inhaled the wonderful smell and made sure that it was better not to

4. Agatha Christie "The Mournful Cypress" I am by no means one of the sworn enemies of the detective in general and Agatha Christie in particular. The venerable lady is very good at writing - her language is excellent, the plot is masterfully built and not so senselessly bloody as her countless colleagues. At

Leonid Christie, or the Talent of Morality Leonid Mikhailovich was a talented director and a wonderful, deeply decent person. He was one of the few intelligent people in our studio, and his opinion was authoritative for everyone - today, looking back, I believe in it with

July 13, 2011 About Agatha Christie and author's voluntarism My dears, tell me why you love Agatha Christie? For example, I don't love her. ? Cozy villages. Houses in pink ivy. Kindergartens. Corpses. Sarcophagi.

WORKS OF AGATA CHRISTIE (If the book was published under a different title in the United States of America, this title is given in brackets) 1920. "The Mysterious Incident at Styles" 1922. "Secret Enemy" 1923. "Murder on the golf course" 1924. "Poirot Investigates" (collection of short stories) 1924.

CHRISTY MATHEWSON (1880-1925) America in the early 1900s was confident and self-satisfied, not in doubt about its own place in history, but searching for itself. And she found her own essence in her heroes: Teddy Roosevelt in politics, Jack London in literature and

Chapter Three Mrs. Archibald Christie A is "Angel of Heaven, Agatha" - Wife of Archie, handsome and grip. "The Poetic Alphabet" Agatha Christie 1915 OCTOBER 12, 1912. That evening, when Agatha Christie met Archibald Christie, for some reason there was no ringing in her ears

Agatha Christie's Works The following list of Agatha Christie's literary works published in the UK makes it clear how famous she was at the time of her disappearance. Stories marked with ** are included in Poirot Investigates;

E. N. Tsimbaeva Agatha Christie

CHAPTER SEVEN MURDER ANNOUNCED (Agatha Christie's Novels and Stories) 1Agatha Christie treated her own detective work with a disdain that would have offended any devoted admirer of hers had it been shown by someone else. Her neglect she repeatedly

CHAPTER NINE DRAMA IN THREE ACTS (Dramaturgy by Agatha Christie) Act I. OvertureAgatha Miller loved the theatre. She spent the wonderful hours of her childhood at daytime performances in Exeter and London. The plays that her father and aunt-grandmother took were sometimes quite mediocre, but the girl

MAIN DATES OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF AGATA CHRISTIE 1890, September 15 - Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in the family of Frederick and Clarissa Miller in Ashfield (Torquay, Devonshire, England). - traveling with parents and older

September 15th. Agatha Christie was born (1891) Christian country A good detective story is not one where the reader, along with the hero, is looking for another Carl or corals, but one where the author is looking for meaning. We have shown this on the example of Dostoevsky, the author of two of the most popular Russian detective stories -

In 1919, the Christie couple had a daughter, Rosalind.

In 1928, her marriage to Colonel Christie ended in divorce; in 1930, Agatha Christie married archaeologist Max Mallone.

In 1920, the first detective novel by Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Crime in Styles, was published, the main character of which, the Belgian private detective Hercule Poirot, later became the hero of numerous novels by the writer. (Poirot dies in one of Christie's last novels, The Curtain (1975)).

In 1930, a new character appeared in the novel Murder at the Vicar's House - a lover of private investigation, the shrewd Miss Marple.

Agatha Christie - "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" (1926), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1934), "Death on the Nile" (1937), "Ten Little Indians" (1939), and also "The Baghdad Meeting" (1957), " What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw" (1957). Of her late novels, Dark of the Night (1968), Halloween Party (1969) and Gates of Destiny (1973) stand out.

Christie also performed successfully as a playwright - 16 of her plays were staged in London, some were made into films. The plays The Witness for the Prosecution, staged in 1953 in London and in 1954-1955 in New York, and The Mousetrap, staged in 1952 in London and withstood the largest number of performances in the history of the theater, enjoy great success.

In 1974, the last public performance of the writer took place at the premiere of the film version of Murder on the Orient Express.

Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire II degree.

In 1971, the writer was awarded the noble title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Agatha Christie is one of the symbols of Great Britain. She is one of the most famous writers of detective fiction in the world, and her books are the most published after the Bible and the writings of Shakespeare. Agatha Christie's books have been translated into over 100 languages.

In 2005, an unknown manuscript of Agatha Christie was discovered by a specialist in the work of the writer John Curran in her attic. country house. After several years of painstaking work, he managed to restore the text and establish the history of the creation of the novel "The Taming of Cerberus", which was published in 2009.

Agatha Christie's grandson Matthew Pritchard found 27 cassettes in the pantry of the writer's house on the Greenway estate, on which Christie herself talks about her life and work for 13 hours.

Agatha Christie's home on Greenway Manor has been opened to the public. In 2000, the estate was transferred to the management of the National Trust for the protection of cultural monuments. For eight years, only the garden, boat house and paths were open to visitors, the house itself underwent a massive renovation.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

English Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, nee Miller(English) Miller), better known by the name of her first husband as Agatha Christie

English writer; is one of the world's most famous authors of detective fiction

Agatha Christie

short biography

The full name of the writer, who is called the queen of detective stories, is Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, nee Miller, but she is known to the whole world as Agatha Christie, by the name of her first husband. One of the most popular detective writers. Her writings rank third in terms of number of publications after the Bible and William Shakespeare, translated into more than a hundred languages. During her lifetime alone, her books were published in more than 120 million copies.

Agatha Christie Born September 15, 1890 in Torquay (Devon) in a family of wealthy American immigrants. The Miller couple provided their children with a quality home education. If young Agatha was not afraid of the stage, she could become a musician.

During the First World War, Agatha Miller worked as a nurse and did it with pleasure. She also had a job as a pharmacy pharmacist in her life, which subsequently helped her repeatedly “kill” her literary characters through poisoning.

In 1914, Agatha Miller became Agatha Christie by marrying officer Archibald Christie. In 1920, her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is a version according to which she was forced to enter the path of writing detective stories with her older sister: Agatha wanted to prove that she could write a book that the general public would see. The manuscript of an unknown writer was taken only in the seventh publishing house, having paid a very modest fee. The beginning of the creative path was very successful, the novel immediately made its author famous.

A bright and mysterious episode in the biography of A. Christie was her disappearance, which took place in December 1926. Her husband told her about love for another woman, asked for a divorce, and after a quarrel with him about the whereabouts of the writer, who allegedly went to Yorkshire, for 11 days nothing was known. The event caused a considerable resonance. Then Christie was found in a modest spa hotel registered under the name of her husband's mistress: she was diagnosed with amnesia, the cause of which was a head injury. The second version of the disappearance is connected with the desire to annoy her husband, to bring on him the inevitable suspicion of the murder of his wife.

In 1928, Agatha and Archibald divorced, but already in 1930, during a trip to Iraq, fate brought the famous writer to the man with whom she lived until the end of her days. The outstanding archaeologist Max Mallowan became her companion.

In 1956, A. Christie became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire II degree. In 1965, the writer completed work on her autobiography, the last phrase of which was "Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that was bestowed on me." For services in the field of literary activity in 1971, Agatha Christie was awarded the title of Cavalier of the Order of the British Empire.

During 1971-1974. her state of health worsened more and more, but the writer did not stop working. There is an assumption (it was made by scientists from the University of Toronto based on a study of the manner of her writing) that Christie had Alzheimer's disease. On January 12, 1976, she died at her home in Wallingford. They buried her in the village of Cholsey.

In the popular and before her genre of literary detective, Agatha Christie acted as the creator of a new direction, emphasizing intelligence and brilliant intuition. These qualities are fully present in the characterization of her famous detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, to whom she devoted entire series. Christie's creative heritage includes more than seven dozen novels, 19 collections of short stories, more than thirty plays, the most famous of which were The Mousetrap (1954) and Witness for the Prosecution (1954). The first is included in the Guinness Book of Records as a work that has withstood the maximum number of theatrical productions. Based on the works of the "queen of detectives" many films were shot.

Biography from Wikipedia

Childhood and first marriage

Her parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States. She was the youngest daughter in the Miller family. The Miller family had two more children: Margaret Frary (1879-1950) and son Louis Montan "Monty" (1880-1929). Agatha received a good home education, in particular, musical education, and only stage fright prevented her from becoming a musician.

During World War I, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital; she liked this profession and she spoke of her as " one of the most rewarding jobs a person can do". She also worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, which subsequently left an imprint on her work: 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

For the first time, Agatha married on Christmas Day in 1914 to Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had been in love for several years - even when he was a lieutenant. They had a daughter, Rosalind. This period was the beginning of the creative path of Agatha Christie. In 1920, Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is speculation that the reason for Christie's approach to the detective was a dispute with her older sister Madge (who had already proved herself as a writer) that she, too, could create something worthy of publication. Only in the seventh publishing house the manuscript was printed with a circulation of 2000 copies. The aspiring writer received a £25 fee. In 1922, together with her husband, Agatha Christie made a round-the-world voyage along the route Great Britain - Bay of Biscay - South Africa - Australia and New Zealand - Hawaiian Islands - Canada - USA - Great Britain ..

disappearance

In 1926, Agatha's mother died. At the end of that year, Agatha Christie's husband Archibald confessed to being unfaithful and asked for a divorce because he had fallen in love with fellow golfer Nancy Neal. After an argument in early December 1926, Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving a letter to her secretary claiming to have gone to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused a loud public outcry, since the writer already had fans of her work. For 11 days, nothing was known about Christie's whereabouts.

Agatha's car was found, in the cabin of which her fur coat was found. A few days later, the writer herself was discovered. As it turned out, Agatha Christie registered under the name Teresa Neal in the small spa hotel Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now the Old Swan Hotel). Christy gave no explanation for her disappearance, and two doctors diagnosed her with amnesia caused by a head injury. The reasons for the disappearance of Agatha Christie are analyzed by the British psychologist Andrew Norman in his book The Finished Portrait, where he, in particular, argues that the traumatic amnesia hypothesis does not stand up to criticism, since Agatha Christie's behavior indicated the opposite: she registered in a hotel under the name of her husband's beloved, she spent time playing the piano, spa treatments, visiting the library. However, after reviewing all the evidence, Norman came to the conclusion that there was a dissociative fugue caused by a severe mental disorder.

Despite mutual affection at the beginning, the marriage of Archibald and Agatha Christie ended in divorce in 1928.
In her novel An Unfinished Portrait, published in 1934 under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie describes events similar to her own disappearance.

Second marriage and later years

In 1930, while traveling in Iraq, she met her future husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan, during the excavations in Ur. He was 15 years younger than her. Agatha Christie said about her marriage that for an archaeologist a woman should be as old as possible, because then her value increases significantly. Since then, she periodically spent several months of the year in Syria and Iraq on expeditions with her husband, this period of her life was reflected in the autobiographical novel Tell How You Live. In this marriage, Agatha Christie lived the rest of her life, until her death in 1976.

Thanks to Christie's travels with her husband to the Middle East, the events of several of her works took place there. Other novels (such as The Ten Little Indians) were set in or around the city of Torquay, the place where Christie was born. The 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written at the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Room 411 of the hotel where Agatha Christie lived is now her memorial museum. Estate The Greenway Estate in Devon, which the couple bought in 1938, is protected by the National Trust.

Christie often stayed at the Abney Hall mansion in Cheshire, which belonged to James Watts, her sister's husband. The action of at least two of Christie's works took place on this estate: "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding", a story also included in the collection of the same name, and the novel "After the Burial". “Abney became an inspiration for Agatha; from which were taken descriptions of places such as Stiles, Chimneys, Stonegates and other houses that in one way or another represent Abney.

In 1956, Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 1971, for achievements in the field of literature, Agatha Christie was awarded the title Lady Commander(Eng. Dame Commander) of the Order of the British Empire, the owners of which also acquire the noble title "lady", used before the name. Three years earlier, in 1968, Agatha Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was also awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire for achievements in the field of archeology.

In 1958, the writer headed the English Detective Club.

Between 1971 and 1974, Christie's health began to deteriorate, but despite this, she continued to write. Specialists at the University of Toronto examined Christie's style of writing during these years and suggested that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

In 1975, when she was completely weakened, Christie transferred all the rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson.

The writer died on January 12, 1976 at her home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire after a short cold and was buried in the village of Cholsey.

The autobiography of Agatha Christie, which the writer graduated in 1965, ends with the words: “ Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that was bestowed on me».

Christie's only daughter, Rosalind Margaret Hicks, also lived to 85 and died on October 28, 2004 in Devon. Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, inherited the rights to some of Agatha Christie's literary works, and his name is still associated with the foundation " Agatha Christie Limited».

Creation

One Indian correspondent who interviewed me (and, admittedly, asked a lot of stupid questions) asked: "Have you ever published a book that you think is frankly bad?" I replied indignantly: “No!” No book came out exactly as intended, was my answer, and I was never satisfied, but if my book had turned out really bad, I would never have published it.

Agatha Christie "Autobiography"

In an interview with the British television company BBC in 1955, Agatha Christie said that she spent evenings knitting in the company of friends or family, and at that time she was working on a new storyline in her head, by the time she sat down to write a novel, the plot was ready from start to finish. By her own admission, the idea for a new novel could have come from anywhere. Ideas were entered into a special notebook full of various notes about poisons, newspaper notes about crimes. The same thing happened with the characters. One of the characters created by Agatha had a real-life prototype - Major Ernst Belcher, who at one time was the boss of Agatha Christie's first husband, Archibald Christie. It was he who became the prototype of Pedler in the 1924 novel The Man in the Brown Suit about Colonel Reis.

Agatha Christie was not afraid to touch on social issues in her works. For example, at least two of Christie's novels (The Five Little Pigs and The Trial of Innocence) dealt with miscarriages of justice involving the death penalty. In general, many of Christie's books describe various negative sides English justice of the time.

The writer has never made sexual crimes the theme of her novels. Unlike today's detective stories, there are practically no scenes of violence, pools of blood and rudeness in her works. “The detective was a story with a moral. Like everyone who wrote and read these books, I was against the criminal and for the innocent victim. No one could have imagined that the time would come when detective stories would be read because of the scenes of violence described in them, for the sadistic pleasure of cruelty for the sake of cruelty ... "- so she wrote in her autobiography. In her opinion, such scenes dull the feeling of compassion and do not allow the reader to focus on the main theme of the novel.

Agatha Christie considered her best work to be the novel Ten Little Indians. The rocky island on which the action of the novel takes place is copied from nature - this is the island of Burgh in South Britain. Readers also appreciated the book - it has the largest sales in stores, however, to maintain political correctness, it is now sold under the name And Then There Were None- "And there was no one."

In her work, Agatha Christie demonstrates the conservatism of political views, quite typical of the English mentality. A vivid example is the story "The Clerk's Story" from the Parker Pyne cycle, about one of whose heroes it is said: "He had some kind of Bolshevik complex." In a number of works - "Big Four", "Orient Express", "Capture of Cerberus" there are immigrants from the Russian aristocracy, who enjoy the author's invariable sympathy. In the aforementioned story "The Clerk's Story", Mr. Pine's client becomes involved in a group of agents passing on secret blueprints of Britain's enemies to the League of Nations. But by decision of Pine, a legend is invented for the hero that he is carrying jewelry belonging to a beautiful Russian aristocrat and saving them, along with the mistress, from agents of Soviet Russia.

Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple

In 1920, Christie published her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which had previously been rejected five times by British publishers. Soon she has a whole series of works in which the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot acts: 33 novels, 1 play and 54 stories.

Continuing the tradition of the English masters of the detective genre, Agatha Christie created a couple of heroes: the intellectual Hercule Poirot and the comical, diligent, but not very smart Captain Hastings. If Poirot and Hastings were largely copied from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, then the old maid Miss Marple is a collective image, reminiscent of the main characters of the writers M. Z. Braddon and Anna Catherine Green.

Miss Marple appeared in the 1927 story " Evening Club "Tuesday"“” (Eng. The Tuesday Night Club). The prototype of Miss Marple was the grandmother of Agatha Christie, who, according to the writer, "was a good-natured person, but always expected the worst from everyone and everything, and with frightening regularity her expectations were justified."

Like Arthur Conan Doyle from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie got tired of her hero Hercule Poirot by the end of the 1930s, but unlike Conan Doyle, she did not dare to “kill” the detective while he was at the peak of popularity. According to the writer's grandson, Matthew Pritchard, of the characters she invented, Christie liked Miss Marple more - "an old, smart, traditional English lady."

During World War II, Christie wrote two novels, Curtain (1940) and Sleeping Murder, which she intended to end the Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series of novels, respectively. However, the books were only published in the 1970s.

Other detectives of Agatha Christie

Colonel Flight(Eng. Colonel Race) appears in four novels by Agatha Christie. The colonel is an agent of British intelligence, he travels the world in search of international criminals. Reis is an employee of the MI5 espionage department. He is a tall, well-built, tanned man.

He first appears in the novel man in brown suit”, a spy detective set in South Africa. He also appears in the two Hercule Poirot novels Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile, where he assists Poirot in his investigation. He makes his last appearance in the 1944 novel Blazing Cyanide, investigating the murder of an old friend. In this novel, Reis has already reached an advanced age.

Parker Pine(Eng. Parker Pyne) - the hero of 12 stories included in the collection " Investigates Parker Pine", and also partially in the collections" The Secret of the Regatta and Other Stories" and " Trouble in Pollença and other stories". The Parker Pine series is not detective fiction in the conventional sense. The plot is usually based not on a crime, but on the story of Pine's clients, who, for various reasons, are dissatisfied with their lives. It is these grievances that bring clients to Pine's agency. In this series of works, Miss Lemon appears for the first time, leaving her job with Pine to get a job as a secretary to Hercule Poirot.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford(Eng. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford), full names Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley - young married couple amateur detectives, first appearing in the 1922 novel The Mysterious Adversary, still unmarried. They begin their lives blackmailing (for money and out of interest), but soon discover that private investigation brings more money and pleasure. In 1929, Tuppence and Tomy appear in the collection of stories "Partners in Crime", in 1941 in " N or M?", in 1968 in " Click your finger just once", and for the last time in the novel" gate of fate» 1973, which was the last written novel by Agatha Christie, although not the last published. Unlike the rest of Agatha Christie's detectives, Tommy and Tuppence age with the real world and with each successive novel. So, by the last novel where they appear, they are in their seventies.

Superintendent Battle(Eng. Superintendent Battle) - a detective, the hero of five novels. Battle is entrusted with sensitive cases related to secret societies and organizations, as well as cases affecting the interests of the state and state secrets. The superintendent is a highly successful employee of Scotland Yard, he is a cultured and intelligent policeman who rarely shows his emotions. Christy tells little about him: for example, Battle's name remains unknown. It is known about Battle's family that his wife's name is Mary and that they have five children.

Inspector Narracot - detective, the hero of the novel "The Riddle of Sittaford".

Main literary heroes

• Miss Marple
• Hercule Poirot
• Captain Hastings
• Miss Lemon (Poirot's secretary)
• Chief Inspector Japp
• Ariadne Oliver
• Superintendent Battle
• Colonel Flight
• Tommy and Tuppence Beresford

Also other detectives who appeared in just one collection of detective stories:

• Parker Pine
• harley kin
• Mr Satterthwaite

About Agatha Christie

• Hack R. The Duchess of Death. Biography of Agatha Christie / Per. from English. M. Makarova. - M.: Hummingbird, Azbuka-Atticus, 2011. - 480 p., 5000 copies.
• Tsimbaeva E. N. Agatha Christie. - M. : Young Guard, 2013. - 346, p., l. ill. - (Life of remarkable people. Small series; Issue 44). - 5000 copies.

Memory

• In 1985, the crater Christie on Venus was named in her honor.
• On November 25, 2012, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the play "The Mousetrap", a monument to Agatha Christie is planned to be unveiled in the theater district of London, in the very center of Covent Garden (sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies)
• In 1985, the Russian rock band "Agatha Christie" was named after her.

Computer games

Based on the books of Agatha Christie, a trilogy of computer games in the quest genre was released, as well as casual games.

Do you know which books are the most published in the world? In the first place - the Bible, in the second - the immortal works of Shakespeare. But on the third - works related to the "light genre", the so-called entertainment literature, united by the genre and the author. In third place in the world in terms of the frequency of publication are the detectives of Agatha Christie. Over 4 billion copies of her works have been published in more than 100 languages. So who was the famous writer Agatha Christie?

Her biography sometimes resembles one of the novels of the writer. It has love, betrayal and a mysterious disappearance with a happy ending.

The maiden name of the future writer is Miller. She was born in 1890 in the small town of Torquay.

During the First World War, the girl worked as a nurse in a military hospital, and then as a pharmacist in a pharmacy. Knowledge in the field of chemicals, and especially poisons, was useful to Agatha in her work. 83 of the murders she described in detective stories were poisonings.

In 1914, out of great mutual love, young Agatha Miller married a colonel whose name was Archibald Christie. Soon she will glorify this surname.

The first detective novel was published in 1920. It was called "The Curious Affair at Styles". The author was designated by no one known Agatha Christie. Her biography as a writer began just then.

1926 proved to be an extremely difficult year for Agatha. She had to endure two hardest blows during this period: the death of her mother and the betrayal of her husband. In the twelfth year of his marriage, Archibald asked his wife for a divorce because he had met another woman. There was a quarrel between them, after which Agatha Christie suddenly disappeared from the house. The biography of the writer tells that for 11 days her whereabouts remained a mystery. And only after this period she was found in a small hotel, where she registered under the name of her husband's mistress. At the same time, she could not really explain how she got there, as a result of which the doctors diagnosed her with amnesia. What actually happened is not known, but there is speculation that it was a case of what is called "dissociative fugue" in medicine - a disease caused by a severe mental disorder.

Two years after this incident, the Christie couple divorced.

However, fate was kind to an English lady named Agatha Christie. A brief biography reports that already in 1930 the writer met an archaeologist, with whom she lived in a happy marriage for the rest of her life (46 years). His name was Max Mallowan, and he was 15 years younger than his wife.

Agatha Christie, whose biography is at the center of our attention, lived for 86 years. During this time, she wrote 60 detective novels and 6 psychological ones. The latter were released under the pseudonyms Westmacott or Mary Westmacott. The light saw 19 collections, which included mainly stories. And in the theaters of London there were premieres of 16 of her plays. One of them, "The Mousetrap", became the record holder for the number of productions. The favorite brainchild of the author was the novel "Ten Little Indians".

Based on the works of the writer, many films have been shot, including serials, in which the audience is following with intense attention the investigations carried out by their favorite characters - Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Of great interest to readers are not only the books of the famous writer, but also stories about her. Similar monographs are published in different languages. There is also a biography of Agatha Christie in Russian by the author Tsimbaeva E. N., entitled "Agatha Christie", published in print in 2013.

As you know, Agatha Christie wrote detective stories. Even as a child, she read the scary stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and this undoubtedly left its mark on her love for this literary genre, which was then only in its infancy. By the way, it is Edgar Allan Poe who is considered the founder of the detective genre, and the Murder on the Rue Morgue is the first detective. However, detective stories became really popular in England after the release of the novels by the English writer Wilkie Collins The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868). Also at that time, the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle, who, one might say, was a contemporary of Agatha Christie, were popular. The years of the life of Arthur Conan Doyle: 1859 -1930.

1. What is a detective?

Detective(from lat. detego- reveal, expose) - a literary genre that describes the process of investigating a mysterious incident in order to clarify the circumstances of its commission. Usually this is a crime. If there is nothing mysterious in the incident, then it is no longer a detective story, but one of its related genres, for example, a police novel.

detectives happen different types, but they are all written according to certain rules. These rules were invented in 1928 by the English writer Willard Hattington. There are 20 rules in total, here are the main ones:

2. Rules and commandments of the detective

Rule 1 It is necessary to provide the reader with equal opportunities with the detective to unravel the mysteries, for which purpose it is necessary to clearly and accurately report all incriminating traces.

Rule 2 Neither a detective nor any other professional investigator can be a criminal.

Rule 3 Logical conclusions should lead to exposure. Random or unsubstantiated confessions are not allowed.

Rule 4 A detective cannot be without a detective who methodically searches for incriminating evidence, as a result of which he comes to solve the riddle.

Rule 5 Mandatory crime in detective - murder.

Rule 6 In solving a given mystery, all supernatural forces and circumstances must be excluded.

Rule 7 The perpetrator must be one of the more or less significant characters well known to the reader.

Rule 8 An impermissibly cheap solution in which one of the servants is the perpetrator.

Rule 9 To the savvy reader, the clue should be obvious.

Rule 10 It is forbidden to attribute a secret to an accident or suicide.

Rule 11 The motive for a crime is always of a private nature; it cannot be a spy act spiced with some kind of international intrigue, the motives of secret services.

Before proceeding to the study of the work of Agatha Christie, let's continue to study the detective genre and its canons. Another Englishman Ronald Knox invented 10 commandments of a detective, they partially coincide with the rules, but there are also a few new ones:

I. The perpetrator must be someone mentioned at the beginning of the novel, but it must not be the person whose train of thought the reader has been allowed to follow.

II. As a matter of course, the action of supernatural or otherworldly forces is excluded.

III. It is unacceptable to use hitherto unknown poisons, as well as devices that require a long scientific explanation at the end of the book.

IV. A detective should never be helped by a lucky break; nor should he be guided by an unaccountable but sure intuition.

VI. The detective doesn't have to turn out to be a criminal himself.

VII. Having come across this or that clue, the detective must immediately present it to the reader for study.

VIII. The detective's foolish friend, Watson in one form or another, must not hide any of the considerations that cross his mind; in terms of his mental abilities, he should be slightly inferior - but only very slightly - to the average reader.

3. Types of detective

Agatha Christie was a master classic detective story. This is a detective in which the crime is committed in a secluded place and the number of suspects is limited. Therefore, from the very beginning it is clear that the murder was committed by one of the people who are known to the reader from the very beginning. A private detective always appears at the crime scene to help the police investigate the murder. Often such a detective has an assistant who, in terms of his mental abilities, corresponds to the average reader. As a rule, in such a detective story, the killer turns out to be a character well known to the reader, who did not arouse suspicion at all. Sometimes in closed detective stories a whole series of murders is committed and thus the number of suspects is reduced. Almost all the works of Agatha Christie are such detectives, but the most striking work can be called "Ten blacks."

Psychological detective- This is a type of detective story that focuses on the study of the criminal's behavior and personal motives for committing a crime (for example, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd").

Very interesting historical detective. In this case, the action takes place in the past or a long-standing crime is being investigated. I highly recommend reading Agatha Christie's Death Comes at the End, which takes place in ancient Egypt. Another historical detective by Agatha Christie is The Five Little Pigs.

If we talk about ironic detective story, then here Daria Dontsova took the place of Agatha Christie, since all her books belong to this subgenre.

fantasy detective can rightfully be called a Russian detective. Stanislav Lev, Kir Bulychev, Isaac Asimov, Sergei Lukyanenko, the Strugatsky Brothers, Boris Akunin worked in this genre.

There is also police detective(it describes the work of a group of policemen), crime detective(the events are described on behalf of the criminal), political and spy detectives, but they are far from the classical genre and in this article I will not consider them. From the works of Agatha Christie, it is fashionable to attribute the work “Big Four” to the political detective, and to the spy “Cat Among Pigeons”, “The Man in the Brown Suit”, “The Hours”, “Meetings in Baghdad” (and some other works).

And finally, it's time to meet works of Agatha Christie. The best ones are in bold, and you can read them or watch a screen version.

List of books by Agatha Christie by year:

The titles of the works are given in English with translation. The year of publication is indicated. The best books of Agatha Christie and you can read on the site in English or watch a screenshot.

1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
2. The Secret Adversary (1922)
3. Murder on the Links (1923) - Murder on the golf course (Poirot is investigating the murder)
4. The Man in the Brown Suit (1924)
5. Poirot Investigates (1924) - Poirot investigates. Collection of 11 stories:

• Mystery of the "Star of the West"
• Tragedy at Marsdon Manor
• Mystery of a cheap apartment
• Murder at Hunters Lodge
• Million dollar theft
• Pharaoh's revenge
• Trouble at the Grand Metropolitan Hotel
• Kidnapping of the Prime Minister
• Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim
• The mystery of the death of an Italian count
• Missing Will

6. The Secret of Chimneys (1925)
7. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) (the murder is investigated by Poirot, one of the best detectives)

8. The Big Four (1927)
9. The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - The Mystery of the Blue Train (Poirot investigates the murder of a wealthy heiress that happened on the train)
10. Partners in Crime (1929) Collection of 15 stories:

• A Fairy in the Flat / A pot of Tea
• The Affair of the Pink Pearl - The Case of the Pink Pearl
• The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger - A visit from a grim stranger
• Finessing the King / The Gentleman Dressed in Newspaper
• The Case of the Missing Lady - The Case of the Missing Lady
• Blindman's Bluff - Blind and Death
• The Man in the Mist
• The Crackler
• The Sanningdale Mystery
• The House of Lurking Death - Death living in the house
• The Unbreakable Alibi - Iron Alibi
• The Clergyman's Douther / The Red House
• The ambassador's Boots - Ambassador's Boots
• The Man Who Was No. 16 - The man who was number 16

11. The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)
12. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) - Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple first appears)
13. The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930) - The Mysterious Mr. Quin (collection of short stories)
14. The Sittaford Mystery (1931)
15. Peril at End House (1932) - The Endhouse Mystery (Murder investigated by Poirot)
16. The Hound of Death (1933) Collection of 12 stories:

• Death Hound
• Red signal
• fourth person
• Gypsy
• I'll come for you, Mary!
• Prosecution Witness
• The secret of the blue jug
• The Amazing Incident of Sir Arthur Carmichael
• call of the wings
• Last seance

17. Lord Edgware Dies (1933) - Death of Lord Edgware (murder investigated by Poirot)
18. The Thirteen Problems (1933) - Thirteen mysterious cases. Collection of 13 stories:

• Evening club "Tuesday"
• Murder in the Temple of Astarte
• gold bars
• Blood on the pavement
• Motive and Opportunity
• Finger of Saint Peter
• blue geranium
• Companion
• Four suspects
• death herb
• Bungalow Incident
• Death of Miss Rose Emmot

19. Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
20. Parker Pyne Investigates (1934) - Investigates Parker Pyne. Collection of 12 stories:

• The case of a middle-aged lady
• The Case of the Bored Soldier / Major Wilbraham Seeks Danger
• The Case of the Conscientious Girl
• The Case of the Unfortunate Husband
• The Case of the Tired Clerk
• The Case of the Rich Lady
• Anything your heart desires
• Road to Baghdad
• House in Shiraz
• Priceless pearl
• Death on the Nile
• Delphic oracle

21. The Listerdale Mystery (1934) Collection of 12 stories:

• Listerdale Mystery
• The girl on the train
• Six pence song
• Metamorphosis of Edward Robinson
• Accident
• Jane is looking for a job
• Fruitful Sunday
• Mr. Eastwood's Adventure
• red ball
• Raja Emerald
• a swan song

22. Three Act Tragedy (1935)
23. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1935) - Why not Evans?
24. Death in the Clouds (1935)
25. The A.B.C. Murders (1936) - Alphabet Murders (Poirot is investigating the murder)
26. Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
27. Cards on the Table (1936)
28. Dumb Witness (1937) - Silent Witness (murder investigated by Poirot)
29. Death on the Nile (1937)

The action of the novel takes place on a liner that sails on the Nile. Wealthy tourists stroll along the deck, discussing each other and getting a little bored. By chance or not, Hercule Poirot is among the tourists, but it is he who takes on the investigation of ... three murders. Buy Agatha Christie's book "Death on the Nile".

30. Murder in the Mews (1937)

• Murder in the driveway
• Incredible Theft
• Dead Man's Mirror
• Triangle in Rhodes

31. Appointment with Death (1938)

32. Ten Little Niggers (1939) – Десять негритят (еще одно название «И никого не стало», одно из наиболее известных произведений)

33. Murder is Easy (1939)
34. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1939)
35. The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (1939) - The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (9 stories)
36. Sad Cypress (1940)
37. Evil Under the Sun (1941)
38. N or M? (1941) - N or M?
39. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1941) - One, one - the guest is sitting with us (Poirot is investigating the murder)
40. The Body in the Library (1942)
41. Five Little Pigs (1942)
42. The Moving Finger (1942)
43. Towards Zero (1944) - Hour Zero
44 Sparkling Cyanide (1944)

45. Death Comes as the End (1946)

46. ​​The Hollow (1946)
47. The Labors of Hercules (1947) - The Labors of Hercules (murder investigated by Poirot)
48. Taken at the Flood (1948)
49. Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (1948) - Witness for the Prosecution (11 stories)
50 Crooked House (1949)
51. A Murder is Announced (1950)
52. Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (1950)
53. They Came to Baghdad (1951) - Baghdad meetings
54. The Under Dog and Other Stories (1951)
55. Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952)
56. They Do It with Mirrors (1952)

57. A Pocket Full of Rye (1953)

58. After the Funeral (1953)
59. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
60. Destination Unknown (1955)
61 Dead Man's Folly (1956)
62. 4.50 from Paddington (1957)
63. Ordeal by Innocence (1957) - Ordeal by Innocence
64. Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
65. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960) 6 stories, murders are investigated by Poirot:

• The Adventure of Christmas Pudding
• Mystery of the Spanish Chest
• Tikhonya
• Black currant
• Lost key

66. The Pale Horse (1960) - White Horse Villa
67. Double Sin and Other Stories (1961)
68. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962)
69. The Clocks (1963)
70. A Caribbean Mystery (1964)
71. At Bertram's Hotel (1965) - Bertram's Hotel (murder investigated by Miss Marple)
72. Third Girl (1966)
73. Endless Night (1967)
74. By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968) - Snap your finger just once
75. Hallowe'en Party (1969)
76. Passenger to Frankfurt (1970)
77. Nemesis (1971) - Nemesis (murder is investigated by Miss Marple)
78. The Golden Ball and Other Stories (1971) - The Golden Ball and Other Stories (15 stories)
79. Elephants Can Remember (1972) - Elephants can remember (murder investigated by Poirot)
80. Postern of Fate (1973) - Gates of Fate
81. Poirot's Early Cases (1974)

• Case at the Victory Ball
• The Disappearance of the Clapham Cook
• Cornish mystery
• The Adventure of Johnny Waverly
• double evidence
• King of clubs
• Lemesurier's legacy
• Lost mine
• plymouth express
• Box of candies
• Submarine blueprints
• Apartment on the fourth floor
• double sin
• The Secret of Market Basing
• Vespiary
• Veiled lady
• maritime investigation
• How wonderful everything is in your garden ...

82. Curtain (1975)
83. Sleeping Murder (1976)
84. Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories (1979)

• Holy place
• unusual joke
• measure of death
• The caretaker's case
• The case of the best of the maids
• Miss Marple tells
• Doll in the fitting room
• In the dusk of a mirror

85. Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Storie (1991)

• Service "Harlequin"
• Second gong strike
• The case of love
• yellow irises
• magnolia flower
• Case in Pollenza
• Together with the dog
• Mysterious incident during the regatta

86. The Harlequin Tea Set (1997)
87. While the Light Lasts and Other Stories (1997)

• House of his dreams
• Actress
• On the edge
• Christmas Adventure
• lonely god
• Manx Gold
• Beyond the walls
• The Secret of the Baghdad Chest
• How long does the light last...

Here it is like all books by Agatha Christie. Leave your feedback about the read works in the comments, and the most best books and stories by agatha christie you can read the site site online!