Agatha Christie’s crime writings: some questions

Abstract

Considering the literary works by Agatha Christie the author of the paper pays special attention to the writer’s insufficiently researched novels – “Elephants can remember” and “Curtain”, the former of which earned not entirely fair assessment from critics. There is evidence of possible connection between some Christie’s novels and Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. The article studies the symbolism of Hercule Poirot image, and ideas about certain faces of his character and place in the “universe” of Agatha Christie are deepened. Her detective riddles are a kind of cipher, they are built on the techniques of substitution and repetition. New examples are noted, demonstrating Christie’s attitude to Shakespeare and Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes cycle). The historical element in the books by Agatha Christie is present not only explicitly in the form of historical events, etc., but also in a hidden form, penetrating into the deeper layers of her work.

Keywords

• english literature
• crime fiction
• agatha christie
• hercule poirot
• “the murder of roger ackroyd”
• “elephants can remember”
• “curtain”
• life and death
• plot influences