Hello everyone and welcome to my chronicle. You are with Céline Valette, artist author. You can find all the information about me on valette-celine.com. In this chronicle we are going to share about an author and a fiction through a character. Today it’s the turn of Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie.
The author :
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, known as Agatha Christie was born in Devon to an English mother and an American father. When she was sixteen, her family accepted her departure to Paris where she wanted to learn singing. She abandons this career idea. In 1914, Agatha Miller married Colonel Archibald Christie with whom she had a daughter, Rosalind, and worked during the war at Torquay Hospital. Following a bet with her sister, she wrote her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd made her famous. After a little known personal episode of amnesia, Agatha Christie divorced in 1928. In 1930, she married the archaeologist Max Mallowan, with whom she made several trips to the Middle East and she had ideas for new novels. Agatha Christie published novels, poems, short stories and an autobiography under several pseudonyms. She left in 1976 after writing the novel Poirot’s last Case. Her family published the book post-mortem. In this one, the detective finishes his career and dies after solving a riddle. According to some articles, Agatha Christie did not want Hercule Poirot to be used during the Second World War by Nazi propaganda and would have anticipated in killing her character of fiction.
The character :
Hercule Poirot is a fictional character born in Brussels. A Belgian detective, he was initially a police officer in the capital. Then, under the German occupation, he was forced by the army to take refuge in England. He meets Captain Hastings with whom he will conduct investigations as a private detective, Hastings is one of his best friend and a confident. In his office, Hercule Poirot is assisted by Miss Lemon, an efficient and discreet woman. The detective is in touch with Inspector Japp from Scotland Yard police with whom he’s got trust and a good relationship. Among his relatives, Ariane Oliver a novelist with whom he will carry out certain investigations. Of his personal life, the reader does not know much. No love affair is mentioned really. Among his characteristics, Hercule Poirot is analytical, logical and sensible with a strong sense of justice. In terms of dress, he is an elegant and stylish man recognizable by his mustache. He sometimes has attitudes in opposition to those of his time. Refusing the leisure society and the advent of the automobile.
A book : Allo Hercule Poirot
I invite you to discover “Allo Hercule Poirot”. In this collection of short stories, you can read the most famous adventures of the detective such as “the disappearance of Mr. Davenheim” and “one clue too many”.
This collection contains fantastic short stories not featuring Hercule Poirot too.
Among these, The Dressmaker’s Doll stood out in my mind. The story features the role of a doll that comes to life over the pages creating an eerie atmosphere in a professional sewing room.
In this story Agatha Christie shows herself to be comfortable in a style where she masters the strangeness and the suspense and which differs from the detective mysteries that the readers know her.
“Allo Hercule Poirot” is a new way to explore Agatha Christie across the fantastic.
To come back to the character of the detective, I would like to finish with his adaptation in movies and television series. The list being long, I have selected the film “Death on the Nile” with Peter Ustinov and the series created in the eigthies with David Suchet. The interpretation of this actor is in my opinion the most successful. The art deco research for the costumes and the period furniture creates an atmosphere close to the expected one.
The chronicle is ended. Thank you for following it.
Book details : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Christie-Allo-Hercule-Poirot/7509
Official website : https://www.agathachristie.com/