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 Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:53 pm
This semester at university I took the English fiction course and was lucky enough to end up with a prof who was teaching all detective fiction. Of course, that meant Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was on the top of the class reading list. This was only the third work by Agatha Christie that I had read, and I enjoyed it immensely. In case anyone doesn't know, this is the book that made her famous because of the twist in the end (and I'm not giving anything away there - all her books have so kind of twist, this one was just more spectacular).
So has anyone else read this particular novel? What did you think of it?
What other Agatha Christie novels do you recommend? I've also read The Mysterious Affair at Styles and Curtain, and they were enjoyable, they also both had their own twists.
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Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:18 am
I was in high school when I read that book, and it was the first Christie I had read. It blew my mind away at the time. Since then, I'm told she broke a "rule" with her ending, because it wasn't "fair" to readers. I devoured everything my local library had of hers at the time, though no particular title stands out in my memory.
hmm...maybe it's time for a revival.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:35 pm
Yes, I actually had to write an essay on the topic of her "breaking" the rules with this particular novel. But my argument was that she didn't really break them, just bent them to suit her purpose.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:29 am
And what did your professor think of your argument?
I know she was probably the only writer to get away with that trick.
Have you read any of her Miss Marple books? They set the standard for "cozy" style mysteries, and I think I liked them better than Poirot.
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Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:13 am
I did well with the essay, I got an A. He said it was well argued and that I had provided good backup and evidence.
The only Miss Marple book I've read is The Body in the Library, and that was quite a while ago, so I don't really remember it that well. I do know I liked it though.
From the research I did, I actually found out that the character of Caroline, in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the original version of Miss Marple. She was apparently one of Agatha Christie's favourite characters. I thought that was interesting, because Caroline is a really frustrating character.
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Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:27 am
Yay for the "A"! Did Ackroyd get written before she started Miss Marple?
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Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:29 am
Yes, Ackroyd was the book that really launched her career, it was several years later before she started Miss Marple.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:37 pm
Agatha Christie rocks my socks off!
I also took a detective fiction class in college; it was hands down the most enjoyable class I had in college. But we didn't read any Agatha Christie, which seems like a travesty...
I always love reading her stuff, but I can't say that any of the titles or plots stand out in particular. My mom had about 25 of her books in paperback when I was growing up, and I think that I read every one of them.
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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 6:37 am
Petit Four I also took a detective fiction class in college; it was hands down the most enjoyable class I had in college. But we didn't read any Agatha Christie, which seems like a travesty... I thought she was one of the standards by which all others were judged!
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Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 4:59 pm
The course I took was actually labelled simply as 1101 - Fiction. I had no idea I would be studying mystery until the first day of class when I got the 'text' list.
And it does indeed seem a travesty to not have studied Agatha Christie in a course of detective fiction! But there is certainly plenty of other material out there.
On a random note, I received an Agatha Christie computer adventure game for Christmas - based on And Then There Were None. I've almost solved it, and it is excellant. There are several such games and I can't wait to get another one!
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Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:50 am
What other authors were on the list?
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:45 pm
We studied "The Speckled Band" by Conan Doyle, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, Michael Dibdin's The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, City of Glass by Paul Auster, and Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. I believe there was another short story as well, but it has slipped my mind.
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:52 am
GirlPuck We studied "The Speckled Band" by Conan Doyle, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, Michael Dibdin's The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, City of Glass by Paul Auster, and Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. I believe there was another short story as well, but it has slipped my mind. None of the early Poe?
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:02 pm
OliviaFalconer GirlPuck We studied "The Speckled Band" by Conan Doyle, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, Michael Dibdin's The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, City of Glass by Paul Auster, and Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. I believe there was another short story as well, but it has slipped my mind. None of the early Poe? Well actually yes. I must have posted here just before I did in your thread. The Purloined Letter was the other short story that we studied, so we did have a sampling of Poe in there.
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Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:34 am
I would have loved that class!
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