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The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by Agatha Christie. It was written in 1916 and was first published by John Lane in the US in October 1920 and in the UK by The Bodley Head (John Lane's UK company) on January 21 1921[1]. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6). It is Christie's first published novel, and introduces Hercule Poirot, Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp and Lieutenant Hastings (later, Captain). The story is told in first person by Hastings, and features many of the elements that, thanks to Christie, have become icons of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. It is set in a large, isolated country manor. There are a half-dozen suspects, most of whom are hiding facts about themselves. The book includes maps of the house, the murder scene, and a drawing of a fragment of a will. Also, there are a number of red herrings and surprise plot twists.
[edit] Plot summaryThe novel is set in England during World War I at Styles Court, an Essex country manor (also the setting of Curtain, Poirot's last case). Upon her husband's death, the wealthy widow, Emily Cavendish, inherited a life estate in Styles as well as the outright inheritance of the larger part of the late Mr. Cavendish's income. Mrs. Cavendish became Mrs. Inglethorp upon her recent remarriage to a much younger man, Alfred Inglethorp. Emily's two stepsons, John and Lawrence Cavendish, as well as John's wife Mary and several other people, also live at Styles. John Cavendish is the vested remainderman of Styles; that is, the property will pass to him automatically upon his stepmother's decease, as per his late father's will. The income left to Mrs Inglethorp by her late husband would be distributed as per Mrs. Inglethorp's own will.[2] Late one night, the residents of Styles wake to find Emily Inglethorp dying of what proves to be strychnine poisoning. Lieutenant Hastings, a house guest, enlists the help of his friend Hercule Poirot, who is staying in the nearby village, Styles St. Mary. Poirot pieces together events surrounding the murder. On the day she was killed, Emily Inglethorp was overheard arguing with someone, most likely her husband, Alfred, or her stepson, John. Afterwards, she seemed quite distressed and, apparently, made a new will — which no one can find. She ate little at dinner and retired early to her room with her document case. The case was later forced open by someone and a document removed. Alfred Inglethorp left Styles earlier in the evening and stayed overnight in the nearby village, so was not present when the poisoning occurred. Nobody can explain how or when the strychnine was administered to Mrs. Inglethorp. At first, Alfred is the prime suspect. He has the most to gain financially from his wife's death, and, since he is so much younger than was Emily, the Cavendishes already suspect him as a fortune hunter. Evelyn Howard, Emily's companion, seems to hate him most of all. His behaviour, too, is suspicious; he openly purchased strychnine in the village before Emily was poisoned, and although he denies it, he refuses to provide an alibi. The police are keen to arrest him, but Poirot intervenes by proving he could not have purchased the poison. Scotland Yard police later arrest Emily Inglethorp’s oldest stepson, John Cavendish. He inherits under the terms of her will, and there is evidence to suggest he also had obtained poison. Poirot clears Cavendish by proving it was, after all, Alfred Inglethorp who committed the crime, assisted by Evelyn Howard, who turns out to be his kissing cousin,[3] not his enemy. The guilty pair poisoned Emily by adding a precipitating agent, bromide (obtained from Mrs Inglethorp's sleeping powder), to her regular evening medicine, causing its normally innocuous strychnine constituents to sink to the bottom of the bottle where they were finally consumed in a single, lethal dose. Their plan had been for Alfred Inglethorp to incriminate himself with false evidence, which could then be refuted at his trial. Once acquitted, due to double jeopardy, he could not be tried for the crime a second time should any genuine evidence against him be subsequently discovered. [edit] Chracters in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles"
[edit] Literary significance and receptionThe Times Literary Supplement of February 3, 1921, gave the book an extremely enthusiastic, if short, review which stated that "The only fault this story has is that it is almost too ingenious". It went on to describe the basic set-up of the plot and concluded: "It is said to be the author's first book, and the result of a bet about the possibility of writing a detective story in which the reader would not be able to spot the criminal. Every reader must admit that the bet was won".[4] The New York Times Book Review of December 26, 1920,[5] was also impressed:
Poirot was described as a "delightful little old man". The novel's review in The Sunday Times of February 20, 1921, quoted the publisher's promotional blurb concerning Christie writing the book as the result of a bet that she would not be able to do so without the reader being able to guess the murderer, then said, "Personally we did not find the "spotting" so very difficult, but we are free to admit that the story is, especially for a first adventure in fiction, very well contrived, and that the solution of the mystery is the result of logical deduction. The story, moreover, has no lack of movement, and the several characters are well drawn."[6] The contributor who wrote his column under the pseudonym of "A Man of Kent" in the February 10, 1921, issue of the Christian newspaper The British Weekly praised the novel but was perhaps overly generous in giving away the identity of the murderers. To wit,
The Bodley Head quoted excerpts from this review in future books by Christie but understandably did not use those passages which gave away the identity of the culprits. In his book, A Talent to Deceive — An Appreciation of Agatha Christie, the writer and critic Robert Barnard wrote:
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations[edit] Agatha Christie's PoirotThe Mysterious Affair at Styles was adapted as a 103-minute drama and transmitted on ITV in the UK on Sunday September 16, 1990 as a special episode in their series Agatha Christie's Poirot to celebrate the centenary of the author's birth. The adaptation was generally faithful to the novel, although some minor characters were left out. A slight mistake is, however, that it is left unexplained how the door of the late Mrs. Inglethorp's room (that had been broken in at her death) is fixed in the early morning before Poirot's arrival (which could prevent the other residents from altering the traces). Adapator: Clive Exton Cast: [edit] BBC Radio 4 AdaptationThe novel was adapted as a five part serial for BBC Radio 4 in 2005. John Moffatt reprised his role of Poirot. The serial was broadcast weekly from Monday, September 5 to Monday, October 3 at 11.30am to 12.00pm. All five episodes were recorded on Monday, April 4, 2005, at Bush House. This version retained the first-person narration by the character of Hastings. Adapator: Michael Bakewell Cast: [edit] Publication history
The novel received its first true publication as an eighteen-part serialisation in The Times newspaper's Colonial Edition (aka The Weekly Times) from February 27 (Issue 2252) to June 26, 1920 (Issue 2269)[10]. This version of the novel mirrored the published version with no textual differences and included the maps and illustrations of handwriting examples used in the novel. At the end of the serialisation an advert appeared in the newspaper which announced "This is a brilliant mystery novel, which has had the unique distinction for a first novel of being serialised in The Times Weekly Edition. Mr John Lane is now preparing a large edition in volume form, which will be ready immediately." Although another line of the advert stated that the book would be ready in August. In any event, it was first published by John Lane in the US in October 1920 and was not published in the UK by The Bodley Head until the following year. Some sources state that the exact date of the UK publication was January 26, 1921, others state February 1. However the English Catalogue of Books confirms the latter month of release. The Mysterious Affair at Styles later made publishing history by being one of the first ten books to be published by Penguin Books when they were launched on July 30, 1935. The book was Penguin Number 6.[11] [edit] Book dedicationThe book's dedication reads: "To my Mother". Christie's mother, Clarissa ("Clara") Boehmer Miller (1854 -1926), was a strong influence on her life and someone to whom Christie was extremely close, especially after the death of her father in 1901. It was whilst Christie was ill (in about 1908) that her mother suggested that she write a story. The result was The House of Beauty, now a lost work but one which hesitantly started her writing career.[12] (Christie later revised this story as The House of Dreams and it was published in issue 74 of The Sovereign Magazine in January 1926 and many years later in book form in While the Light Lasts and Other Stories in 1997.) Christie also dedicated her debut novel as Mary Westmacott, Giant's Bread (1930), to her mother who, by that time, had died. [edit] Dustjacket blurbThe blurb on the inside flap of the dustwrapper of the first edition reads:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles was the only first edition of Christie's to be published by The Bodley Head which carried such a blurb on its dustwrapper. [edit] References
[edit] External links
It is one of two of Christie's books that are in the public domain in the US (the other being The Secret Adversary). The copyright on the book will not expire in many Western countries before 2047.
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