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Original: Xiao Bei
Source: Peking University Press
Who is the best detective novelist in your mind?
I believe that the name of the "queen of detective fiction" must be the preferred answer for many people.
September 15 marks the 131st anniversary of the birth of British detective fiction writer Agatha Christie.
Agatha Christie was born on 15 September 1890 to a warm middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, England.
She read a lot of books from an early age and became a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at a young age.
Conan Doyle created one of the most fascinating literary characters: Sherlock Holmes
At that time, she did not expect that her name would be alongside Conan Doyle, becoming an iconic and representative figure in the world of detective fiction, and making future generations argue about who is the first person in the world of reasoning.
Agatha Christie was affectionately known as "Grandma" by fans.
In her 60-year writing career, Grandma has written nearly 80 long speculative novels and a number of short mystery novel collections, and her works have sold more than 2 billion copies so far, and the only writer who can compete with her is probably Shakespeare.
She left us with two indelible classic detective roles – Detective Poirot and Miss Marple.
The former is a stocky little Belgian, and Chinese audiences must have been impressed by Poirot's cute two-pronged beard in "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Massacre on the Nile".
Stills from 1974 Murder on the Orient Express
And this man, who looks a little funny, is respected by everyone because of his wisdom, gentleness, and deep compassion.
Douban 9.2 points British drama "Detective Poirot" stills
Jane Marple is a rare female detective in the history of speculative fiction. She is a kind and lovely old lady who lives in the English countryside, older and single, and in the gap between playing with yarn, knitting scarves, and chatting with the neighbors about gossip, she cracked the case, relying on her insight into human nature.
Grandma wrote of her: "There is no malice toward people, but I don't trust anyone." Despite the view that human nature is inherently evil, in any case, it is still good to treat everyone. ”
Stills from Miss Marple
Grandma's irreplaceable "jianghu status" also stems from the fact that she pioneered and carried forward various models of trickery:
The most famous is "No One Survives", which pioneered the Blizzard Mountain Villa model and the nursery rhyme killing mode, and if you like "Detective Conan" or "Star Detective", you must be familiar with these two modes.
Stills from the 2015 British drama "No One Survives"
The psychological suspense mode of "Murder on the Orient Express", the hidden motive model of "ABC", the narrative school of "Roger's Doubt" and the "unexpected murderer"... It also gives endless inspiration to future generations.
These pioneering puzzles and routines still nourish the creation of countless well-known and unknown detective reasoning themes.
Contrary to Grandma's mysterious and deadly temptation stories, her own life is calm, low-key and mysterious.
Except for one Vanishing Lover-like exodus.
In 1926, Agatha's then handsome husband, Archie, moved on, and one night in early December, Agatha drove away with her daughter.
By this time she was already a well-known novelist, and her disappearance immediately made headlines.
News reports about Agatha's disappearance at the time
After a 12-day large-scale search, Agatha was found to be living under the pseudonym of Teresa Nellie at the Hyder Hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire.
Afterwards, she claimed to have amnesia and didn't remember anything.
Two years later, the two divorced by agreement. Some people speculate that the "disappearance" is deliberately revenge on the cheating husband.
Is this the love story of a detective fiction writer?
As you may not know, Agatha also served as president of the British "Detective Club".
The 1920s and 1930s are known as the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction".
It was more than 20 years from the end of the First World War to the outbreak of the Second World War, and the war not only caused social unrest and continued economic crisis, but also plunged everyone into fear of the dark side and irrationality of human nature.
In an era when people are worried about the future and people are fluctuating, detective fiction has come into being and provides fun for readers.
The sensation of Agatha's works has made speculative fiction a popular genre, which can be said to have directly promoted the arrival of the "Golden Age".
In the bleak reality, detective fiction is not only the pleasure of the reader, but also the author's.
Young, active, and thoughtful detective writers connect with each other, help each other, share literary passions, and form the "British Detective Club".
"Detective Club" dinner picture
Martin Edwards, the current president of the club, chronicles the extraordinary stories and gossip of the club's authors in The Mystery of the British Detective Club in the Golden Age of Murder.
The Detective Club is an elite social circle of writers whose work has not only earned them a reputation for excellence in the literary world, but has also had a profound impact on the narrative of fiction, film and television.
...... They experimented with different genres of fiction, effectively exploiting unreliable narrators and unexpected real murderers, and the works reflected social attitudes and political changes that went beyond their intended and were much richer than critics knew.
Martin Edwards, who called Agatha Christie the "guiding light" of the Detective Club, commented:
"A quiet and lovely woman, as long as you don't explore what she is thinking, it is easy to read her." 」
Martin introduces a more three-dimensional and plump grandmother, as well as her lesser-known but highly experimental works.
Martin said Agatha, like many of her fellow detective clubs, was a workaholic. The quality of her work varies, but it is inevitable, partly because she is very prolific and partly because she is never afraid to try new things:
In 1930, she was commissioned to write a short story for a contest designed to attract tourists to the Isle of Man for a trip. The Gold of the Isle of Man sparked a treasure hunt.
In the same year, her stage debut Black Coffee was staged in London. Although the spy thriller was not very successful, it was remade into a movie twice in the following years.
When "Miss Marple" first appeared, she was also questioned. The Mystery of the Apartment marks Miss Jane Marple's first appearance in a novel.
Miss Marple lives in the quiet little village of St. Mary Mead, which provides her with all the sophistication and expertise she needs to become a great detective, as it gives her a deep understanding of human nature.
Christie had tried to make Marple appear in several short stories before deciding that she was a strong enough amateur detective to hold up a novel.
When Miss Marple made her debut in Murder at the Club on Tuesday, she modestly denied her intelligence, saying only that the experience of country life "gave me a glimpse into human nature."
This is the secret of her success as a detective.
For many readers, her ordinariness makes her more charismatic than the intelligent and conceited Poirot.
Her companions— including her nephew, the pop novelist Raymond West— were suspicious of her.
However, when the former director of Scotland Yard tells a mysterious poisoning story, the ultimate "easy chair detective" Miss Marple puts her knitting work aside and solves the mystery. Because the mystery reminded her of "old Mr. Hargraves who lived in the mountains."
In the groundbreaking long-form research book on crime fiction, The Master of Reasoning, H. D. Thomson realizes that Miss Marple is "a whole new detective... A hopeless Cranford man, an old maid who loves to gossip."
But Thomson believes the role has no long-term future: "Miss Marple can only hope to solve the murder in her hometown." If Ms. Christie is planning the future for Miss Marple... She would surely find the limitations in it irritating. ”
Like many others, Thomson underestimated Christie. She proved to be perfectly up to the challenge.
Miss Marple's next work after her appearance was The Stafford Mystery.
Set in a snow-covered village in Dartmoor, the story bears some resemblance to Hounds of the Baskervilles: both stories feature a fugitive and a creepy atmosphere.
Ghosts and supernatural phenomena have fascinated Christie since childhood, but her basic perspective has always been secular.
Obviously, supernatural events provide a diversion for Christie's novels, but she is always able to give reasonable answers to the puzzles.
At the time, the Psychic News newspaper announced that there were 500 associations under the National Alliance of Spiritualism. People like Conan Doyle who lost relatives and friends in war often seek solace from psychics and séances.
Stills from "The Stateford Mystery."
"The Mystery of Stafford" writes that at a séance, news came from the other side of the world announcing that Captain Tsereverian had been murdered, and it turned out that Tsereverian had indeed been hit to death.
When the identity of the "most unlikely" murderer is revealed, we realize that in the first chapter, when people sit at the table and talk about clutch anagrams and crossword puzzles, the author has given a key clue. This mystery is clearly closely related to the enthusiasm for the game of that era, and has nothing to do with the murderer psychology that is not explored in the story.
In The Strange Case of Cliff Hill, another pseudo-séance helps Poirot discover the truth. Christie's ironic choice to have the reluctant Hastings play the role of a psychic mediator shows her skepticism about "messages from the other world."
Stills from "The Strange Case of Cliff Hills"
The book has one of Christie's best "least likely suspect" tricks; it also has a setting that often appears in her best ideas: character reversals, a trick she loves so much that she uses it over and over again.
During a stay at a hotel on the Cornwall coast, Poirot and Hastings learn that a beautiful young girl has escaped death three times. Poirot fears that someone is trying to murder her and disguises the murder as an accident. Then the murder happened.
The novel is written about a secret engagement that is crucial to the plot, most likely inspired by Christie's own engagement to Max.
As was often the case in detective novels of the 1930s, "high society" sucked cocaine, and Christie slyly exploited vague phrases such as "dearest" and "dear." This kind of simple, non-expert technique is one of her favorite misleading tactics.
Gives the reader all the information they need to solve the puzzle, but also creates surprises at the end – a skill that Christie has no one else can.
Stills from The Veil
In Agatha's farewell work The Curtain, the venerable detective Hercule Poirot dies – one of the very few detective literary protagonists who has left us completely in the work.
The book concludes: "We're not going to join forces to investigate the case anymore, my friend... Our first joint detective is here, and the last one is here. Those were good times..."
For fans of speculative fiction, the obsession with puzzles, the attachment to logic, the desire for truth, the persecution of human nature... Always full of endless temptations.
Reading Agatha is a wonderful time. And her charm will never end with the passage of time.