The Mystery of the Blue Train
Agatha. By Christie
In the early days of the United States, it was very popular for rich people to run to Britain to find aristocratic marriages, but nobles have a high class consciousness, easily refuse to marry with American local tycoons who have no status only money, only the family is in the middle of the road, in order to maintain a "decent life", maintain the daily maintenance of the real estate handed down by the ancestors and the daily living expenses of the traditional nobles, they will condescend to marry the local tycoons, and take what they need: In order to obtain the title of representative of the class status, the local tycoons can enter the social circle of the upper class - the social circle has a status threshold, and it also needs to be introduced by people with identity. Both are indispensable. The fallen nobles, on the other hand, received money through marriage and continued the extravagant aristocratic life handed down from their ancestors. This kind of marriage is generally a declining male nobleman and a female tycoon, because the title is passed on through male heirs.
The early American tycoons were obsessed with aristocratic titles, which was related to the fact that they were Immigrants from Europe. Although running to the New World has developed, but the thinking is still the same, the original in Europe is a bad three, climbing up and can not, after the development of immigration, of course, to regain the old dream, squeezed into the high society once longed for.
Such marriages have produced many tragedies, because as aristocrats, look down on upstarts, although the money of the upstarts is used, but the upstarts are still upstarts, they are rustic, they are countrymen, vulgar, indecent, and humiliated by the façade of the nobility; the upstarts, although they have obtained the façade and squeezed into the high society, they know in their hearts that they are ostracized, and the superficial scenery is bought by themselves, so they do not have much respect for the nobles in their hearts, and they always feel that they have spent money, but what they have got is not in place, and they are not willing.
The story is the tragedy of an American rich woman who marries a fallen aristocrat, has an unhappy married life, and is finally murdered.
This kind of story is also a product of the times, and now, the American white rich beauty does not care about the title of nobility, only the real fairy tale of the royal family marrying a commoner woman. This change is very subtle, and if it is forced to be far-fetched, it should also have something to do with the feminist movement.
The heroine in the story died a tragic death, and her face was disfigured after being strangled. Huge amounts of jewelry stolen with you. Her husband went to jail as a murderer.
But I don't think it was my husband who killed her. Even if he kills her, one, there is no need to steal jewelry, she dies, because there is no will before she dies, and all her inheritance (including $2 million – her dowry) is his, is it necessary to steal? Second, is it necessary to disfigure after death? Forensic disfigurement occurs after death.
There are only a few reasons for killing and disfiguring:
The first is the extreme hatred for the deceased, the kind of sulfuric acid, the hatred to the point of madness, it is very likely to be jealous of the appearance of the deceased, or simply hate,
The second is the fear that someone will recognize the deceased.
Although the couple was not harmonious, the husband did not hate his wife to the point of disfigurement, he was not a person of high character, but he did not go mad.
So this question has always bothered me: Who disfigured? What exactly is it for?
As for stealing jewelry, I have always suspected that it was my husband's lover, the actress, in fact, I also suspected that she killed her wife, because it was her idea to let "the wife die in an accident". But apparently the author didn't want to arrange for the actress to be the killer.
After the fallen aristocratic husband went to jail, Poirot did not give up on continuing to follow the case, because the doubts were not explained.
Finally, the people behind the scenes gradually emerge, and a gangster boss who walks a little lame, nicknamed the Marquis, joins forces with an actress who is good at playing men's explosive acting skills to plan the case.
The details are buried in the character introduction at the front of the story, the secretary of the Rich American, a retired colonel, has a very strong ability to do things, has a leg injury, has only been a secretary for 2 months, the Rich man trusts him very much, he knows everything, including the rich man buying jewelry for his daughter, the trip of the father and daughter, all;
The maid of the rich man's daughter (the dead wife of the nobleman) is also a newcomer who has only been in office for 2 months. It is an actress who has been acting for many years.
Actresses are really talented. Acting like what, makeup changes into a person. So being able to make up makeup is also a craft. It is equivalent to the transfiguration in martial arts novels.
There is an old lady in the story who has an interesting view of the secretary: Why should a young man with a good background and ability want to be the secretary of a local American tycoon? What does he figure out?
In the eyes of the old lady in the British countryside with a serious sense of hierarchy, to be a secretary to an American upstart is to reduce the status. In that era, the commoner class preferred to work as a domestic servant to the nobility rather than as a merchant. The British drama "Downton Abbey" shows the concept of that era. The domestic servants who served in the noble houses were proud of their professions, especially the upper family stewards, the first class servants close to the male and female servants. The most inferior are the handymen. The housekeepers are reluctant to work in society, have no face, and lose their status, because they are engaged in the service industry in society, they serve the commoners, and they only serve the nobility, and it is a shame to serve the commoners. At that time, only inferior maids wanted to go out to work in society, because in the hierarchical aristocratic family, they had no status, and it was better to work in society with dignity.
Agatha's story is full of such subtle details, a casual sentence of a passerby, or something inadvertently said by a character like a dragonfly, are the elements of solving the mystery, that is, the small pieces in the puzzle that Poirot said, a small piece is very important, without these small pieces, the puzzle is not complete, and the mystery cannot be solved.
Not understanding the social context in which the story takes place will also affect the understanding of the story.
The old lady's question about the secretary is actually a foreshadowing, explaining the real purpose of the secretary.
It is also a pleasure to learn about the history of humanity from the story.
#阿加莎. The complete works of Detective Poirot in Christie's portfolio #
The Mystery of the Blue Train