Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles - classic fiction
Why Poirot doe only show once in the top best books list from all the 87 times his character appeared in stories?
About this book:
The
Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by Agatha Christie.
It was written in the middle of World War I, in 1916, and first
published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920.
Styles was
Christie's first published novel, introducing Hercule Poirot,
InspectorJapp, and Arthur Hastings. Poirot is described as "a
dear little man", "an extraordinary looking little man"
and a "quaint dandyfied little man".
The novel
is set in England 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. Lawrence Cavendish would also come into a considerable
sum of money. The income left to Mrs Inglethorp by her late husband
would be distributed according to Mrs Inglethorp's own will, which
she changed at least once per year. If she had not changed her will
since her marriage this would go to her husband.
Late one
night, the residents of Styles wake to find Emily Inglethorp dying of
what proves to be strychnine poisoning. Hastings, a houseguest,
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, Mrs Inglethorp was
overheard arguing with someone, most likely either 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. No one knows exactly when or how the strychnine
was administered to Mrs Inglethorp... (source: Wikipedia)
About the author:
Dame Agatha
Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (born Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12
January 1976) was an English crime writer of novels, short stories,
and plays. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary
Westmacott, but she is best remembered for the 66 detective novels
and more than 15 short story collections she wrote under her own
name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such
characters as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple and Tommy and
Tuppence. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The
Mousetrap. (source: Wikipedia)
About the Midwest Journal Writers' Club:
This
was created by popular request to enable any beginning or established
author to improve their skills by studying quality editions of
classic bestselling fiction. Join at http://midwestjournalpress.com
Related Sites
Review: "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie ... - In this first novel by Agatha Christie, published in 1920, she introduces the inimitable Poirot, who would go on to appear in 33 Christie novels and 54 short stories. The plot of The Mysterious Affair at Styles deals with a ...The Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction | Amicae Curiae - Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Entries have recently closed for the University of Alabama Law School, where Harper Lee studied law, and the American Bar ...
New on CD « Sidney Public Library - The Affair by Lee Child; The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie; The Eagle Catcher by Margaret Coel; Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler; Medusa by Clive Cussler; Mile 81 by Stephen King; War Horse by Morpurgo; Call ...
Monday contest: Win 10 terrific debut novels | The Book Case - 5 August 2013 at 2:36 pm. Gone With The Wind, for sure. Recently, Before I Go To Sleep. Reply. Elizabeth Bevins says: 5 August 2013 at 2:38 pm. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie is my favorite first novel.
Language Tips: Equable and equitable & people or persons ... - And finally, from Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1916), chapter 8: From your account, there are only two people whom we can positively say did not go near the coffee-Mrs. Cavendish, and Mademoiselle ...
A. Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles
Where classic fiction introduces immortal characters.
About this book:
The Hound
of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes.
Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to
April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West
Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the
legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin.
Sherlock Holmes and his companion Doctor Watson investigate the case.
This was the first appearance of Holmes since his intended death in
"The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the
Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.
Sir Charles
Baskerville, Bart, is found dead on the grounds of his country house,
Baskerville Hall. The cause is ascribed to a heart attack. Fearing
for the safety of Sir Charles's nephew and the only known heir, Sir
Henry Baskerville, coming from Toronto, Canada to claim his
inheritance, Dr James Mortimer travels to London and asks Sherlock
Holmes for help.
Mortimer
explains that the Baskerville family is afflicted by a curse.
According to an old account, said to have been written in 1742 and
describing events which had occurred a century earlier still, during
the English Civil War, Hugo Baskerville was infatuated with a
farmer's daughter. He kidnapped her and imprisoned her in his
bedroom. She escaped and the furious Baskerville offered his soul to
the devil if he could recapture her. Aided by friends, he pursued the
girl onto the desolate moor. Baskerville and his victim were found
dead. She had died from fright, but a giant spectral hound stood
guard over Baskerville's body. The hound tore out Baskerville's
throat, then vanished into the night.
Sir Charles
Baskerville had become fearful of the legendary curse and its
hellhound. Mortimer decided that Sir Charles had been waiting for
someone when he died. His face was contorted in a ghastly expression,
while his footprints suggested that he was running away from
something. The elderly man's heart wasn't strong, and he had planned
to go to London the very next day. Mortimer says he had seen the
footprints of a "gigantic hound" near Sir Charles's body,
nothing was revealed at the inquest...
(source:
Wikipedia)
About the author:
Sir Arthur
Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish
physician and writer who is most noted for his fictional stories
about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered
milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for
writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented,
Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works
include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry,
non-fiction, and historical novels.
(source:
Wikipedia)
About the Midwest Journal Writers' Club:
This
was created by popular request to enable any beginning or established
author to improve their skills by studying quality editions of
classic bestselling fiction. Join at http://midwestjournalpress.com
Related Sites
Rough Estimate of the Annual Changes in Ocean Temperatures ... - OT, but I will be taking my son wild camping in the home of the "Hound of the Baskervilles" - that is Dartmoor UK - at the weekend and saw some interesting climate related history on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ ...Better seeing what we don't see as we teach | Granted, and... - What is the equivalent of "hearing" the dog that, for once, doesn't bark, as Sherlock Holmes famously did in Hound of the Baskervilles? To what things do we as teachers in our own classrooms tend to be blind? Where should ...Discovering Sherlock Holmes in the Archives - The Center's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle papers include the handwritten manuscript for this story, as well as a manuscript page from the most famous Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Doyle papers also contain ...From the Stacks: The Great Detective | Walter Havighurst Special ... - Ten years later The Strand began serializing the classic novel Hound of the Baskervilles. The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place was the last Holmes story to be published there in April of 1927. Although you can find a ...A Collection of Characters: Expanded Interviews - It was a mystery called The Dogs of Avalanche Hill (I had just finished reading The Hound of the Baskervilles), and I've loved telling stories ever since. One of my great hopes is that no one ever finds a copy of that novel.
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