Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making - Includes Two Unpublished Poirot Stories
A research volume that follows Agatha Christie’s notebooks, reconstructing her working methods and including unpublished Poirot stories.
Work Information
From notebook fragments, Christie’s plotting process comes into view.
John Curran uses Christie’s 73 notebooks to map her working habits and explain the significance of the unpublished material they contain.
Book Information
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Published
- 2009-09-03
- Pages
- 492 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.9 x 3.8 x 24 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780007310562
- ISBN-10
- 0007310560
- Price
- 2126 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Essays & Correspondence/Letters & Correspondence
A fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie’s 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories. When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the world's most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she had achieved the impossible - more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller. So prolific was Agatha Christie's output - 66 crime novels, 20 plays, 6 romance books under a pseudonym and over 150 short stories - it was often claimed that she had a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those 55 years to more mundane methods of working out her ingenious crimes? Following the death of Agatha's daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie's private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations and details that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story. This remarkable new book includes a wealth of extracts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks, plus for the first time two newly discovered complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published: The Incident of the Dog’s Ball and the thirteenth Labour of Hercules!
John Curran is the long-time literary advisor to Agatha Christie's estate, often giving talks and appearing on documentaries about her life. He has spent the last few years unpicking the notebooks and deciphering Agatha Christie's handwriting for this, his first book.
Reviews
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全作品を知らないと分かりづらい
一番最初の、クリスティー女史が作品の構想を練っている場面。 筆者の想像だろうけれど、この本の中で一番面白かった。 実際こうだったに違いないと思えたほど。 最後に付いている主人公の未発表作2編は、 筆者の解説があった方がいいのか、 ない方がいいのか、意見が分かれると思う。 ストーリー自体はそんなにひどくないと思うので、 Poirotが好きな方には解説なしで読んだ方が楽しいと思う。 筆者の解説（突っ込みというか）を読むと、 「出版されなかった理由」が垣間見えてしまうので、 そういう裏事情などが好きな人にはお勧めだが。 上記2つに挟まれたこの本の本編に当たる部分は、 クリスティー作品を網羅した人でないと 面白さがわからないかもしれない。 コアなファン向けの解説書という感じだった。
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laisse un peu sur sa faim
finaelement on n'apprend pas grand chose de plus sur les romans policiers d'Agatha Christie, qui reste toujours aussi mystérieuse
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Ein Muss für Agatha Christie Fans
John Curran hat sich der Herkulesaufgabe gestellt, die zahlreichen ungeordneten und unsystematischen Notizbücher von Agatha Christie durchzugehen und so aufzubereiten, dass sie in gedruckter Form lesbar sind. Ich fand es faszinierend zu lesen, wie die berühmten Geschichten wie "Mord im Orientexpress" etc. entstanden sind und welche Wandlungen sie dabei durchgemacht haben. Außerdem sind in den Notizbüchern zwei bisher unveröffentlichte Poirot-Kurzgeschichten aufgetaucht. Wen es interessiert, wie der Verstand einer Krimiautorin bei der Arbeit funktioniert und auch wer selbst Ambitionen hat, einen Krimi zu schreiben, findet hier reichlich Stoff.
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A unique contribution to our knowledge of Agatha Christie's writing
Mr Curran has written a wonderful book to add a unique contribution to the vast collection of books about Agatha Christie. He has been given access to a collection of notebooks which Agatha Christie used to record her thoughts about her writing in progress. He has written in so much detail about these notebooks that the resulting text will give all Christie fans so much more insight into her thinking and planning for so many of her books. Details include much about her characters, name changes and plot changes during her writing and even facsimiles of diagrams she drew to note settings for individual stories (e.g. Death in the Clouds, Evil Under the Sun, Towards Zero) make for fascinating reading. Two 'new' undiscovered short stories are included in the book. There is so much more and I'm sure every Christie fan will find something new of interest. Sadly, there were no available notebooks covering 'Murder of Roger Ackroyd', 'Murder on the Orient Express' and a few others but this unavailability is, of course, not down to the author. An absolute must for all Christie fans to buy and a bargain at the reduced Amazon price.
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A good book to try to follow Agatha Christie's train of thought when writing.
Agatha Christie's Notebooks are a real treasure. The book includes outlines for most of her novels, pictures of pages and explanations by John Curran on the notes. It's a must for every lover of her works.
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Recommended
Lots of information in this book!
Related Literary Awards
- Agatha Awards Edition 23 (2010) ・Winner