The modern taste in literature is firmly anchored in
mystery, and the grand novel in the style of Dickens, Tolstoy, or Flaubert lies
forgotten. But even the fabulously successful Ms Rowling and her Harry Potter
books cannot compete with the popularity of Agatha Christie, whose work
celebrates her 125th anniversary this year. Her 66 books have sold over two billion
copies, and have been translated into a hundred languages, a record matched
only by Shakespeare and the Bible. Her play, The Mousetrap – which incidentally
derives its title from Hamlet – opened in London’s West End in 1952, and
continues its unparalleled run at the Ambassador Theatre over all these
decades! This iconic play even interested the famous Tom Stoppard to write his
own The Real Inspector Hound!
Born in 1890 to an aristocratic English mother and a rich
American father, Agatha was educated at home in Torquay, a picturesque little
town in Devon. As a child, her interest in mystery was kindled by Edith Nesbit’s
famous children’s novel, The Railway Children, which describes the travails of
children whose father is wrongly convicted of spying. Her early attempts at
writing were rejected by several publishers, just like the first Harry Potter
book. Her aviator husband, Archibald Christie, who incidentally had been born
in India, thought her writing to be no more than a lady’s diversion.
Her first break came when she created her famous Belgian
detective, Hercule Poirot, in her book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, naming
the place after her own home. The book was an instant success. But heartbreak
was soon to follow, when her husband sought a divorce, having fallen in love
with another woman. Agatha disappeared, and the world sought the famous writer
of detective fiction, only to find her ten days later in Harrogate in
Yorkshire, distraught and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her writing and
her only daughter, Rosalind, helped her recover. She found happiness again in
her second marriage to the archaeologist Max Mallowan, many years her junior.
With him she travelled to the Middle East, and her experiences there gave rise
to a number of books based on the orient. She was to quip later that it was
great to be married to an archaeologist for his interest in her grew as she got
older!
Just as Conan Doyle grew tired of Sherlock Holmes, she got
fed up with Hercule Poirot and his prissy little ways, and his punctilious care
for himself and his waxed moustache. She created other characters, but none
caught the public’s fancy except for old Miss Marple who made her first
appearance in 1940 in The Murder at the Vicarage. Despite her reluctance,
Albert Finney made Poirot immortal on the screen. The 1974 movie, Murder on the
Orient Express, became a classic, starring an incredible cast of famous actors,
including Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Sir John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave,
Lauran Bacall, Michael York, Anthony Perkins, to name a few. Vanessa Redgrave
later played the role of Agatha in the film based on her mystery disappearance
in 1926. The great character actor, Charles Laughton, also immortalised a short
story of hers in the film, Witness for the Prosecution.
Agatha Christie’s most popular book though has neither
Hercule Poirot nor Miss Marple in it. And Then There Were None, with no
detective, remains a world favourite having been renamed, politically
correctly, from its earlier unfortunate title, Ten Little Niggers. Her
popularity has rested on her skills as a wordsmith, the unexpected twists she
gives to her plots, and the homely little touches she gives in her descriptions
of places and people as few male writers can do, and maybe not even PD James.
This month the publishing industry is marketing an Agatha
Christie celebration in the port town of Torquay, and undoubtedly it will be
very successful in terms of publishing and tourism. But what remains a mystery
of the times is the insatiable desire of people for mystery and fantasy. The
mystery novel found its birth in the 19th century with Wilkie
Collins’ The Moonstone – which was devoured eagerly by the teenaged Agatha –
and Emile Gaboriau’s police detective, Monsieur Lecoq. It established itself in
the forefront of literature with Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books, and swept
into America with the exploits of Ellery Queen and Perry Mason. The public
perhaps wished to be diverted from the miseries of industrialized urbanization,
and their wish was soon enflamed by Hollywood which gave them classical
escapist films during the Great Depression. Bollywood has not been far behind
in helping us forget reality with the pipe-dreams of fantasy. Even today’s
children seem to prefer the magic of Harry Potter to the real mysteries in
scientific exploration.
Vithal Rajan, Hyderabad, 15 Sept, 2015
