Brief biography of Agatha Christie. Biography of the famous writer Agatha Christie Biography of Agatha Christie written by herself

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The works of this writer in terms of the number of publications are second only to the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. The total circulation of her books is over four billion copies! From her pen came detective stories that, although written in the middle of the last century, are still relevant and interesting today.

Agatha Christie is the famous literary “mother” of detective Hercule Poirot and private detective lover Mrs. Marple. In ordinary life, she had only one daughter - Rosalind.

Agatha Christie (née Miller) was born into a family of wealthy immigrants to Devon from the United States. The youngest daughter in the family, she retained a strong attachment to her mother, Clara, throughout her life, trying not to disappoint her in anything and never. However, Agatha Christie herself held somewhat different views in raising her own daughter than her mother, who devoted herself entirely to her family and children. Young Agatha grew up in a very difficult years : the beginning of the century in Europe turned out to be difficult and warlike. Having received a good education at home, including music, the girl worked as a nurse in a hospital during the First World War. She liked this profession, and she spoke of it as one of the “most useful professions

that a person can do."

“There was also a period of work as a pharmacist in her life, which was clearly reflected later in her work: 83 murders in her detective stories were poisonings.

By the way, during her break from work, the girl began trying to write detective stories... Clara Miller believed that after the death of her husband (he died of pneumonia when Agatha was only 11 years old) the only way

Arranging a daughter's life means a successful marriage, because the inheritance was barely enough to pay off debts. Agatha, unlike her older sister, was considered a girl without special talents, although quite pretty.

Agatha, a girl from a decent family, with a good reputation and clear eyes, easily found a groom, also decent, but, unfortunately, very boring... Everything was already moving towards the realization of her mother’s dreams - a well-kept house, a garden, children. However, a handsome man and a womanizer appeared on the path of the future writer. Disaster struck: Agatha broke off the engagement and rushed to marry the pilot Archibald Christie.

Pictured: with Archibald Christie

“The marriage with Archibald, who was loving towards all the women around him, was not particularly happy, but it was he who became for Agatha the beginning of the two main things in her life - writing and motherhood. Yes, in that order: writing on the first, motherhood on the second.

In 1919, Agatha gave birth to a daughter, Rosalind. She plunged headlong into family life, which, due to the eternal lack of money, was difficult and not very comfortable. The husband earned good money, but spent even more, and when he was tired of his wife’s complaints, he, wanting to distract her, asked: “How are your detectives doing?” Remembering the publisher's letter offering her £25 to publish The Styles Mysterious, Christie decides to hand over the manuscript. The book was a success, and the aspiring writer realized that as long as she got paid, she would write. As is now clear, this decision was absolutely correct.

In the photo: Agatha with her daughter Rosalinda

But with the role of mother, everything was not so rosy. In her Autobiography, Agatha wrote:
“An honest mother should treat her offspring the way cats do: be satisfied with having given birth to them, nurtured them, and then return to own life. Is it really natural to continue caring for your offspring after they have grown up and entered the world? Animals don’t do that.”

Agatha Christie was not ready to become a mother like, for example, Clara, and put all of herself on the altar of raising her daughter. While Agatha writes novels and travels with her husband, her young daughter Rosalind is raised by Grandmother Clara and Aunt Madge, older sister Agates. Meeting her mother from another trip around the world, Rosalind ran into the arms not of her, but of her Aunt Madge, and cried bitterly when she handed her over to Agatha. Later, when the grandmother dies and the aunt has other life circumstances, the girl will end up in a boarding school, because, according to Agatha, “motherhood is merciless.”

“In first place, as Agatha’s mother Clara once taught her, she always had a husband. Later, when it turned out that Archie Christie was not able to support his family, Agatha’s writing career came first. And the writer’s daughter again found herself in last place .

Her biographers call Agatha’s relationship with her mother ideal—Agatha always dedicated Clara to her life. Even when leaving with her husband far from home, she did not break off her close relationship with her mother, she wrote detailed and very warm letters to her from afar, calling Clara in them “dear, dear mother.”

In the photo: Agatha with her mother, Clara Miller

The relationship with his daughter Rosalind was a mixture of love, remorse, disappointment and jealousy. Sadly, Agatha even considered her daughter’s dog, Peter, more her child than her own daughter. In one of her letters to her second husband, she says this: “Peter is my child, you know!”

"Agatha Christie adhered to the following views on motherhood: do not allow love for children to blind you; do not give them all of yourself without reserve; look at them objectively.

But who knows, maybe it was thanks to them that a relationship developed between mother and daughter that was more like the relationship between two partners and even friends? After all, it is from Rosalind that Agatha Christie asks for advice when she appears in her life. new man(The marriage to Archibald was dissolved in 1926 when he fell in love with another woman and demanded a divorce). In 1930, the writer met Max Mallowan, an archaeologist who was 14 years younger than her. And after some time, after the marriage proposal, it was the twelve-year-old daughter who stopped her mother’s hesitation.

When asked if she would mind if a man appeared in their house again, the girl replied: “I just wouldn’t want you to marry the colonel. And Max... In my opinion, this is the best. We could start our own boat. He plays tennis well. And it can be useful in many ways.”

Pictured: with Max Mallone

And it was Rosalind who was the only person who knew the secret of Mary Westmacott... Miss Mary Westmacott appeared in Agatha Christie's life in 1926: a charming blonde, very similar to Agatha in her youth. “A girl from a very good family, it seems, a distant relative of the famous sculptor Richard Westmacott, author of the Wellington monument in Hyde Park,” Agatha said about her. - Well-mannered - a real lady! He writes quite well, and, thank God, it’s not detective stories.”

"Christie invented this girl, hid behind her in order to write books in a different, non-detective genre. The only one Agatha initiated into Mary Westmacott's secret was her daughter Rosalind.

She collected clippings about the “young writer”, rules and sent manuscripts to the publishing house and did not tell a single living soul about it. And Agatha Christie herself, having revealed Miss Westmacott’s incognito, was in no hurry to tell how and why she came up with it.

Mother Agatha and daughter Rosalind walked hand in hand until the end of the writer’s life. Agatha Christie adored her grandson Matthew, born in 1943. “He has a special gift - to feel happy,” Agatha said about him.

In the photo: Agatha Christie with her daughter, grandson and husband

Rosalind before last days with rage and activity, which was difficult to expect from her, she defended her mother’s memory from any attacks, whether it was about her life or work. She wrote articles in newspapers and tried to control the activities of the Agatha Christie Limited company. She did not allow anyone to read her mother's letters or notebooks if they contained any hint of anything personal.

In the photo: Agatha and Rosalind

Rosalind Hicks died in 2004, and her son Matthew Pritchard became chief executive of Agatha Christie Limited. Immediately after her death, he told journalist Laura Thompson that “she was not proud of her mother and what she did.”
But Rosalind herself never said anything like that.

She has as many names as there are possible outcomes of the detective novels she wrote. In addition to the traditional name Agatha (which, by the way, is only the second, not the first), her parents gave her two more - Mary, and also Clarissa.

Moreover, Christy is not maiden name the writer who gave the world the greatest detective stories in the form of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Agatha Miller has written more than 60 detective novels, as well as two dozen plays and numerous collections of short stories. Need I say how often these literary works received all kinds of productions and film adaptations!

Childhood, girlhood and first marriage

The childhood city in which the famous writer was born is Torquay (Devon County), and the exact date of birth is September 15, 1890. Thanks to her wealthy parents (they were immigrants from the United States), Agatha received a thorough education at home.

Biographers unanimously emphasize the undoubted musical talents of the future star of the English detective genre. However, shyness stood between her and the fate of the performer, influencing her future biography. And then, when she turned 24, marriage entered her life, finally burying the opportunity to shine on stage.

Colonel Archibald Christie was the symbol of her love for several years; for the first time she saw Lieutenant Archibald in front of her, but only when he rose to the rank of colonel did their happiness together become a reality.

Agatha gave birth to her first husband, Rosalind, but this did not save the first marriage, which the future famous writer was awarded with fate. Her mother died in 1926, and two years later Archie insisted on a divorce. By that time he was already in love with another woman. It was a banal affair between two golf partners.

Agatha Christie was worried to the point of madness, which led her to memory loss. However, treatment at a boarding house helped her continue raising her beloved daughter. However, evil tongues claim that this was an attempt to take revenge on the dissolute ex-husband: the police found an empty car with collected things, and the ex-wife herself disappeared without a trace, and suspicion of a possible murder naturally fell on Archie. However, the matter never came to an arrest...

Start of career and second marriage

1920 was the year of her writing debut. Interestingly, before its publication, various British publishers rejected the opus of the future national literary star five times! Apparently, the beginning was inspiring, and the writer soon produced a whole series of novels with a Belgian detective as the main character.

Agatha invented the equally famous Miss Marple later. Subsequently, journalists repeatedly asked Christie the question of whether she herself was the prototype of her popular heroine? To which the writer invariably answered: they say, I don’t see any similarity between us!

According to her version, the attic of one of her grandmothers' house turned out to be the place where an old reticule was stored. All Agatha Christie did was free him from bread crumbs, two pennies and silk lace, and this served as the birth of the image of the famous detective.

In 1930, Agatha found a more serious candidate for a husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan. The young people met when Mrs. Christie was traveling in Iraq and came across excavations at Ur. Since then, the writer liked the Asian voyages so much that the couple annually visited Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The First World War began, and Agatha devoted herself to working in a hospital, and subsequently in a pharmacy. So it is not surprising her ability to understand poisons and professional knowledge in this area.

They say that when Agatha Christie met the future university professor in London, their love flared up like a dry camel thorn on a hot dune. And this despite the fact that Christie was already 40 at that time, and her chosen one turned out to be fifteen years younger.

They got married two months later and did not part for half a century! It was deep love and mutual respect that began with a honeymoon, which took place, among other things, across the territory of the USSR. This year was also the year of the birth of her deeply emancipated Miss Marple.

Subsequently, by the way, the writer said with a smile that she and her husband were both doing what they loved. And being the wife of an archaeologist, according to her, is wonderful because over the years a woman is of increasing interest to her chosen one.

Honor and respect, Hercule, Hastings and Marple

The dizzying career that followed gave the world numerous detective stories that later became classics. In 1958, the writer was awarded the right to head the Detective Club of Britain.

And in 1971 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the literary field. At the same time, Christie added a piece of the noble title “daim” to her three names. Alas, five years later she passed away. A cold eventually brought her to the cemetery in Cholsey. This happened in her native Wallingford (Oxfordshire).

To be fair, it should be noted that Agatha Christie copied her first pair of heroes from an equally famous pair. But, nevertheless, the writer managed to make them so original that this borrowing was soon forgotten.

On the contrary, it later became a rule of good manners to say that the intellectual Poirot and the somewhat comical, diligent and not very smart Hastings were worthy successors to the work of the English authors of the detective genre.

But the image of the old maid Marple, which Agatha later created, became the arithmetic mean of the heroines of her colleagues Braddon and Green. Christie led her Hercule from the very beginning of her (and his!) career (which began with The Mysterious Affair at Styles) through the twists and turns of 26 novels, until his “death”. This happened in 1975, when Christie’s career ended with “Curtain...” or last thing Poirot.

The mouthpiece of emancipation

However, her grandson Matthew Pritchard argued that the writer loved her detective more - a smart, old, traditional English lady. The secret is simple: Christie is an ardent advocate of emancipation. First of all, this was reflected in her usual field of activity.

Agatha Christie more than once put the postulates of emancipation into the mouths of her heroines. One who is familiar in the smallest details with the great literary heritage Christie will confirm that the theme of her novels has never been sexual crimes.

And scenes of violence, puddles of blood and a sea of ​​rudeness are not inherent in her work. This makes her imperishable works noticeably different from modern opuses of the detective genre. Agatha believed that all this unnecessary surroundings does not allow the reader to fully sympathize and distracts from the main topic.

It is interesting that, according to Christie herself, the undoubted pinnacle of her work is the story of ten little blacks. Moreover, the fictional island, where ominous and mysterious murders took place, has a very real “twin”. Agatha Christie "copied" the cliffs rising from the sea from Burgh, an island whose location is the south of England.

It was this novel that was destined to become a record holder for the number of copies sold. Political correctness, however, has brought its own changes to Christie’s creative process: its title has now been changed to “And Then There Were None.”

Throughout the reading world, she is given the title “Queen of Crime,” but Agatha herself has said more than once that she prefers the title “Duchess of Death.” Looking at the pretty photo elderly woman, it’s hard to believe that it was in her sophisticated brain that hundreds of murders were born. Curious but true: firearms in her literary delights she preferred poisons. In her opinion, they were excitingly attractive.

History has preserved the statement of her great admirer Winston Churchill, who once said that Christie made more money from the murders than any other woman, including the notorious Lucrezia Borgia.

Having rich biography, Agatha left behind a legacy that has been distributed around the world in more than a hundred languages ​​in more than two billion copies. Christie is an author whose books are the most widely read in the world.

And your social status She always defined herself as a housewife: one of the writer’s hobbies was real estate.

English Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, born Miller(English) Miller), better known by her first husband's surname as Agatha Christie

English writer; is one of the world's most famous authors of detective fiction

Agatha Christie

short biography

The full name of the writer, who is called the queen of detective stories, is Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, née Miller, but she is known throughout the world as Agatha Christie, after the surname of her first husband. He is one of the most popular detective authors. Her works rank third in number of publications after the Bible and William Shakespeare, and have been translated into more than a hundred languages. During her lifetime alone, her books were published in more than 120 million copies.

Agatha Christie born on September 15, 1890 in Torquay (Devon County) in a family of wealthy American immigrants. The Miller couple provided their children with a quality home education. If young Agatha had not been afraid of the stage, she could have become a musician.

First world war Agatha Miller worked as a nurse and did it with pleasure. She also had work as a pharmaceutical pharmacist, which later helped her repeatedly “kill” her literary characters through poisoning.

In 1914, Agatha Miller became Agatha Christie, marrying officer Archibald Christie. In 1920, her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is a version according to which she was forced to enter the path of writing detective stories by a bet with her older sister: Agatha wanted to prove that she could write a book that would be seen by the general public. The manuscript of an unknown writer was accepted only by the seventh publishing house, paying a very modest fee. Start creative path became very successful, the novel immediately made its author famous.

A striking and mysterious episode in the biography of A. Christie was her disappearance, which took place in December 1926. Her husband told her about his love for another woman, asked for a divorce, and after a quarrel with him about the whereabouts of the writer, who allegedly went to Yorkshire for 11 days nothing was known. The event caused considerable resonance. Then Christie was found in a modest spa hotel registered under the name of her husband’s mistress: she was diagnosed with amnesia, the cause of which was a head injury. The second version of the disappearance is connected with the desire to annoy the husband, to bring upon him the inevitable suspicion of murdering his wife.

In 1928, Agatha and Archibald divorced, but already in 1930, during a trip to Iraq, fate brought the famous writer together with the man with whom she lived until the end of her days. Her companion was the outstanding archaeologist Max Mallowan.

In 1956, A. Christie became a Knight of the Order of the British Empire, II degree. In 1965, the writer finished work on her autobiography, the last phrase of which was “Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that was given to me.” For services in the field of literary activity in 1971, Agatha Christie was awarded the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

During 1971-1974. Her health deteriorated more and more, but the writer did not stop working. There is an assumption (suggested by scientists from the University of Toronto based on a study of her writing style) that Christie had Alzheimer's disease. On January 12, 1976, she died at her home in Wallingford. She was buried in the village of Cholsi.

In the literary detective genre, which was popular before her, Agatha Christie became the creator of a new direction, placing emphasis on intelligence and brilliant intuition. These qualities are fully present in the characterization of her famous detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, to whom she devoted entire series. Christie's creative legacy includes more than seven dozen novels, 19 collections of short stories, and more than thirty plays, the most famous of which are The Mousetrap (1954) and The Witness for the Prosecution (1954). The first one is included in the Guinness Book of Records as a work that has withstood the maximum number of theatrical productions. Many films have been made based on the works of the “Queen of Detectives”.

Biography from Wikipedia

Childhood and first marriage

Her parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States. She was youngest daughter in the Miller family. The Miller family had two more children: Margaret Frary (1879-1950) and a son, Louis "Monty" Montan (1880-1929). Agatha received a good education at home, in particular music, and only stage fright prevented her from becoming a musician.

During the First World War, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital; she liked this profession and spoke of it as “ one of the most rewarding professions a person can engage in" She also worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, which subsequently left an imprint on her work: 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

Agatha married for the first time on Christmas Day in 1914 to Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had been in love for several years - even when he was a lieutenant. They had a daughter, Rosalind. This period marked the beginning of Agatha Christie's creative career. In 1920, Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is an assumption that the reason for Christie’s turn to the detective was a dispute with her older sister Madge (who had already proven herself to be a writer) that she, too, could create something worthy of publication. Only the seventh publishing house published the manuscript in a circulation of 2,000 copies. The aspiring writer received a fee of £25. In 1922, Agatha Christie and her husband circumnavigated the world. cruise along the route UK - Bay of Biscay - South Africa - Australia and New Zealand- Hawaiian Islands - Canada - USA - UK..

Disappearance

In 1926, Agatha's mother died. Late that year, Agatha Christie's husband Archibald admitted to infidelity and asked for a divorce because he had fallen in love with fellow golfer Nancy Neal. After an argument in early December 1926, Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving a letter to her secretary in which she claimed to be heading to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused a loud public outcry, since the writer already had fans of her work. For 11 days, nothing was known about Christie's whereabouts.

Agatha's car was found, and her fur coat was found inside. A few days later the writer herself was discovered. As it turned out, Agatha Christie registered under the name Teresa Neal at the small spa hotel Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now Old Swan Hotel). Christie gave no explanation for her disappearance, and two doctors diagnosed her with amnesia caused by a head injury. The reasons for the disappearance of Agatha Christie were analyzed by British psychologist Andrew Norman in his book The Finished Portrait, where he, in particular, argues that the hypothesis of traumatic amnesia does not stand up to criticism, since Agatha Christie's behavior indicated the opposite: she registered in a hotel under the name of her husband’s beloved, she spent time playing the piano, spa treatments, and visiting the library. However, after examining all the evidence, Norman came to the conclusion that there was a dissociative fugue caused by a severe mental disorder.

Despite mutual affection at the beginning, Archibald and Agatha Christie's marriage ended in divorce in 1928.
In her novel The Unfinished Portrait, published in 1934 under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, Agatha Christie describes events similar to her own disappearance.

Second marriage and later years

In 1930, while traveling around Iraq, at excavations in Ur, she met her future husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. He was 15 years younger than her. Agatha Christie said about her marriage that for an archaeologist a woman should be as old as possible, because then her value increases significantly. Since then, she periodically spent several months a year in Syria and Iraq on expeditions with her husband; this period of her life was reflected in the autobiographical novel “Tell How You Live.” Agatha Christie lived in this marriage for the rest of her life, until her death in 1976.

Thanks to Christie's trips to the Middle East with her husband, several of her works took place there. Other novels (such as Ten Little Indians) were set in or around Torquay, Christie's birthplace. The 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express was written at the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. Room 411 of the hotel where Agatha Christie lived is now her memorial museum. Estate The Greenway Estate in Devon, which the couple bought in 1938, is protected by the National Trust.

Christie often stayed at the mansion Abney Hall in Cheshire, which belonged to James Watts, her sister's husband. Action by at least Two of Christie’s works took place on this estate: “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding,” a story also included in the collection of the same name, and the novel “After the Funeral.” “Abney became an inspiration to Agatha; hence the descriptions of such places as Stiles, Chimneys, Stonegates, and other houses, which in one degree or another represent Abney, were taken.”

In 1956, Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 1971, Agatha Christie was awarded the title of Lady Commander(English Dame Commander) of the Order of the British Empire, the holders of which also acquire the noble title “dame”, used before the name. Three years earlier, in 1968, Agatha Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was also awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements in the field of archaeology.

In 1958, the writer headed the English Detective Club.

Between 1971 and 1974, Christie's health began to deteriorate, but despite this, she continued to write. Experts from the University of Toronto examined Christie's writing style during these years and suggested that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

In 1975, when she was completely weakened, Christie transferred all rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson.

The writer died on January 12, 1976 at home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire after a short cold and was buried in the village of Cholsey.

Agatha Christie's autobiography, which the writer graduated in 1965, ends with the words: “ Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that has been given to me.».

Christie's only daughter, Rosalind Margaret Hicks, also lived to be 85 years old and died on October 28, 2004 in Devon. Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, inherited the rights to some of Agatha Christie's literary works, and his name is still associated with the foundation. Agatha Christie Limited».

Creation

One Indian correspondent who interviewed me (and admittedly asked a lot of stupid questions) asked: “Have you ever published a book that you consider to be frankly bad?” I answered indignantly: “No!” No book came out exactly as intended, was my answer, and I was never satisfied, but if my book had turned out to be really bad, I would never have published it.

Agatha Christie "Autobiography"

In an interview with the British television company BBC in 1955, Agatha Christie said that she spent her evenings knitting with friends or family, while in her head she was busy thinking about a new storyline, by the time she sat down to write a novel, the plot was ready from start to finish. By her own admission, the idea for a new novel could have come anywhere. Ideas were entered into a special notebook full of various notes about poisons and newspaper articles about crimes. The same thing happened with the characters. One of the characters created by Agatha had a real-life prototype - Major Ernest Belcher, who at one time was the boss of Agatha Christie's first husband, Archibald Christie. It was he who became the prototype for Pedler in the 1924 novel “The Man in the Brown Suit” about Colonel Race.

Agatha Christie was not afraid to address social issues in her works. For example, at least two of Christie's novels (The Five Little Pigs and Ordeal by Innocence) described cases of miscarriages of justice associated with death penalty. In general, many of Christie’s books describe various negative aspects of English justice of that time.

The writer has never made crimes of a sexual nature the theme of her novels. Unlike today's detective stories, there are practically no scenes of violence, pools of blood or rudeness in her works. “The detective story was a story with a moral. Like everyone who wrote and read these books, I was against the criminal and for the innocent victim. No one could have imagined that the time would come when detective stories would be read for the scenes of violence described in them, for the sake of obtaining sadistic pleasure from cruelty for the sake of cruelty ... "- this is what she wrote in her autobiography. In her opinion, such scenes dull the feeling of compassion and do not allow the reader to focus on the main theme of the novel.

Agatha Christie considered her best work to be the novel “Ten Little Indians.” The rocky islet on which the novel takes place is copied from life - this is the island of Burgh in southern Britain. Readers also appreciated the book - it has the largest sales in stores, but to comply with political correctness it is now sold under the title And Then There Were None- “And there was no one.”

In her work, Agatha Christie demonstrates the conservatism of her political views, which is quite typical for the English mentality. A striking example serves as the story “The Clerk’s Story” from the series about Parker Pyne, about one of the heroes of which it is said: “He had some kind of Bolshevik complex.” A number of works - "The Big Four", "The Orient Express", "The Captivity of Cerberus" - feature immigrants from the Russian aristocracy, who enjoy the author's unfailing sympathy. In the aforementioned story, "The Clerk's Tale," Mr. Pine's client becomes involved in a group of agents who are passing secret blueprints of Britain's enemies to the League of Nations. But according to Pine’s decision, a legend is invented for the hero that he is carrying jewelry that belongs to a beautiful Russian aristocrat and saves them together with the owner from agents of Soviet Russia.

Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple

In 1920 Christie published his first Detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which had previously been rejected by British publishers five times. Soon she has a whole series of works in which the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot acts: 33 novels, 1 play and 54 stories.

Continuing the tradition of the English masters of the detective genre, Agatha Christie created a pair of heroes: the intellectual Hercule Poirot and the comical, diligent, but not very smart Captain Hastings. If Poirot and Hastings were largely copied from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, then the old maid Miss Marple is a collective image reminiscent of the main characters of the writers M. Z. Braddon and Anna Catherine Green.

Miss Marple appeared in the 1927 short story " Evening club "Tuesday"“” (eng. The Tuesday Night Club). The prototype of Miss Marple was Agatha Christie’s grandmother, who, according to the writer, “was a good-natured person, but always expected the worst from everyone and everything, and with frightening regularity her expectations were justified.”

Like Arthur Conan Doyle from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie was tired of her hero Hercule Poirot by the end of the 1930s, but unlike Conan Doyle, she did not decide to “kill” the detective while he was at the peak of his popularity. According to the writer’s grandson, Matthew Pritchard, of the characters she invented, Christie liked Miss Marple more - “an old, smart, traditional English lady.”

During the Second World War, Christie wrote two novels, The Curtain (1940) and The Sleeping Murder, with which she intended to end the series of novels about Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. However, the books were not published until the 1970s.

Other Agatha Christie detectives

Colonel Reis(eng. Colonel Race) appears in four novels by Agatha Christie. The Colonel is an agent of British intelligence, he travels around the world in search of international criminals. Reis is a member of MI5's spy department. He is a tall, well-built, tanned man.

He first appears in the novel " Man in a brown suit", a spy detective story set in South Africa. He also appears in two Hercule Poirot novels, Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile, where he assists Poirot in his investigation. IN last time he appears in the 1944 novel Sparkling Cyanide, where he investigates the murder of an old friend. In this novel, Reis has already reached old age.

Parker Pine(English Parker Pyne) - the hero of 12 stories included in the collection " Parker Pine investigates", and also partially in the collections " The Secret of the Regatta and other stories" And " Trouble in Pollensa and other stories" The Parker Pyne series is not detective fiction in the generally accepted sense. The plot is usually not based on a crime, but on the story of Pine's clients who, for various reasons, are unhappy with their lives. It is these dissatisfaction that brings clients to Pine's agency. In this series of works, Miss Lemon first appears, who leaves her job with Pine to become a secretary to Hercule Poirot.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford(eng. Tommy and Tuppence Beresford), full names Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley - young married couple amateur detectives, first appearing in the 1922 novel The Mysterious Assailant, not yet married. They begin their lives with blackmail (for money and out of interest), but soon discover that private investigation brings more money and pleasures. In 1929, Tuppence and Tomie appear in the collection of short stories "Partners in Crime", in 1941 in " N or M?", in 1968 in " Click your finger just once", and for the last time in the novel " Gate of Fate 1973, which was the last Agatha Christie novel written, although not the last published. Unlike the rest of Agatha Christie's detectives, Tommy and Tuppence age along with the real world and with each subsequent novel. So, to latest novel, where they appear, they are nearly seventy.

Superintendent Battle(English: Superintendent Battle) - detective, hero of five novels. Battle is entrusted with sensitive cases related to secret societies and organizations, as well as cases affecting the interests of the state and state secrets. The Superintendent is a highly successful Scotland Yard employee; he is a cultured and intelligent policeman who rarely shows his emotions. Christie says little about him: thus, Battle’s name remains unknown. About Battle's family it is known that his wife's name is Mary, and that they have five children.

Inspector Narracott is a detective, the hero of the novel “The Riddle of Sittaford”.

Main literary heroes

• Miss Marple
• Hercule Poirot
• Captain Hastings
• Miss Lemon (Poirot's secretary)
• Chief Inspector Japp
• Ariadne Oliver
• Superintendent Battle
• Colonel Reis
• Tommy and Tuppence Beresford

Also other detectives who appeared in just one collection of detective stories:

• Parker Pine
• Harley Keene
• Mr Satterthwaite

About Agatha Christie

• Hack R. Duchess of Death. Biography of Agatha Christie / Trans. from English M. Makarova. - M.: KoLibri, Azbuka-Atticus, 2011. - 480 pp., 5000 copies.
• Tsimbaeva E. N. Agatha Christie. - M.: Young Guard, 2013. - 346, p., l. ill. - (Life wonderful people. Small series; Vol. 44). - 5000 copies.

Memory

• In 1985, the Christie crater on Venus was named in her honor.
• On November 25, 2012, to mark the 60th anniversary of the play “The Mousetrap,” a monument to Agatha Christie is planned to be opened in the theater district of London, in the very center of Covent Garden (sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies)
• In 1985, the Russian rock group Agatha Christie was named in her honor.

Computer games

A trilogy was released based on Agatha Christie's books. computer games in the quest genre, as well as casual games.

Spy novel, autobiography

Lady Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan(English) Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan), born Miller(eng. Miller), better known by the name of her first husband as Agatha Christie(September 15, Torquay, UK - January 12, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK) - English writer.

She is one of the world's most famous authors of detective prose; her works have become some of the most published in the history of mankind (second only to the Bible and the works of Shakespeare).

Christie published more than 60 detective novels, 6 psychological novels (under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott or Westmacott), and 19 collections of short stories. 16 of her plays were staged in London.

Agatha Christie's books have been published in over 4 billion copies and translated into more than 100 languages.

She also holds the record for the maximum number of theatrical productions of a work. Agatha Christie's play "The Mousetrap" was first staged in 1952 and is still shown continuously. At the ten-year anniversary of the play at the Ambassador Theater in London, in an interview with ITN television, Agatha Christie admitted that she did not consider the play the best to be staged in London, but the public liked it, and she herself went to the play several times a year.

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Biography

Childhood and first marriage

Her parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States. She was the youngest daughter in the Miller family. The Miller family had two more children: Margaret Frary (1879-1950) and a son, Louis "Monty" Montan (1880-1929). Agatha received a good education at home, in particular music, and only stage fright prevented her from becoming a musician.

During the First World War, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital; she liked this profession and spoke of it as “ one of the most rewarding professions a person can engage in". She also worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, which subsequently left an imprint on her work: 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

Agatha married for the first time on Christmas Day in 1914 to Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had been in love for several years - even when he was a lieutenant. They had a daughter, Rosalind. This period marked the beginning of Agatha Christie's creative career. Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920. There is an assumption that the reason for Christie’s turn to the detective was a dispute with her older sister Madge (who had already proven herself to be a writer) that she, too, could create something worthy of publication. Only the seventh publishing house published the manuscript in a circulation of 2,000 copies. The aspiring writer received a fee of £25.

Disappearance

Between 1971 and 1974, Christie's health began to deteriorate, but despite this, she continued to write. Experts at the University of Toronto examined Christie's writing style during these years and suggested that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

In 1975, when she was completely weakened, Christie transferred all rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson.

The autobiography of Agatha Christie, which the writer graduated in 1965, ends with the words: “ Thank you, Lord, for my good life and for all the love that has been given to me.».

Christie's only daughter, Rosalind Margaret Hicks (eng. Rosalind Margaret Hicks) also lived to be 85 years old and died on October 28, 2004 in Devon. Agatha Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, inherited the rights to some of Agatha Christie's literary works, and his name is still associated with the foundation. Agatha Christie Limited».

Creation

In an interview with the British television company BBC in 1955, Agatha Christie said that she spent her evenings knitting with friends or family, while in her head she was busy thinking about a new storyline, by the time she sat down to write a novel, the plot was ready from start to finish. By her own admission, the idea for a new novel could have come anywhere. Ideas were entered into a special notebook full of various notes about poisons and newspaper articles about crimes. The same thing happened with the characters. One of the characters created by Agatha had a real-life prototype - Major Ernest Belcher, who at one time was the boss of Agatha Christie's first husband, Archibald Christie. It was he who became the prototype for Pedler in the 1924 novel “The Man in the Brown Suit” about Colonel Race.

Agatha Christie was not afraid to address social issues in her works. For example, at least two of Christie's novels (The Five Little Pigs and Ordeal by Innocence) depicted miscarriages of justice involving the death penalty. In general, many of Christie’s books describe various negative aspects of English justice of that time.

The writer has never made crimes of a sexual nature the theme of her novels. Unlike today's detective stories, there are practically no scenes of violence, pools of blood or rudeness in her works. “The detective story was a story with a moral. Like everyone who wrote and read these books, I was against the criminal and for the innocent victim. No one could have imagined that the time would come when detective stories would be read for the scenes of violence described in them, for the sake of obtaining sadistic pleasure from cruelty for the sake of cruelty ... "- this is what she wrote in her autobiography. In her opinion, such scenes dull the feeling of compassion and do not allow the reader to focus on the main theme of the novel.

Agatha Christie considered her best work to be the novel “Ten Little Indians.” The rocky islet on which the novel takes place is copied from life - this is the island of Burgh in southern Britain. Readers also appreciated the book - it has the largest sales in stores, but to comply with political correctness it is now sold under the title And Then There Were None- “And there was no one.”

In her work, Agatha Christie demonstrates the conservatism of her political views, which is quite typical for the English mentality. A striking example is the story “The Clerk's Story” from the series about Parker Pyne, about one of the heroes of which it is said: “He had some kind of Bolshevik complex.” A number of works - "The Big Four", "The Orient Express", "The Captivity of Cerberus" - feature immigrants from the Russian aristocracy, who enjoy the author's unfailing sympathy. In the aforementioned story, "The Clerk's Tale," Mr. Pine's client becomes involved in a group of agents who are passing secret blueprints of Britain's enemies to the League of Nations. But according to Pine’s decision, a legend is invented for the hero that he is carrying jewelry that belongs to a beautiful Russian aristocrat and saves them together with the owner from agents of Soviet Russia.

Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple

Inspector Narracott is a detective, the hero of the novel “The Riddle of Sittaford”.

List of works

• - Agatha Christie: The Alphabet Murders (not published in Russia)

Agatha Christie in films

In the fourth season of the British television series Doctor Who, the Doctor and his companion Donna meet Agatha on the day of her disappearance. The series tells about the events that happened to Agatha these days. The Doctor and Donna also give her ideas about creating Miss Marple and the book Death in the Clouds.

In the second season of the Spanish television series Grand Hotel, one of the main characters, Alicia Alarcon, meets a young girl, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, who is interested in writing detective stories.

see also

• The Agatha Christie Hour

Notes

1. ID BNF: Open Data Platform - 2011.
2. Encyclopædia Britannica
3. SNAC - 2010.
4. Edited Guide Entry(English) . BBC Home (9 August 2001). Retrieved April 8, 2010. Archived August 25, 2011.
5. Author Spotlight: Agatha Christie(English) (undefined). BookClubs. Retrieved April 8, 2010. Archived August 25, 2011.
6. Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (Miller) (undefined) . People (September 26, 2007). Retrieved April 8, 2010. Archived August 25, 2011.
7. Newspaper “Book Review” 2012, No. 17
8. Report from the ITN television company about the anniversary of “Mousetraps” in 1962 (video)(English) (undefined). ITN. Retrieved April 8, 2010.

Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan (Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan), née Miller (Miller), better known by the name of her first husband as Agatha Christie was born September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon.

Her parents were wealthy immigrants from the United States. She was the youngest daughter. The Miller family had two more children: Margaret Frary (1879-1950) and a son, Louis "Monty" Montan (1880-1929). Agatha received a good education at home, in particular music, and only stage fright prevented her from becoming a musician.

During the First World War, Agatha worked as a nurse in a hospital; she loved the profession and described it as “one of the most rewarding professions a person can engage in.” She also worked as a pharmacist in a pharmacy, which subsequently left an imprint on her work: 83 crimes in her works were committed through poisoning.

Agatha got married for the first time on Christmas Day in 1914 for Colonel Archibald Christie, with whom she had been in love for several years - even when he was a lieutenant. They had a daughter, Rosalind. This period marked the beginning of Agatha Christie's creative career. In 1920 Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published. There is an assumption that the reason for Christie’s turn to the detective was a dispute with her older sister Madge (who had already proven herself to be a writer) that she, too, could create something worthy of publication. Only the seventh publishing house published the manuscript in a circulation of 2,000 copies. The aspiring writer received a fee of £25. In 1922 Together with her husband, Agatha Christie made a round-the-world sea voyage along the route Great Britain - Bay of Biscay - South Africa - Australia and New Zealand - Hawaiian Islands - Canada - USA - Great Britain.

In 1926 Agatha's mother died. Late that year, Agatha Christie's husband Archibald admitted to infidelity and asked for a divorce because he had fallen in love with fellow golfer Nancy Neal. After a quarrel early December 1926 Agatha disappeared from her home, leaving a letter to her secretary in which she stated that she was heading to Yorkshire. Her disappearance caused a loud public outcry, since the writer already had fans of her work. For 11 days, nothing was known about Christie's whereabouts.

Agatha's car was found, and her fur coat was found inside. A few days later the writer herself was discovered. As it turns out, Agatha Christie registered under the name Teresa Neil at the small spa hotel Swan Hydropathic Hotel (now Old Swan Hotel). Christie gave no explanation for her disappearance, and two doctors diagnosed her with amnesia caused by a head injury.

Despite mutual affection at the beginning, Archibald and Agatha Christie's marriage ended in divorce in 1928.

In 1930 While traveling around Iraq, at excavations in Ur, she met her future husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. He was 15 years younger than her. Agatha Christie said about her marriage that for an archaeologist a woman should be as old as possible, because then her value increases significantly. Since then, she periodically spent several months a year in Syria and Iraq on expeditions with her husband; this period of her life was reflected in the autobiographical novel “Tell How You Live.” Agatha Christie lived in this marriage for the rest of her life.

Thanks to Christie's trips to the Middle East with her husband, several of her works took place there. Other novels (such as Ten Little Indians) were set in or around Torquay, Christie's birthplace. Novel "Murder on the Orient Express" ( 1934) was written at the Hotel Pera Palace in Istanbul (Türkiye). Room 411 of the hotel where Agatha Christie lived is now her memorial museum. The Greenway Estate in Devon, which the couple bought in 1938, is under the protection of the Society for the Preservation of Monuments (National Trust).

Christie often stayed at the mansion Abney Hall in Cheshire, which belonged to James Watts, her sister's husband. At least two of Christie's works were set on this estate.

In 1956 Agatha Christie was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 1971 For her achievements in the field of literature, Agatha Christie was awarded the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the holders of which also acquire the noble title “lady”, used before their name. Three years earlier in 1968 Agatha Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was also awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the British Empire for his achievements in the field of archaeology.

In 1958 The writer headed the English Detective Club.

Between 1971 and 1974 Christie's health began to deteriorate, but despite this, she continued to write. Experts from the University of Toronto examined Christie's writing style during these years and suggested that Agatha Christie suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

In 1975 When she became completely weak, Christie transferred all rights to her most successful play, The Mousetrap, to her grandson.

The writer died January 12, 1976 at her home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire after suffering from a short cold and was buried in the village of Cholsey.

Agatha Christie's books have been published in over 4 billion copies and translated into more than 100 languages.

She also holds the record for the maximum number of theatrical productions of a work. Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap was staged for the first time in 1952 and is still on continuous display today.

In 1920 Christie publishes her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which had previously been rejected by British publishers five times. Soon she has a whole series of works in which the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot acts: 33 novels, 1 play and 54 stories.

Continuing the tradition of the English masters of the detective genre, Agatha Christie created a pair of heroes: the intellectual Hercule Poirot and the comical, diligent, but not very smart Captain Hastings. If Poirot and Hastings were largely copied from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, then the old maid Miss Marple is a collective image reminiscent of the main heroines of the writers M.Z. Braddon and Anna Catherine Green.

Miss Marple appeared in the story 1927 of the year “The Tuesday Night Club”. The prototype of Miss Marple was Agatha Christie’s grandmother, who, according to the writer, “was a good-natured person, but always expected the worst from everyone and everything, and with frightening regularity her expectations were justified.”

Like Arthur Conan Doyle from Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie was tired of her hero Hercule Poirot by the end of the 1930s, but unlike Conan Doyle, she did not decide to “kill” the detective while he was at the peak of his popularity. According to the writer’s grandson, Matthew Pritchard, of the characters she invented, Christie liked Miss Marple more - “an old, smart, traditional English lady.”

During World War II, Christie wrote two Curtain novels ( 1940 ) and "Sleeping Murder", which was intended to end the series of novels about Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, respectively. However, the books were published only in the 1970s.

Other Agatha Christie detectives:

Colonel Race appears in four Agatha Christie novels. The Colonel is an agent of British intelligence, he travels around the world in search of international criminals. Reis is a member of MI5's spy department. He is a tall, well-built, tanned man.

He first appears in The Man in the Brown Suit, a spy mystery set in South Africa. He also appears in two Hercule Poirot novels, Cards on the Table and Death on the Nile, where he assists Poirot in his investigation. He appears for the last time in the novel 1944 "Shimmering Cyanide", where he investigates the murder of his old friend. In this novel, Reis has already reached old age.

Parker Pyne is the hero of 12 stories included in the collection Parker Pyne Investigates, as well as partially in the collections The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories and Trouble in Pollensa and Other Stories. The Parker Pyne series is not detective fiction in the generally accepted sense. The plot is usually not based on a crime, but on the story of Pine's clients who, for various reasons, are unhappy with their lives. It is these dissatisfaction that brings clients to Pine's agency. In this series of works, Miss Lemon first appears, who leaves her job with Pine to become a secretary to Hercule Poirot.

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, full names Thomas Beresford and Prudence Cowley, are a young married couple of amateur detectives who first appear in the novel The Mysterious Assailant. 1922 years, not yet married. They begin their lives with blackmail (for money and out of interest), but soon discover that private investigation brings more money and pleasure. In 1929, Tuppence and Tomie appeared in the short story collection Partners in Crime, in 1941 in N or M?, in 1968 in Snap Your Finger Just Once, and most recently in the 1973 novel The Gates of Doom. , which was the last Agatha Christie novel written, although not the last published. Unlike the rest of Agatha Christie's detectives, Tommy and Tuppence age along with the real world and with each subsequent novel. So, by the last novel where they appear, they are nearly seventy.