Agatha

Tuesday, July 09, 2024

High heat remains the topic locally. Today, I’ll return to work after a couple of days off. Guess what: I’m looking forward to being there. With very hot sunshine covering this area, hanging around the house is too warm. So is hanging around outside, with sunshine heating metal garbage can lids, making them too hot for bare hands.

High temperatures forced me to spend most of yesterday draped in an easy chair, facing a high-blowing fan. I had the self-assignment of focusing on Agatha Christie’s first published mystery novel, And Then There Were None. It’s a suitable read when weather conditions discourage concentrating.

I previously read just one of Christie’s books, and that was many years ago, back when I was a big admirer of Charlotte Bronte. In UCLA’s Library, I discovered and loved a book by Christie; no, not a mystery, but a brilliant exploration of Bronte’s life and talent. I noted Christie’s fine writing skills and appreciated her sensitivity and insightfulness toward Bronte.

I never was much interested in mystery stories, but then decided to someday read at least some of Christie’s fiction. This current story, And Then There Were None, became her first published novel. Reading it reminds me of her sparse and clean writing style. To progress the story, she disravels details carefully, one by one. She had to have planned, step-by-step, the mystery’s development and flow of events.

Experience is a great teacher, and I anticipate her following stories (some now waiting on my reading table) to be better designed with more gripping plots. If I weren’t expecting that to be, another great teacher, History, would help me “get it.”

Here’s why: Agatha Christe (1890-1976) wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections; research ranks her the bestselling author in history, reporting that only the Bible and Shakespeare have outsold her works.

I have learned that small everyday events and casual observations could become Christie’s ideas for new plots. She wove glimpses of life and her quick ideas into novels from endless notes in dozens of handwritten notebooks. She saw in her jotted erratic ideas potential plots and characters.

She reportedly dictated her initial drafts into a Dictaphone, leaving the typing to an assistant. She would then meticulously revise the typed manuscripts by hand and re-dictate the pages. To gauge audience reactions, Christie read chapters aloud to her family during dinnertimes. Her stories quickly moved from scribbled notes to finished products.

Dear Friends: I’m in awe, and will continue reading Christie and keeping you posted. Diana