General Discussion and News > Cozies
Agatha Christie's Poirot Short Stories
Ingrid:
David Suchet was fine. I never liked Sherlock Holmes and therefore did not watch the shows. Too much arrogance and a very flat personality. Mysteries no longer deal with the enigmantic all-knowing detective.
It occurs to me that Dame Rutherford is anything but cozy. And of course Christie didn't like her. Rutherford made fun of Christie's plots.
Ingrid
Kathy Wendorff:
Miss Marple is actually not a very cozy character. She sees sin and human frailty in everyone. Murderers are just like her neighbors and relatives -- that's how she solves her mysteries -- except they've gone a bit too far and taken lives. She's often saddened but never shocked by evil-doing.
And at least in the earlier books, other characters refer to her as a nasty prying old cat, and having a Victorian mind "like a sink" -- that is, a sewer -- in spite of her fluffy appearance.
She's my favorite Christie detective.
Kathy W.
Ingrid:
Yes, I like her, too. But the constant knitting, gardening, gossiping, prying among the countryhouse and vicarage set with their teas do make those books cozies. True, Christie remarks on the fact that evil may exist anywhere. She is, after all, writing about murder and that would otherwise seem rather odd in such other-worldly surroundings and among such mild-mannered people. Part of the appeal is the improbability of her scenarios.
Ingrid
Kathy Wendorff:
Oh, I agree the stories are cozies. I'm just saying, Miss Marple herself isn't the sweet-natured cozy little old lady some readers (and most of the other characters in the stories) assume she is.
And while the stories are certainly cozy in tone, I do think Christie's whole un-cozy point is that people everywhere are capable of evil. Which is perfectly true -- there are small-town domestic murders all the time, even if they're not as well-plotted as the ones in books.
There's an interesting book on Christie's mysteries ( "A Talent to Deceive; an Appreciation of Agatha Christie" by Robert Barnard ) which points out that she takes an unsentimental approach to her characters and uses readers' sympathies to misdirect them -- the murderer may well turn out to be the likable romantic interest, the comic relief major, even the narrator.
Kathy
Tosca:
It is common knowledge in England that Agatha Christie rather disliked Poirot and had to be encouraged to write more books about him. She wanted to kill him off quickly but he proved so popular she couldn't.
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