Dame Agatha Christie

Here's a special post about Agatha Christie.

Agatha Christie is one of the best-known crime and detective fiction writers. She is also one of the most popular writers of all time. Her books were regular bestsellers in both England and America and have been adapted in many film and television versions.

Agatha Christie began writing during World War I when she was working as a nurse. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles (1920), featured Hercule Poirot, who, with Jane Marple, would become one of her best known characters. The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd (1926) was her first big seller and she went on to write over 80 novels and collections of short stories which have been translated into over 50 languages. She also wrote nineteen plays, one of which, The Mousetrap, has had the longest run in theatrical history, at over 23000 performances spanning around fifty years.

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay, a seaside resort in Devonshire, England. In 1915 she married Archie Christie and in 1919 her daughter Rosalind was born. In 1928 she and Archie divorced, but two years later she married Max Mallowan, an eminent archaeologist. In 1956 she was given a CBE. In 1966 her husband was knighted and she became Dame Agatha Christie a few years later in 1971. She died in 1976.

Agatha Christie’s books are characterized by clever plotting and unexpected endings, however, they are predominantly murder mysteries and horror stories and are therefore to some degree frightening. She doesn’t dwell unnecessarily on the murder scenes, but they are still scary. The centre of every plot often involves adultery or jealousy and most of the characters are not good role models. That said, her books are gripping and the writing is good quality. Agatha Christie is not called “the queen of crime” for nothing.

For teens, Agatha Christie’s books are good to start on at about age fifteen. Some of the books are quite frightening but they are certainly worth reading. There are quite a lot of them (over 80), so get started early. You can find a list of them all here:

www.squidoo.com/agatha-christies-booklist

Or here:

www.agathachristie.com/

An Interesting Speech - Owning Books by William Lyon Phelps

This is a speech given in 1933 by William Lyon Phelps all about owning books. I haven't been able to write a review for this week as I have been in bed with a terrible cough and sore throat, so I hope this is all right for now. Enjoy! 

The habit of reading is one of the greatest resources of mankind; and we enjoy reading books that belong to us much more than if they are borrowed. A borrowed book is like a guest in the house; it must be treated with punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under your roof. You cannot leave it carelessly, you cannot mark it, you cannot turn down the pages, you cannot use it familiarly. And then, some day, although this is seldom done, you really ought to return it.

But your own books belong to you; you treat them with that affectionate intimacy that annihilates formality. Books are for use, not for show; you should own no book that you are afraid to mark up, or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down. A good reason for marking favorite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember more easily the significant sayings, to refer to them quickly, and then in later years, it is like visiting a forest where you once blazed a trail. You have the pleasure of going over the old ground, and recalling both the intellectual scenery and your own earlier self.

Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth; the instinct of private property, which is fundamental in human beings, can here be cultivated with every advantage and no evils. One should have one's own bookshelves, which should not have doors, glass windows, or keys; they should be free and accessible to the hand as well as to the eye. The best of mural decorations is books; they are more varied in color and appearance than any wallpaper, they are more attractive in design, and they have the prime advantage of being separate personalities, so that if you sit alone in the room in the firelight, you are surrounded with intimate friends. The knowledge that they are there in plain view is both stimulating and refreshing. You do not have to read them all. Most of my indoor life is spent in a room containing six thousand books; and I have a stock answer to the invariable question that comes from strangers. "Have you read all of these books?" "Some of them twice." This reply is both true and unexpected.

There are of course no friends like living, breathing, corporeal men and women; my devotion to reading has never made me a recluse. How could it? Books are of the people, by the people, for the people. Literature is the immortal part of history; it is the best and most enduring part of personality. But book-friends have this advantage over living friends; you can enjoy the most truly aristocratic society in the world whenever you want it. The great dead are beyond our physical reach, and the great living are usually almost as inaccessible; as for our personal friends and acquaintances, we cannot always see them. Perchance they are asleep, or away on a journey. But in a private library, you can at any moment converse with Socrates or Shakespeare or Carlyle or Dumas or Dickens or Shaw or Barrie or Galsworthy. And there is no doubt that in these books you see these men at their best. They wrote for you. They "laid themselves out," they did their ultimate best to entertain you, to make a favorable impression. You are necessary to them as an audience is to an actor; only instead of seeing them masked, you look into their innermost heart of heart.

William Lyon Phelps, The World's Greatest Speeches, Dover Pub. 1973.

The Young Visiters By Daisy Ashford

Ratings:

Age Group: all ages. Availability: public domain, so available online. Cleanliness: 10/10. Overall: *****

Review:

Written in the 1890’s, The Young Visiters, by nine-year-old Daisy Ashford, is the story of elderly Mr. Salteena (42) and his adventures with his young friend Ethel Monticue. Besides visiting the country house of Bernard, they visit London and the ‘Crystale Pallace” and have a wonderful time. As well as being extremely funny, the book provides a charming glimpse into the late Victorian period through the eyes of a young child. Miss Ashford includes a lot of small details, like Ethel’s “golden gurdle and a very chick tocque” and her use of “ruge” that, together with the interesting storyline, really make the story a gripping read. Although it was written in the late 1890’s in an old exercise book, it was not rediscovered and published until 1917. In its first year alone, there were 18 reprintings of it, such was its popularity. Since then it has been loved by children of all ages and especially by adults, to whom the eccentric spelling and simple plot are most charming. It is also interesting to note that Miss Ashford’s original spelling, punctuation and paragraph spacing has been preserved and greatly adds to the charm of the book. Best known by British audiences, anyone who has a love of Victorian Britain will enjoy this portrait of it as seen through the young author’s eyes.  

In 2003 The Young Visiters was made into a highly entertaining and humorous film starring Jim Broadbent, Hugh Laurie and Geoffrey Palmer, among others. It is extremely enjoyable and true to the original spirit of the book. I have been able to find the film in my local library and it is well worth watching if you enjoy the book. 

Nota Bene: The book is a bit hard to find in book form outside of Britain, but Project Gutenberg has it in several downloadable forms (see the link on the right).

Quotes For Early Spring

Supposedly it is spring here in Victoria, but it sure doesn't look like it. Yesterday we had hail and torrential rain and today it was horribly grey and rainy. Oh well! Here's a couple of spring-themed quotes:

If there comes a little thaw,

Still the air is chill and raw,

Here and there a patch of snow,

Dirtier than the ground below,

Dribbles down a marshy flood;

Ankle-deep you stick in mud

In the meadows while you sing,

"This is Spring."
Christopher Pearce Cranch, A Spring Growl

Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.

Doug Larson

I may not have a shoeful of slush, but I certainly feel like whistling, especially after I saw birds going in and out of our birdhouses. Hopefully the sunshine will follow the spring-like feelings!

~Alice