Very Short Introductions: Brilliant Sharp Inspiring Agatha Christie is a global bestseller.
Her work has been translated into over 100 languages and adapted for stage and screen.
Christie's writing life ran from 1920 to the 1970s and she didn't just write puzzles she
wrote plays supernatural stories thrillers satires and domestic noir. She also commented
obliquely but perceptively on the social and cultural changes of a troubled century. Christie's
work tells the story of a changing Britain but perhaps her greatest achievement is not to be
limited by that national context. Her stories achieve the rare feat of appearing both universal
and specific and can seemingly be adapted for almost any context. This Very Short
Introduction investigates why the novels of a middle-class middlebrow Englishwoman were so
successful and why they continue to appeal to such a broad range of readers. Chapters explore
the context of Christie's writing and the clue-puzzle detective fiction structure at which she
excelled but they also question the familiar assumptions that surround her and what we think
we know about her work. Gill Plain examines Christie's capacity to register the zeitgeist and
consider how her novels reveal anxieties surrounding gender roles the family war justice
ethics and nation. Her fascination with hypocrisy power abuse deceit and despair continues
to resonate with readers - and screenwriters - who respond to her light touch and dark
imagination to repurpose her stories with the fears and desires most appropriate to their time.
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