The World Of Agatha Christie: The Facts And Fiction Of The World's Greatest Crime Writer

Description

In 1921, a publishing phenomenon began with the publication of "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", a sophisticated murder mystery with a protagonist by the name of Hercule Poirot. It was the first of more than 60 crime novels by Agatha Christie, and heralded the career of an author who went on to outsell even Shakespeare. Agatha Christie's works remain a literary phenomenon and many of her mysteries have been immortalized through sumptuous television and cinema adaptations. Christie herself was a discreet, private and ladylike person. Yet her life was far from dull: she travelled widely and in 1926 she hit the headlines when she disappeared, creating a mystery around her life as intriguing as any plot she had ever written. "The World of Agatha Christie" looks at this and other factors that have shaped her life, providing a colourful and informative look at the originator of the ingeniously constructed "whodunits". Revised and updated for 2012 and highly illustrated, "The World of Agatha Christie" is the perfect companion to the work of this most popular of mystery writers.

Author description

MARTIN FIDO was Andrew Bradley Junior Research Fellow in English Literature at Balliol College, Oxford in the 1960s, and thereafter taught English at the Universities of Leeds and the West Indies. He was also a visiting professor at Michigan State University. He now lives in Massachusetts and teaches at Boston University. His Short Illustrated Life of Dickens was hailed by The Dickensian as one of the two best books marking the centenary of Dickens' death. Besides his books on literature, he has published many articles dealing with nineteenth century novelists such as Dickens, Thackeray, Disraeli and Jane Austen, but is probably best known for his work on Jack the Ripper and his LBC Radio series "Murder After Midnight" which ran from 1987 to 2001.

Table of contents

Introduction; Time Chart; Family Tree; Chapter 1: The Life of Agatha Christie; Chapter 2: The Writer; Chapter 3: The Mind of Agatha Christie; Chapter 4: Adaptations; Index and Credits.