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Agatha Christie's fictional universe

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In Agatha Christie's mystery novels, several characters cross over different sagas, creating a fictional universe in which most of her stories are set. This article has one table to summarize the novels with characters who occur in other Christie novels; the table is titled Crossovers by Christie. There is brief mention of characters crossing over in adaptations of the novels. Her publications, both novels and short stories, are then listed by main detective, in order of publication. Some stories or novels authorised by the estate of Agatha Christie, using the characters she created, and written long after Agatha Christie died, are included in the lists.

Her novels under the pen name Mary Westmacott and her nonfiction books are not covered in this article.

One notable example of characters from one novel appearing in another is the novel The Pale Horse, which featured no fewer than five cross-over characters: Ariadne Oliver, Major Despard and his wife Rhoda (all had previously appeared in the Poirot mystery Cards on the Table; although Mrs Oliver appeared in numerous later Poirot mysteries) and the Rev and Mrs Dane Calthrop (who were seen in the Miss Marple mystery The Moving Finger).[1]

List of cross-overs

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Crossovers by Christie

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Story Length Year Crossing-over characters
The Secret Adversary Novel 1922 Tommy and Tuppence, Albert Batt, A. Carter, James Japp
The Mystery of the Blue Train Novel 1928 Hercule Poirot, Katherine Grey (who lives in St. Mary Mead), Mr. Goby
The Case of the Discontented Soldier Short story 1932 Parker Pyne, Ariadne Oliver[2]
The Case of the Distressed Lady Short story 1932 Parker Pyne, Miss Lemon[3]
The Case of the Discontented Husband Short story 1932 Parker Pyne, Ariadne Oliver
The Case of the Middle-aged Wife Short story 1932 Parker Pyne, Miss Lemon
The Second Gong Short story 1932 Hercule Poirot, Mr Satterthwaite
Three Act Tragedy Novel 1934 Hercule Poirot, Mr Satterthwaite
How Does Your Garden Grow? Short story 1935 Hercule Poirot, Miss Lemon
Cards on the Table Novel 1936 Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race, Colonel Despard, Rhoda Despard[2]
Dead Man's Mirror Novella 1937 Hercule Poirot, Mr Satterthwaite
Death on the Nile Novel 1937 Hercule Poirot, Colonel Race
The Moving Finger Novel 1942 Miss Marple, Mrs Dane Calthrop, Rev Dane Calthrop
Towards Zero Novel 1944 Superintendent Battle, Hercule Poirot (mentioned)
The Labours of Hercules Collection of related short stories 1947 Hercule Poirot, Miss Lemon, James Japp, Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes (mentioned)
Mrs McGinty's Dead Novel 1952 Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver
After the Funeral Novel 1953 Hercule Poirot, Mr. Goby
Hickory Dickory Dock Novel 1955 Hercule Poirot, Miss Lemon
Dead Man's Folly Novel 1956 Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, Miss Lemon
Cat Among the Pigeons Novel 1959 Hercule Poirot, Mr Robinson, Colonel Pikeaway
The Pale Horse Novel 1961 Ariadne Oliver, Colonel Despard, Rhoda Despard, Mrs Dane Calthrop, Rev Dane Calthrop
The Clocks Novel 1963 Hercule Poirot, Superintendent Battle (mentioned)
At Bertram's Hotel Novel 1965 Miss Marple, Mr Robinson
Third Girl Novel 1966 Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, Miss Lemon, Mr. Goby
Hallowe'en Party Novel 1969 Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver
Passenger to Frankfurt Novel 1970 Mr Robinson, Colonel Pikeaway, Amy Leatheran[4]
Elephants Can Remember Novel 1972 Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, Miss Lemon, Mr. Goby
Postern of Fate Novel 1973 Tommy and Tuppence, Mr Robinson, Colonel Pikeaway, Albert Batt
Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly Novella 2013 (written 1954) Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, Miss Lemon

Crossovers in media adaptations of novels or short stories

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Outside of stories by Christie herself, three media adaptations of her works have featured crossovers involving Miss Marple which Christie herself never wrote; two of the three aired many decades after her death:

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Hercule Poirot

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Main article: Hercule Poirot in literature

Miss Marple

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Main article: Miss Marple § Bibliography

Mr Satterthwaite

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Parker Pyne

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Superintendent Battle

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Tommy and Tuppence

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Colonel Race

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Trivia

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  • Agatha Christie herself exists in her fictional universe, as she is mentioned by a character in the Miss Marple novel The Body in the Library.
  • In The Labours of Hercules, a character imagines a friendship between the mother of Hercule Poirot and his supposed brother Achille, and the mother of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, perhaps implying that Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventures are set in the same universe.
  • The collection Partners in Crime may create an inconsistency: in it, Tommy and Tuppence mimick a series of famous fictional detectives of the period, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, thus implying that they are fictional in the universe. Similarly, in The Clocks, Poirot takes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes down from a bookshelf, and utters the word "Maître!" while looking at the book. The narrator asks if it is Sherlock Holmes who is the object of his admiration, to which he responds: "Ah, non, non, not Sherlock Holmes! It is the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that I salute. These tales of Sherlock Holmes are in reality far-fetched, full of fallacies and most artificially contrived. But the art of the writing - ah, that is entirely different. The pleasure of the language, the creation above all of that magnificent character Dr. Watson. Ah, that was indeed a triumph."[7]

References

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  1. ^ Hobbs, James (2018). "Fictional World of Agatha Christie". Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  2. ^ a b Webb, Mary (2017). "Ariadne Oliver". All About Agatha Christie. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  3. ^ Hobbs, James (2018). "Poirot's Allies". Hercule Poirot Central. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  4. ^ Bunson, Matthew (2000). The Complete Christie: An Agatha Christie Encyclopedia. Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0671028312.
  5. ^ Curran, John (2009). Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0007310562.
  6. ^ Curran, John (2011). Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0062065421.
  7. ^ Christie, Agatha (1963). The Clocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 0007121091.
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