Miss Marple, Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence were just a few of many characters created by Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie was a murder mystery writer and was known as the “Queen of Crime.” She had a very unique style of writing. Agatha Christie created her characters on the basis of being detectives. Some were actual detectives while others were just ordinary people with the skills of a detective. Because of her novels, she earned the title of “Queen of Crime.”
Agatha Christie was born on September 15, 1890 in Torquay, Devon, England as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller (“Agatha Christie”, Biography). Her parents were Fredrick Miller and Clarissa Boehmer. She was the youngest of three whose names were Margarite also known as “Mage”, Louis, and Montant also known as “Monty” (Morgan 2). Her parents were a prominent middle-class family and her mother taught Christie at home. Her mother was very passionate about her being able to write which Agatha Christie was already showing great talent before the age of sixteen. However, she did not start to publish her work until later.
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In this house; many of her masterpieces were made. Her house is where she stayed until her death. Christie seemed to take great inspiration from nature and found ways to incorporate it into her novels whenever she could. Her unique style of writing and the way she conveys her ideas won her the title of “Queen of Crime.” She paved the way for other female authors not just for mystery, but for all genres. She helped to show that there is nothing a woman cannot do especially if they work hard enough to achieve their goal. As the New Yorker says, “She tries to help the reader, or she pretends to” (Acocella 8). Agatha Christie died on January 12, 1976 from natural causes at the age of eighty-five in her home in Winterbrook, Oxfordshire (“Agatha Christie”,
Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. She grew up as the youngest in her family. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a real estate broker. They eventually moved into a white part of town where they were persecuted and were ordered by the court to move. Their case went all the way to the supreme court. Hansberry decided to attend the university of Wisconsin to study painting, but quickly changed to study writing. After two years she dropped out and decided to move to New York. In New York she started working for a newspaper, she worked as a part time waitress, and a cashier. She still wrote in her free time until she quit all her jobs to focus just on writing. Around 1957 she wrote the play, A Crystal Stair, which was changed to A Raisin In the Sun. In 1963 she became a strong supporter of civil rights. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died on January 12, 1965.
Jane Addams was a Victorian woman born into a male-dominated society on September 6, 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois. Her father was a wealthy landowner and an Illinois senator who did not object to his daughter’s choice to further her education, but who wanted her to have a traditional life. For years after his death, Addams tried to reconcile the family role she was expected to play with her need to achieve personal fulfillment.
In Brother Grimm’s “Brother Lustig”, the main character, Brother Lustig, is initially portrayed as an honest, inexperienced and stupid young man, who shares all his possessions with others. For this reason, when analyzing Brother Grimm’s tale form a Jungian psychoanalytic perspective, will become a prime example of a character experiencing individuation, for he eventually becomes a more selfish, cunning and independent person. Through meeting his archetypes, Brother Lustig goes from an honest, stupid and generous person, who shares his wealth and possessions with the less fortunate ones to a cunning, selfish and self-sufficient trickster. Brother Lustig’s burgeoning conscious is demonstrated through an analysis of his Jungian archetypes, with the shapeshifting beggar, acting as his positive shadow, and St. Peter personifying as his symbolic Self.
Published in 1959, Cat Among the Pigeons is described as one of Agatha Christie’s most memorable novels. The story begins in Ramat amidst a political revolution, where Jennifer Sutcliffe’s uncle, Bob Rawlinson, is entrusted with precious jewels. Yet he soon meets his death and no one is the wiser about what has become of the jewels. Months later, his niece among with many other students, return for the summer term at the prestigious girls’ school, Meadowbank. However, it soon becomes apparent there is a killer in their midst with the murder of two of the mistresses. The mysteries of the murders and the jewels are entwined and Christie’s Hercule Poirot steps in to solve them. Cat Among the Pigeons is a perfect example of Christie's use of features of British Mystery School writing and the responder is able to see clearly why she is so often called the ‘Queen of Crime’. These features include the placement of clues and puzzles throughout the novel, red herrings, the close circle of suspects, the style of murder, a leading sleuth or detective, and finally the denouement.
When you think of crime fiction authors, whom do you think of? One would probably think of James Patterson or maybe Michael Connelly. What about the British woman who has written at least 70 best sellers at the age of 84? The woman whose books are translated into 21 different languages. The woman that when asked if she would ever stop writing said, “Writing makes me happy. I think I would [even] write on a desert island.” Ruth Barbara Rendell is the most famous crime writer in the world. She is known for writing thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. With nicknames such as “New First Lady of Mystery” and “Queen of Crime” how can any other crime writer compare?
Agatha’s purpose, as a woman once in high regard, is to exhibit and embody virtue, sensitivity and gentleness. This is what the Creature learns from just how she holds herself when she walks: “The girl was young and of gentle demeanour, unlike what I have since found cottagers and farm-house servants to be. [...] she looked patient,” (CITE FROM CHAPTER 11, PG 4). The monster also learns from her interactions with her blind father, “Agatha listened with respect, her eyes sometimes filled with tears, which she endeavored to wipe away unperceived” (93). Since he has never seen kindness before, through her inactive and tender nature, acts as a lesson for the monster towards healthy, human relationships formed out of love. Frankenstein’s monster’s next lesson comes from a close friend to Agatha,
married Colonel Archibald Christie. They had one daughter, whose name was Rosalind, and then they divorced in 1928. She started writing in 1920, and her first book published was The Mysterious Affair at Styles. She wrote And Then There Were None in 1939. Agatha Christie has become one of the most famous writer of mystery novels. And Then There Were None is a murder mystery type book.
“By the Pricking of My Thumbs'; by Agatha Christie is a wonderful story with kidnappings, a series of murders, a painting with a story to tell, and two sly detectives. The book is set in 1940-1960 England. The plot winds, twists, and turns throughout the book. Numerous characters, almost too many, are introduced every few pages and there is just too much information to take in. Agatha Christie tricks you into thinking that you know what is going on when you really don’t have a clue.
Virginia Woolf is not unlike any other truly good artist: her writing is vague, her expression can be inhibited, and much of her work is up to interpretation from the spectator. Jacob’s Room is one of her novels that can be hard to digest, but this is where the beauty of the story can be found. It is not written in the blatant style of the authors before her chose and even writers today mimic, but rather Jacob’s Room appears more like a written painting than a book. It is as if Woolf appeared tired and bored of the black and white style of writing that dominated her culture and chose to use a paintbrush to write her story. This individualistic technique is essential to how Woolf creates a portrait of Jacob, the title character of the novel. The portrait the reader gets of Jacob is entirely questionable throughout the entire story, just like any understanding of a human in life is more about opinion than fact. This is how Woolf captures life, the reader’s view of Jacob is almost completely based on interpretations from other characters. These various assessments of Jacob form together to make the collective portrait of Jacob. Woolf states that “Multiplicity becomes unity, which somehow the secret of life” (147), the secret of the novel as well.
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, Devon, England on September 15th, 1890. She was the daughter of Frederick Alvah Miller and Clarissa Margaret Miller (Agatha Christie). Her father was an American who dwindled in stockbroking, but unfortunately died when Agatha was the age of eleven. (Agatha Christie’s Biography, Luzmore). Her mother “Clara” was the daughter of a British army captain. Agatha was the youngest child and had one elder brother and one elder sister. Her elder brother, Louis Montant Miller, was ten years older and her elder sister Margaret Frary Miller was eleven years older (Agatha Christie’s Biography, Luzmore). Agatha spent her childhood alone while her brother and sister were at school, and this isolation led to her extensive imagination (Agatha Christie’s Biography, Luzmore). She never received a formal education but was taught by her parents and nurse (Magill 94-97). Agatha Christie was able to teach herself the ability of reading by the age of five (Agatha Christie’s Biography, Luzmore). At the age of sixteen, she received her first formal education in Paris. She learned about singing and piano (Agatha Christie’s Biography, Luzmore). Later at the age of twenty five, Christie began contemplating the idea of being an author. She was told by her sister that she was incapable of writing, and this is what inspired her to start writing books (Agatha Christie’s Biography, Luzmore). In the year 1914, Agatha Christie married Archibald Christie whom she met while working as a nurse at the hospital (Agatha Christie). Archie and Agatha went on to have their only child, Rosalind Hicks, who was born on August 5th, 1915 (Agatha Christie’s Biography, Luzmore). This experience in the medical fi...
Agatha Christie depicts a descriptive, fictional murder mystery in the novel ABC Murders. With the help of the narrator, Captain Arthur Hastings, Hercule Poirot solves the murders of four victims who are killed in alphabetical order by Franklin Clarke, more commonly known as ABC. The story elicits copious high points but the rare low point as well. Examples of these aspects can be found within the plot, setting, characters, conflict, and theme of the book. According to Stanford’s Suggested Reading List, the book is considered a “must read.” ABC Murders definitely holds up to the reputation placed upon it by Stanford and would be a favorable choice for anyone wishing to read a well written novel.
In recent times there has been a renewed interest in Virginia Woolf and her work, from the Broadway play, “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” to the Academy award nominated film “The Hours” starring Nicole Kidman. This recent exposure, along with the fact that I have ancestors from England , has sparked my interest in this twentieth century British novelist.
Virginia Woolf, in her novels, set out to portray the self and the limits associated with it. She wanted the reader to understand time and how the characters could be caught within it. She felt that time could be transcended, even if it was momentarily, by one becoming involved with their work, art, a place, or someone else. She felt that her works provided a change from the typical egotistical work of males during her time, she makes it clear that women do not posses this trait. Woolf did not believe that women could influence as men through ego, yet she did feel [and portray] that certain men do hold the characteristics of women, such as respect for others and the ability to understand many experiences. Virginia Woolf made many of her time realize that traditional literature was no longer good enough and valid. She caused many women to become interested in writing, and can be seen as greatly influential in literary history
Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express in 1934 and based it on two events that actually occurred.
Born in early 1882, Woolf was brought into an extremely literature driven, middle-class family in London. Her father was an editor to a major newspaper company and eventually began his own newspaper business in his later life. While her mother was a typical Victorian housewife. As a child, Woolf was surrounded by literature. One of her favorite pastimes was listening to her mother read to her.