Agatha Cristie Detective Fiction

Agatha Christie is the most widely published writer of any time and in any language. Only the Bible and the plays of Shakespeare have sold more edition than the murder mysteries".

One could ask, after reading the fragment quoted, a simple question: "Why?" and we believe that the answer to this question would make an eloquent introduction to the present paper.

The XX-th century is coming to an end. Literature worldwide has experienced all kinds of narrative structures( if we are to refer only to prose) along the time , from the total omniscience to what was called "the death of the author". There are literary works which are not accessible to every one. It is here a question of taste and also of culture. But the detective fiction has gained so wide an audience to read and most of all it is entertaining.

Such texts are a challenge for the reader who involves mentally in the solving of the mysteries.

It is therefore a chance to put your mind to work in a very pleasant way and it is also everybody's taste of adventure which finds here the atmosphere needed. Thus detective fiction becomes a refuge in the every day's agitation and worries, a place full of danger but which is safer than any other place in the real world. People have the possibility to test their abilities of reasoning, of anticipating, inferring, and drawing conclusions in spite of the fact that they have at their disposal very little material.

So, taking as key concepts some ideas: "adventure", "challenge", "reasoning", "meeting danger from the safe position of the reader", "being finally morally rewarded by the punishment of the evil", we can understand why the detective fiction has so much success since its first apparition till nowadays.

A very important thing when speaking about detective fiction is the fact that, in the end, the guilty person(s) is(are) discovered and the good always wins upon the evil.

We should not forget the fact that, although it first appeared in the XIX-th century, detective fiction flourished after the two world wars, perhaps because then people felt the need to revenge the numerous crimes which had been committed against humanity. The satisfaction of seeing a murderer punished - even if it was only in a book - was after all soothing for so many frighten and terrified souls.

II. INFO DATA ON DETECTIVE FICTION

- Definition

- Pattern

- General types of detective fiction

"Detective story is a work of fiction about a puzzling crime, a number of clues, and a detective who eventually solves the mystery. In most detective stories, the crime is murder and the clues lead to or away from the solution "("Book of the world").

The pattern of most detective stories is the same, whether the tale is a novel, a novelette or a short story. The author presents the crime, the detective and several clues and suspects. The climax of the story comes when the detective reveals the criminal and tells how the mystery was solved.

Certain conventions have developed from the detective story pattern. The author is expected to "play fair" with the reader. That is, the reader should be given exactly the same information that the detective uses to find the criminal. Readers can treat the story as a battle of wits between themselves and the detective

The detective in most of these stories is not a professional police officer, but a private consultant. For example, G.K.Chesterton's Father Brown is a priest, Rex Shout's Nero Wolfe is a gourmet and an intellectual. Fictional professional detectives include Wilkie Collin's Sergent Cuff, John Creasey's Inspector Maigret. Romance or financial gain may be a factor in a detective story, but the main theme is the mystery and its solution.

Some of these characteristics and some others will be discussed while analysing Agatha Christie's The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb (in chapter III).

The detective story above mentioned belongs to the well known "Whodunnit" which is one of the 4 types of detective fiction, together with "the hard boiled detective narrative", "the police procedural", "the metaphysical detective narrative".

Whodunnit, the British detective fiction is usually a detective puzzle that presents crime exclusively as a riddle to be solved through the "Wh-" train of questions (i.e. Who, Why, How, Where, When).

The term Whodunnit (Who done it ?) was coined by D.Jordan in the American News of Books in 1930. It refers to a form of writing invented by Edgar Allan Poe in "The Murder of Rue Morgue" (1841).

The mystery is very important, emphasized whereas the writer must follow a set of guidelines that require fair play in the telling of the murder, presentation of the clues and the withholding of the identity of the murderer until the end.

The art of the "whodunnit" comes in the pursuit of the murderer through the skillful presentation of clues. The writer is expected to adhere to the standard of fair play. Which is, the writer must present to the reader all the clues necessary to reveal the significance of the clues. The writer can misdirect the reader by emphasizing the unimportant clues.

Margery Allingham, the mystery writer went on to single out an smaller group of essentials for a murder mystery belonging to the "Whodunnit" type in the preface of "The Mysterious Mr. Campion" (