Book: The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Author: Agatha Christie
Country: U.K. 🇬🇧
Format: Print
Pages: 304
Publication: 1921
Not a lot of people know this, but Agatha Christie actually started writing mystery novels in a dare. Her sister Margaret, who was already a writer told her that she wouldn’t be able to write a good detective story. It was 1916, and more than a hundred years later, Agatha Christie is still known as the “Queen of Crime”, and it’s easy to see why.
I confess I didn’t have too many high expectations about his book. You know, it was her first book, long before she developed her characteristic style and Hercule Poirot solidified as her main character. But I was surprised. She was really good from day one, for The Mysterious Affair at Styles lacks nothing to the other novels.
“’You gave too much rein to your imagination. Imagination is a good servant and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely.’”
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The story is set in the county of Essex, East England. As usual, there’s a wealthy family with several family members and staff going about the house. Everything is going well until someone is killed by poisoning.
The narrator of this story is Arthur Hastings, who happened to be at the house as a guest. He knows the Belgian detective Poirot personally and enlists him to investigate the case. I read some comments that Hasting is not a very popular character, because he makes wrong observations all the time and seems to frequently doubt Poirot’s sanity (when in fact the Belgian detective is a genius). I understand the friction.
“Sometimes I feel sure he is as mad as a hatter and then, just as he is at his maddest, I find there is a method in his madness.”
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The characters in the book face many of the tribulations that Koreans have been facing in Japan – they’re obliged to adopt a Japanese name (the Tsumei), have to re-register with the government every four years and can’t leave the country (since the lack of citizenship would complicate the re-entry). They’re also officially excluded from some employment opportunities and can’t vote.
The official bureaucracy surrounding that population only reinforces the segregation and discrimination many Zainichi encounter in Japan. Throughout the book, the Japanese often refer to Koreans as lazy and criminal.
But the point is, Hastings here is playing the role of what we would call a “supporting character”. Is a trick often used in movies and novels. It’s simple: if you want your main character to look brave, put someone who acts like a coward by his side. If you want to show a protagonist who always does the right thing, give him an unethical sidekick. And if you want your main character to look smart and observant, put him in the company of someone who misses the mark all the time.
Hastings has a dual function here: 1. To make Poirot look smarter and 2. to create all kinds of hypotheses and throw us off our tracks so we don’t know who the killer is. Even Poirot knows this in the book and uses Hastings’s “all-over-the-place” personality to mask his real investigation.
“‘Yes, he is intelligent. But we must be more intelligent. We must be so intelligent that he does not suspect of us being intelligent at all’.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
I acquiesced.
’There, mon ami, you will be of great assistance to me.’”
And it works. I obviously will not say who the killer is, but I must say that I definitely didn’t see it coming. She caught me pretty well, like most of the time.
I’m trying to read less British literature this year since my read list is overflowing with them, but I can’t resist Agatha Christie, she’s my kryptonite. It doesn’t help that her books were made to be devoured in a couple of days (last year I think I read 5 of her novels in a month). So I always try to reserve some space for her during the fall.
One of the really interesting facts about the edition that I bought is that it has the original ending that Christie wrote and was found in one of her notebooks. The thing is, she wrote one of the last chapters to be Poirot giving a testimony at a trial, as a witness. The editor, John Lane, asked her to change the scene to Poirot revealing his final discovery at the Styles house, to the members of the household. And then it was born one of Poirot’s traditions: the theatrical revelation of his theories.
If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie, this is definitely a must-read. What mystery novels have you read this year?
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