So, guys, what did you think of Agatha Christie?
Usually the movies I show are those with a message or a lesson behind them - and I know that often they shock or horrify students. So this time I opted for [chose] something completely different.
It wasn't until I was actually watching it with you that I realised that quite a lot of the charm of an Agatha Christie movie/play lies in the language. Just as Shakespeare wrote in the language of his day, so too did Ms. Christie. Her dialogue is very clever and witty in places, and through it she present a lots of the sub-text, or undercurrents, for her plots. I found myself grinning and giggling to myself at a lot of the conversations and sadly, when I looked around at you all, realised that neither the sub-titles nor the pieces you could understand would carry the meaning across to you.
Her stories, while several hundred years later that Shakespeare's, are centred firmly in the heart of an England that no longer exists - but the difference is that many of us, through our grandparents, parents, our own childhoods, stories, movie and film are much more familiar with Ms. Christies world. In fact, even though it finally disappeared after the Second World War, enough of it remains in our culture, our language, our stereotypes and, even in small pockets of reality, for us all to be familiar with it.
Indeed, just as there are some people who still think that the people of China still walk around in blue Mao suits and caps and only talk in phrases from The Little Red Book, so many people think that England and the English are still like the world we find in an Agatha Christie book.
According to an on-line Encyclopedia "Christie has been called by the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling writer of books of all time and the best-selling writer of any kind, along with William Shakespeare. Only the Bible is known to have outsold her collected sales of roughly four billion copies of novels.[1] UNESCO states that she is currently the most translated individual author in the world ---Christie's books have been translated into (at least) 56 languages."
The kinds of books Agatha Christie wrote are called murder mysteries, detective novels or, more commonly "Whodunits" This is said exactly as it is spelled: - Who done it. The reason the incorrect grammar is used is to infer [give the impression; say indirectly] that such kinds of novels are not exactly Great Literature. However, neither were the works of Shakespeare considered Great Literature at the time they were written. Who knows, in time the works of Agatha Christie may be held in the same sort of regard for she was definitely a master of her craft.
She was also a playwright and in November 1952 her famous play 'The Mousetrap' opened in a London theatre. Today, in 2009, the play is still being presented, and enthusiastically watched every night making it the longest-running play ever as it has been presented 23,000 consecutive times! Many tourists to London make sure they book at seat at one of its performances just to be able to say they have seen it. The amazing thing is that those who go to see it have to promise not to reveal to others who the murderer turns out to be at the end...and no-one ever does. The play has been shown all through my lifetime and I still have no idea!
So, while she may not be in the same category as Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, Agatha Christie is the most famous English writer, along with Shakespeare, the world has known. If you have all been introduced to Shakespeare then it is only fair that you should know about her as well.
(ps - the second Literary prize I ever won was in a country-wide competition to see who could provide the most ingenious explanation for a real-life mystery:- At one time in her life Ms. Christie disapeared and, to this day, no-one knows where she was for 11 days of her life. The competition was to write a story which accounted for what happened to her during those eleven days.)
Usually the movies I show are those with a message or a lesson behind them - and I know that often they shock or horrify students. So this time I opted for [chose] something completely different.
It wasn't until I was actually watching it with you that I realised that quite a lot of the charm of an Agatha Christie movie/play lies in the language. Just as Shakespeare wrote in the language of his day, so too did Ms. Christie. Her dialogue is very clever and witty in places, and through it she present a lots of the sub-text, or undercurrents, for her plots. I found myself grinning and giggling to myself at a lot of the conversations and sadly, when I looked around at you all, realised that neither the sub-titles nor the pieces you could understand would carry the meaning across to you.
Her stories, while several hundred years later that Shakespeare's, are centred firmly in the heart of an England that no longer exists - but the difference is that many of us, through our grandparents, parents, our own childhoods, stories, movie and film are much more familiar with Ms. Christies world. In fact, even though it finally disappeared after the Second World War, enough of it remains in our culture, our language, our stereotypes and, even in small pockets of reality, for us all to be familiar with it.
Indeed, just as there are some people who still think that the people of China still walk around in blue Mao suits and caps and only talk in phrases from The Little Red Book, so many people think that England and the English are still like the world we find in an Agatha Christie book.
According to an on-line Encyclopedia "Christie has been called by the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling writer of books of all time and the best-selling writer of any kind, along with William Shakespeare. Only the Bible is known to have outsold her collected sales of roughly four billion copies of novels.[1] UNESCO states that she is currently the most translated individual author in the world ---Christie's books have been translated into (at least) 56 languages."
The kinds of books Agatha Christie wrote are called murder mysteries, detective novels or, more commonly "Whodunits" This is said exactly as it is spelled: - Who done it. The reason the incorrect grammar is used is to infer [give the impression; say indirectly] that such kinds of novels are not exactly Great Literature. However, neither were the works of Shakespeare considered Great Literature at the time they were written. Who knows, in time the works of Agatha Christie may be held in the same sort of regard for she was definitely a master of her craft.
She was also a playwright and in November 1952 her famous play 'The Mousetrap' opened in a London theatre. Today, in 2009, the play is still being presented, and enthusiastically watched every night making it the longest-running play ever as it has been presented 23,000 consecutive times! Many tourists to London make sure they book at seat at one of its performances just to be able to say they have seen it. The amazing thing is that those who go to see it have to promise not to reveal to others who the murderer turns out to be at the end...and no-one ever does. The play has been shown all through my lifetime and I still have no idea!
So, while she may not be in the same category as Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, Agatha Christie is the most famous English writer, along with Shakespeare, the world has known. If you have all been introduced to Shakespeare then it is only fair that you should know about her as well.
(ps - the second Literary prize I ever won was in a country-wide competition to see who could provide the most ingenious explanation for a real-life mystery:- At one time in her life Ms. Christie disapeared and, to this day, no-one knows where she was for 11 days of her life. The competition was to write a story which accounted for what happened to her during those eleven days.)
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