Scan barcode
katya_m's review against another edition
"Na época, era considerado necessário que a figura do detective tivesse uma qualquer idiossincrasia distintiva, ou, melhor ainda, uma colecção delas. Holmes tinha o seu violino, a sua cocaína e o seu cachimbo; o padre Brown tinha o seu guarda chuva e o seu ar enganadoramente distraído: Lord Peter Wimsey tinha o seu monóculo, o seu criado de quarto e a sua colecção de livros antigos. (...) Por isso Poirot foi criado belga com o seu bigode, as suas celulazinhas cinzentas, a sua jactanciosa vaidade, tanto intelectual como vestimentária, e a sua mania da ordem. O único erro de Christie foi fazê-lo, em 1920, um membro reformado da força policial belga; o que, por sua vez, significou que, em 1975 e em Cai o Pano - O Último Caso de Poirot, estava a entrar na sua décima terceira década. Claro que, em 1916, Agatha Christie não fazia ideia de que o pequeno belga lhe sobreviveria."
37
Há diversos problemas que se prendem com a publicação deste [tipo de] livro. Alguns:
1. Trata-se de uma abordagem académica de um repositório de ideias que, juntas, formam o processo criativo de uma escritora;
2. Esse processo é errático e está incompleto;
3. O repositório original encontra-se inacessível pelo que temos de acreditar nas transcrições/suposições e seleções do autor;
4. O autor está longe de ser academicamente imparcial e extrapola frequentes vezes acerca de apontamentos que estão incompletos ou não identificados;
5. O leitor comum, confrontado com as transcrições escolhidas, fica limitado à visão do autor...
Posto tudo isto, compete esclarecer que John Curran não tem outro remédio a não ser apresentar os apontamentos de Christie tal como os encontra. É sabido que a escritora sofria de disgrafia - razão pela qual evitava a todo o custo escrever, preferindo o seu bom velho dictafone. Além disso, e a julgar pelos testemunhos da sua Autobiografia, as suas capacidades de organização não eram das melhores e, por isso mesmo fazer uma "leitura" dos seus cadernos deve ser qualquer coisa como uma tarefa hercúlea.
A ideia no seu todo é interessante e compele os fãs à procura deste volume, mas a fórmula simplesmente não funciona - não tem como. O material não é facilmente legível ou descoficável e obriga a um conhecimento de fundo de uma obra que supera os 80 títulos...
Em última análise temos um conjunto de ideias incipientes, tal qual surgem na mente da escritora, para futuras histórias... mas as ideias são isso mesmo, incipientes, e acabam por se transmutar, e por vezes ficam muito difíceis de reconhecer na obra final - apesar da melhor vontade do autor em apontar cada uma a um título específico posteriormente publicado.
Ainda assim, a incursão tem o seu interesse, compondo a imagem de uma escritora com uma imaginação ímpar e, na falta de acesso aos originais, funciona certamente como uma importante ferramenta de estudo para quem, na área, se interesse.
De todas as formas, é sempre melhor publicar do que não publicar este tipo de documentação. Não funciona para todos, mas certamente serve a alguns.
Eu saltei alguns capítulos que apresentam soluções para títulos que ainda não li - e esse é, na minha opinião, o maior handicap do livro. Ao leitor que ainda não tenha lido toda a obra de Agatha Christie, a seleção, organização e apresentação destes cadernos deixa um certo agridoce.
A sua compilação é, além disso, nada regular - acredito que porque também a escritora o era. Não se facilita a leitura e não se poupa o leitor à descoberta de certos desfechos que, muitas vezes, nem são tratados nos cadernos.
Mas também... ninguém é forçado a comprar ou ler o que seja.
A introdução, e os primeiros capítulos, recheados de pequenas curiosidades sobre o mundo profissional de Agatha Christie, e a deixar transparecer toda a admiração de Curran pela escritora, são de longe, arrisco dizer, a parte mais interessante de todo o livro.
Por fim, a sua ideia de apresentar dois "inéditos" (na verdade, duas versões descartadas pela autora de um conto - inserido em Os Trabalhos de Hércules, e daquilo que viria a ser um futuro romance, Testemunha Muda) não pode deixar de parecer forçado e sem qualquer cabimento a não ser o de alimentar a curiosidade do leitor comum e fã da autora - mas, uma vez mais, venha todo o marketing e publicidade que vier, ninguém é obrigado a consumir seja que pedaço de literatura for contra sua vontade.
Pessoalmente, não desgostei de olhar para dentro do processo criativo de Agatha Christie - mas não era nada disto que esperava do livro.
"É possivel ler um novo livro de Christie todos os meses durante quase sete anos, e, neste estádio, é possível recomeçar de novo seguro no conhecimento de que o anterior já estará esquecido. E é possivel assistir a uma nova dramatização de uma obra de Agatha Christie todos os meses durante dois anos. Muito poucos autores, em qual quer área, igualaram este recorde."
42
37
Há diversos problemas que se prendem com a publicação deste [tipo de] livro. Alguns:
1. Trata-se de uma abordagem académica de um repositório de ideias que, juntas, formam o processo criativo de uma escritora;
2. Esse processo é errático e está incompleto;
3. O repositório original encontra-se inacessível pelo que temos de acreditar nas transcrições/suposições e seleções do autor;
4. O autor está longe de ser academicamente imparcial e extrapola frequentes vezes acerca de apontamentos que estão incompletos ou não identificados;
5. O leitor comum, confrontado com as transcrições escolhidas, fica limitado à visão do autor...
Posto tudo isto, compete esclarecer que John Curran não tem outro remédio a não ser apresentar os apontamentos de Christie tal como os encontra. É sabido que a escritora sofria de disgrafia - razão pela qual evitava a todo o custo escrever, preferindo o seu bom velho dictafone. Além disso, e a julgar pelos testemunhos da sua Autobiografia, as suas capacidades de organização não eram das melhores e, por isso mesmo fazer uma "leitura" dos seus cadernos deve ser qualquer coisa como uma tarefa hercúlea.
A ideia no seu todo é interessante e compele os fãs à procura deste volume, mas a fórmula simplesmente não funciona - não tem como. O material não é facilmente legível ou descoficável e obriga a um conhecimento de fundo de uma obra que supera os 80 títulos...
Em última análise temos um conjunto de ideias incipientes, tal qual surgem na mente da escritora, para futuras histórias... mas as ideias são isso mesmo, incipientes, e acabam por se transmutar, e por vezes ficam muito difíceis de reconhecer na obra final - apesar da melhor vontade do autor em apontar cada uma a um título específico posteriormente publicado.
Ainda assim, a incursão tem o seu interesse, compondo a imagem de uma escritora com uma imaginação ímpar e, na falta de acesso aos originais, funciona certamente como uma importante ferramenta de estudo para quem, na área, se interesse.
De todas as formas, é sempre melhor publicar do que não publicar este tipo de documentação. Não funciona para todos, mas certamente serve a alguns.
Eu saltei alguns capítulos que apresentam soluções para títulos que ainda não li - e esse é, na minha opinião, o maior handicap do livro. Ao leitor que ainda não tenha lido toda a obra de Agatha Christie, a seleção, organização e apresentação destes cadernos deixa um certo agridoce.
A sua compilação é, além disso, nada regular - acredito que porque também a escritora o era. Não se facilita a leitura e não se poupa o leitor à descoberta de certos desfechos que, muitas vezes, nem são tratados nos cadernos.
Mas também... ninguém é forçado a comprar ou ler o que seja.
A introdução, e os primeiros capítulos, recheados de pequenas curiosidades sobre o mundo profissional de Agatha Christie, e a deixar transparecer toda a admiração de Curran pela escritora, são de longe, arrisco dizer, a parte mais interessante de todo o livro.
Por fim, a sua ideia de apresentar dois "inéditos" (na verdade, duas versões descartadas pela autora de um conto - inserido em Os Trabalhos de Hércules, e daquilo que viria a ser um futuro romance, Testemunha Muda) não pode deixar de parecer forçado e sem qualquer cabimento a não ser o de alimentar a curiosidade do leitor comum e fã da autora - mas, uma vez mais, venha todo o marketing e publicidade que vier, ninguém é obrigado a consumir seja que pedaço de literatura for contra sua vontade.
Pessoalmente, não desgostei de olhar para dentro do processo criativo de Agatha Christie - mas não era nada disto que esperava do livro.
"É possivel ler um novo livro de Christie todos os meses durante quase sete anos, e, neste estádio, é possível recomeçar de novo seguro no conhecimento de que o anterior já estará esquecido. E é possivel assistir a uma nova dramatização de uma obra de Agatha Christie todos os meses durante dois anos. Muito poucos autores, em qual quer área, igualaram este recorde."
42
bumsonseats's review against another edition
3.0
only read the unpublished Poirot stories in full, as background written in dull manner
jenmulsow's review
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
This book is worth reading for the 2 unpublished Poirot stories at the end and her delightful notebooks, but the author insists on using the original title of And Then There Were None which is completely unnecessary and takes away from the book.
panda_incognito's review against another edition
3.0
This book is specifically for die-hard Agatha Christie fans. I cannot imagine that anyone else would be able to trudge through it, because it is full of minutiae about her writing and stories, relies more on the author's expert familiarity with her work than on her actual written notes, and spoils the endings and secondary plot twists of many of her stories. Also, even when it doesn't spoil the endings, it assumes that the reader has read these books and remembers what happened. In many cases, I didn't remember and couldn't understand the cryptic remarks.
However, despite all of this, I really did enjoy this book. I was intrigued to learn about Agatha Christie's planning process, and even though it is sometimes difficult to understand her haphazard, disorganized, stream-of-consciousness notes, it gives me a whole new perspective on her work to know that she often began plotting without having even decided on the murderer yet. Even with books like Crooked House, where the final twist seems to be the story's reason for existence, Agatha Christie explored a number of different plot and murderer options before selecting the one that fit.
I enjoyed seeing the variety of ideas that she explored, and the ideas that she kept trying to fit in and then gave up on. I now have a much deeper appreciation of how much thought and creativity went into her work, and I am amazed by how she managed to write such spectacular fiction with just a few jotted sentences or basic scene outlines. Even though people who expect this book to reproduce elaborate, well-structured notes will be disappointed, it fascinated me to learn how well she was able to write without them.
The author's incredible familiarity with Agatha Christie's oeuvre made this book double as a literary exploration, not just a glimpse into the Queen of Mystery's planning methods. He connects similar stories to each other, showing how different novels and short stories shared themes, character elements, or plot ideas that recurred through her work. As an enthusiastic reader, I had noticed some of these connections before, but I appreciated his insight into story similarities and his knowledge of how she incorporated personal events or even the architecture of her house into some of her works.
However, even this had some downsides, since the author leveraged his professional status as the literary adviser of Christie's estate to make absolutist judgments about some of her works. For example, he thought that the twist at the end of Murder in Mesopotamia was strained, impossible, and unbelievable, and he makes it sound like any thinking reader will agree with him. Personally, I enjoyed that twist very much, and even though I appreciate Curran's expertise on other matters, I do not appreciate his choice to communicate personal preferences as absolutist literary opinions.
I also question his engagement with social issues. Even though he refers to other books by their updated or changed titles, he always refers to And Then There Were None as Ten Little Niggers. This was, indeed, the title of her book, derived from the popular nursery rhyme that Christie used as part of her plot structure, but even though these facts are are socially and historically relevant, Curran never justifies his use of the original title or acknowledges its offensiveness.
On the other hand, even though he ignores the effect of that era's racial views, he is eager to evaluate how Christie portrayed homosexual characters. He dislikes stereotyped portrayals of some, but is touched by the socially accepted lesbian relationship between characters in A Murder is Announced. In almost all of these cases, and especially the last, he is superimposing his own cultural assumptions on characters that Christie never identified as gay. After I read some of Curran's thoughts, I looked in my copy of Christie's plays to see if Christopher Wren really did talk in The Mousetrap about how attractive he thinks policemen are, and sure enough, he did. I had no memory of that, but even though Curran makes a specific reference here, most of his other assertions lack textual evidence.
I was shocked when he mentioned the supposed lesbian couple in A Murder is Announced. Years ago, I watched a modern TV adaptation that re-imagined Christie's characters as a young lesbian couple, but I had never dreamed that someone would draw that conclusion from the book. The characters are middle-aged spinsters who share a housing arrangement, and nothing in the story or in their interactions with each other indicates that their bond is romantic or sexual in nature. Certainly, many lesbians throughout history have gone under the radar as spinster friends, but it is still common, even today, for straight single women to rent apartments or even buy houses together. Since there is absolutely no indication in the text that these spinsters were anything more than friends, I was shocked that the literary adviser to Christie's estate would repeatedly reference this as if it were an ironclad fact.
Overall, Curran extrapolates way too much from a few scattered references, assumes that men with sensitive or feminine characteristics must be gay, and distracts from his exploration of Christie's works by making irrelevant assumptions. Even though I enjoyed this book and plan to read its sequel, these various negative elements keep me from awarding this anything more than three stars.
However, despite all of this, I really did enjoy this book. I was intrigued to learn about Agatha Christie's planning process, and even though it is sometimes difficult to understand her haphazard, disorganized, stream-of-consciousness notes, it gives me a whole new perspective on her work to know that she often began plotting without having even decided on the murderer yet. Even with books like Crooked House, where the final twist seems to be the story's reason for existence, Agatha Christie explored a number of different plot and murderer options before selecting the one that fit.
I enjoyed seeing the variety of ideas that she explored, and the ideas that she kept trying to fit in and then gave up on. I now have a much deeper appreciation of how much thought and creativity went into her work, and I am amazed by how she managed to write such spectacular fiction with just a few jotted sentences or basic scene outlines. Even though people who expect this book to reproduce elaborate, well-structured notes will be disappointed, it fascinated me to learn how well she was able to write without them.
The author's incredible familiarity with Agatha Christie's oeuvre made this book double as a literary exploration, not just a glimpse into the Queen of Mystery's planning methods. He connects similar stories to each other, showing how different novels and short stories shared themes, character elements, or plot ideas that recurred through her work. As an enthusiastic reader, I had noticed some of these connections before, but I appreciated his insight into story similarities and his knowledge of how she incorporated personal events or even the architecture of her house into some of her works.
However, even this had some downsides, since the author leveraged his professional status as the literary adviser of Christie's estate to make absolutist judgments about some of her works. For example, he thought that the twist at the end of Murder in Mesopotamia was strained, impossible, and unbelievable, and he makes it sound like any thinking reader will agree with him. Personally, I enjoyed that twist very much, and even though I appreciate Curran's expertise on other matters, I do not appreciate his choice to communicate personal preferences as absolutist literary opinions.
I also question his engagement with social issues. Even though he refers to other books by their updated or changed titles, he always refers to And Then There Were None as Ten Little Niggers. This was, indeed, the title of her book, derived from the popular nursery rhyme that Christie used as part of her plot structure, but even though these facts are are socially and historically relevant, Curran never justifies his use of the original title or acknowledges its offensiveness.
On the other hand, even though he ignores the effect of that era's racial views, he is eager to evaluate how Christie portrayed homosexual characters. He dislikes stereotyped portrayals of some, but is touched by the socially accepted lesbian relationship between characters in A Murder is Announced. In almost all of these cases, and especially the last, he is superimposing his own cultural assumptions on characters that Christie never identified as gay. After I read some of Curran's thoughts, I looked in my copy of Christie's plays to see if Christopher Wren really did talk in The Mousetrap about how attractive he thinks policemen are, and sure enough, he did. I had no memory of that, but even though Curran makes a specific reference here, most of his other assertions lack textual evidence.
I was shocked when he mentioned the supposed lesbian couple in A Murder is Announced. Years ago, I watched a modern TV adaptation that re-imagined Christie's characters as a young lesbian couple, but I had never dreamed that someone would draw that conclusion from the book. The characters are middle-aged spinsters who share a housing arrangement, and nothing in the story or in their interactions with each other indicates that their bond is romantic or sexual in nature. Certainly, many lesbians throughout history have gone under the radar as spinster friends, but it is still common, even today, for straight single women to rent apartments or even buy houses together. Since there is absolutely no indication in the text that these spinsters were anything more than friends, I was shocked that the literary adviser to Christie's estate would repeatedly reference this as if it were an ironclad fact.
Overall, Curran extrapolates way too much from a few scattered references, assumes that men with sensitive or feminine characteristics must be gay, and distracts from his exploration of Christie's works by making irrelevant assumptions. Even though I enjoyed this book and plan to read its sequel, these various negative elements keep me from awarding this anything more than three stars.
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
I'm going to need to reread this one at some point...I really wasn't in the proper frame of mind to go through the details of how her notes differed (or didn't) from the final versions of the novels and short stories. I powered my way through simply because I had it down for several challenges but I can't say that I've taken in much of the information or that what I have taken in has interested me much.
The most interesting portion for me in this initial reading was the inclusion of the two unpublished stories: "The Capture of Cerberus" and "The Incident of the Dog's Ball." Each of these were later reworked--the first as a short story and the second transformed into the novel Dumb Witness.
Since I feel like my timing is off on reading this and I plan to reread at another time, I'm not going to assign a rating. It wouldn't be fair.
The most interesting portion for me in this initial reading was the inclusion of the two unpublished stories: "The Capture of Cerberus" and "The Incident of the Dog's Ball." Each of these were later reworked--the first as a short story and the second transformed into the novel Dumb Witness.
Since I feel like my timing is off on reading this and I plan to reread at another time, I'm not going to assign a rating. It wouldn't be fair.
mkschoen's review against another edition
Juicy details for any Christie fan. Although -- in many cases Curran gives a brief blurb about the book being discussed, similar to what would be on the jacket cover, then starts in on how the book appears in he notebooks. A more detailed synopsis would be useful, because, really, just saying something like "Poirot investigates mysterious affairs at a country house, where a wealthy family bickers over an inheritance," narrows it down to, oh, all of her books. Little help here! *Which* adenoidal housemaid are we talking about? *Which* absent-minded vicar? And ok, I know it's bad form to say who did it, but seriously, these books are 50 years old. I doubt anyone who is reading Curran's book is really that concerned with spoilers.
dmsleeve's review against another edition
3.0
I love Agatha Christie and I thought this sounded like a really interesting book. Who wouldn't want to dig through her notebooks. Turned out to be pretty boring and not interesting at all. I stopped about half way through and haven't picked it up in over a month so it is going back on the shelf.