The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple
by Anne Hart, Agatha Christie (Author)
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Coinciding with the major new TV series, this is the definitive companion to the MISS MARPLE novels, films and TV appearances. 'I have had a lot of experience in solving different little problems that have arisen.' Most of the 'little problems' tackled by Miss Marple occurred in the pretty rural village of St Mary Mead and came in the shape of murder, robbery and blackmail. In the 40 years of her career, she even solved cases as far afield as London and the Caribbean. But though she usually show more masqueraded as 'everybody's favourite great aunt', what was she 'really' like? In this authorised biography of the world's most famous female sleuth, Anne Hart combs through the 12 novels and 20 short stories in which Miss Marple appeared, uncovering clue and amassing all the evidence to solve the most difficult case of them all - the mystery of Miss Marple. show lessTags
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With the blessing of Rosalind Hicks, Agatha Christie’s daughter, writer Anne Hart has crafted a “biography” of one of Ms. Christie’s most famous and beloved characters. Her source material was the Miss Marple stories themselves, the 12 novels and 20 short stories; she combed through these works, gleaning every single mention of anything at all that might give a hint as to Miss Marple’s childhood, adolescence, and young and middle-aged adulthood before she emerged, fully formed, at around age 65 in The Murder At the Vicarage (she had appeared in a baker’s dozen of short stories before that, collected in The Thirteen Problems). This is an absolute delight of a book, extremely engaging and well-organized; one need not have read show more all of the Marple stories (I haven’t) to enjoy this, although certainly some acquaintance with Miss Marple is necessary. There’s a handy list at the back of all publications up until the date of this volume, 1985, and also a section concerning Miss Marple’s appearances in television, film and radio; I’m sure that by now those categories have expanded somewhat, but this is still useful. Recommended! show less
I thought I had read every Miss Marple mystery, and knew every detail about her, until I happened onto this little quasi-biography. So while this author does a wonderful job drawing themes together from her books, and reminded me of why I like the character so much, she also tells me some new things about this little old lady sleuth. I will be searching out several of Christie's short stories featuring Miss Marple to fill in the gaps. This is a great little compendium of "facts" about the "fictional" detective - a thoroughly enjoyable read.
het boek geeft een uitgebreide achtergrond op het 'levensverhaal' van Miss Marple, een aanrader voor Agatha Christie fans
May 17, 2010Dutch
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3 Works 471 Members
One of the most successful and beloved writer of mystery stories, Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay, County Devon, England. She wrote her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920, launching a literary career that spanned decades. In her lifetime, she authored 79 crime novels and a short story collection, 19 show more plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language with another billion in 44 foreign languages. Some of her most famous titles include Murder on the Orient Express, Mystery of the Blue Train, And Then There Were None, 13 at Dinner and The Sittaford Mystery. Noted for clever and surprising twists of plot, many of Christie's mysteries feature two unconventional fictional detectives named Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. Poirot, in particular, plays the hero of many of her works, including the classic, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and Curtain (1975), one of her last works in which the famed detective dies. Over the years, her travels took her to the Middle East where she met noted English archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan. They married in 1930. Christie accompanied Mallowan on annual expeditions to Iraq and Syria, which served as material for Murder in Mesopotamia (1930), Death on the Nile (1937), and Appointment with Death (1938). Christie's credits also include the plays, The Mousetrap and Witness for the Prosecution (1953; film 1957). Christie received the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for 1954-1955 for Witness. She was also named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971. Christie died in 1976. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Agatha Christie's Miss Marple
- Original publication date
- 1985
- People/Characters
- Agatha Christie; Jane Marple
- Important places
- St. Mary Mead, England, UK (Imaginary place)
- Dedication
- For a very dear aunt, Anita Elliott Baird, whom Miss Marple would have enjoyed knowing
- First words
- (Preface) It has been a great pleasure to write this biography of Agatha Christie's beloved and resilient Miss Marple, the best known of a notable group of women who have played leading roles in detective fiction.
The pretty village of St Mary Mead will be forever known as the home of Miss Jane Marple, that wonderful sleuth whose creator so cleverly, and for so many years, led us down the garden path. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)So ended Miss Marple's career, and there can be no better way to end this biography of a most distinguished detective than with the words of Reverend Leonard Clement: 'I had never liked Miss Marple better than at this moment.'
- Original language*
- Englisch
- Disambiguation notice
- This is sometimes referred to as a new edition, but the changes from original amount to a very few updates to some lists. I don't think it warrants a separate record.
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Dutch, English, German, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
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