Dead Man's Folly
Dodd, Mead and Company | |
Publication date | October 1956 |
---|---|
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 216 |
Preceded by | Hickory Dickory Dock |
Followed by | Cat Among the Pigeons |
Dead Man's Folly is a work of
.Plot summary
Poirot is invited to Nasse House in Devon by crime-mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, who is staging a Murder Hunt as part of a summer fête the next day. At Nasse House, Mrs Oliver explains that small aspects of her plans for the Murder Hunt have been changed by requests from people in the house rather deviously, until a real murder would not surprise her.
The wealthy Sir George Stubbs owns Nasse House. His much younger wife is the beautiful Hattie, Lady Stubbs. She shows interest in fine clothes and jewellery only, appearing simple to all but her husband's secretary, Miss Brewis, who sees through Hattie's outward appearance but is herself conflicted because of her own feelings for her employer, Sir George. Hattie and George were introduced by Amy Folliat, the last of the family who had owned the estate for centuries. Widowed, Mrs Folliat lost her two sons during the War. With the death duties very high in the post-war period, she had to sell the ancestral home and grounds to keep it intact.[3] She took in the orphaned Hattie, introducing her to society and later to Sir George. Mrs Folliat rents the lodge on the estate. Michael Weyman, an architect, is on site to design a tennis court; he criticises the inappropriate location of a recently built folly. Sir George shouts at three young tourists who cross his private property; they are a Dutch woman, an Italian woman, and a man wearing a shirt decorated with turtles.
On the day of the fête, Hattie receives a letter from her cousin, Etienne de Sousa, who will visit that day; she appears very upset by his abrupt visit. A local
In the dénouement, Poirot explains that Sir George Stubbs is really Amy Folliat's younger son, James, a war deserter. Mrs Folliat paired him with the wealthy but naive Hattie, hoping that the marriage would be beneficial to both. But James fleeced Hattie of her money to establish his new identity and to purchase the old family home. Unknown to Mrs Folliat, James had married a young Italian woman after deserting the war. He killed the original Hattie shortly after entering into the bigamous marriage, and his Italian wife played the role of Hattie thereafter. Marlene Tucker had learned the true identity of George Stubbs from her grandfather. Both were murdered separately, although the old man's death has been presumed accidental. The day before the fête, the fake Hattie posed as an Italian tourist staying in the nearby hostel. She switched between the two roles frequently over a 24-hour period. The fake Hattie also sent Miss Brewis to bring refreshments to Marlene shortly before the girl was murdered. Hattie then killed Marlene, changed to the tourist guise, and tossed the large hat she wore as Hattie in the river. She then left the area as the Italian tourist, carrying a rucksack. The date of Marlene's murder had been selected to cast suspicion upon Etienne, who had written weeks earlier of his visit, as he told Inspector Bland. Having grown up with the real Hattie, Etienne would not have been fooled.
Poirot privately reveals to Mrs. Foliat that he knows the truth. As the sounds of the police smashing up the folly to locate and exhume Hattie's body are heard, Mrs. Foliat asks Poirot to go away so she may face things alone, leaving the fate of herself and her son ambiguous.
List of characters
- Hercule Poirot, the Belgian private detective
- Ariadne Oliver, the celebrated author
- Inspector Bland, the investigating officer
- Sergeant Frank Cottrell, a policeman in the case
- Sir George Stubbs, owner of Nasse House
- Hattie, Lady Stubbs, George's wife
- Etienne de Sousa, Lady Stubbs's cousin
- Amanda Brewis, George's secretary
- Amy Folliat, whose family previously owned Nasse House
- Mr Wilfred Masterton, member of Parliament
- Mrs Connie Masterton, his wife
- Captain Jim Warburton, political agent for Mr Masterton
- Michael Weyman, an architect
- Alec Legge, an atomic physicist
- Sally Legge, his wife
- Marlene Tucker, a Girl Guide
- Marilyn Tucker, Marlene's younger sister
- Mr and Mrs Tucker, Marlene and Marilyn's parents
- Merdell, the 92-year-old boatman, father of Mrs Tucker
- Henden, the butler
- A young Italian woman on holiday, a hiker with rucksack
- A young Dutch woman on holiday, a hiker with rucksack
- A young man in a shirt with turtles on it
Literary significance and reception
The anonymous review in The Times of 15 November 1956, was also somewhat damning; "Dead Man's Folly is not Miss Agatha Christie at her best. The murder and the solution of it are ingenious, but then, with Miss Christie, they always are, and it is pleasant to watch M. Hercule Poirot at work again. The character drawing is flat and facile, however, and the dialogue, always Miss Christie's weak point, disastrous."[5]
Maurice Richardson of The Observer (18 November 1956) pointed out the similarity between the house portrayed in the book and Christie's own and summed up, "Stunning but not unguessable solution. Nowhere near a vintage Christie but quite a pleasing table-read."[6]
Robert Barnard: "Highly traditional recipe, but not done with the same conviction as in the thirties. Nobody much is what they seem, and old sins cast long shadows. Mrs Oliver looms large here, as she was frequently to do from now on, both in Poirot books and in others."[7]
Adaptations
1986 film
The novel was made into a film with Peter Ustinov and Jean Stapleton starring as Poirot and Oliver in a 1986 adaptation set in the present day. It was shot largely on location at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire.
Radio
John Moffatt starred as Poirot in the BBC Radio 4 dramatisation broadcast in 2007, with Julia McKenzie as Ariadne Oliver. It was the final time he played the role.
Television
The novel was adapted with David Suchet as Poirot, as part of the series of Agatha Christie's Poirot.[8] It guest-starred Sean Pertwee (Sir George Stubbs), Stephanie Leonidas (Hattie Stubbs), Sinéad Cusack (Amy Folliat), Rebecca Front (Amanda Brewis), Tom Ellis (D.I. Bland), Martin Jarvis (Captain Warburton), Rosalind Ayres (Mrs Warburton), Daniel Weyman (Alec Legge) and Zoë Wanamaker in her sixth and final appearance as Ariadne Oliver. This was the last episode of the series to be filmed (although not the last to air), with production completed in June 2013.[9][10] The telefilm was shot mainly at Agatha Christie's home, Greenway Estate, the setting she used, along with its old boathouse on the River Dart, for the novel.
The adaptation is broadly faithful to the novel, but with some differences. The setting is moved from the early 1950s to the late 1930s; accordingly, James Folliat – a war deserter in the novel – is here a wayward womaniser whom Mrs Folliat sends to South Africa, where he fakes his death in an aviation accident and returns to Nasse in the identity of Sir George Stubbs. Mrs Masterton becomes Mrs Warburton, Captain Warburton's wife; Marlene's sister, Marilyn, becomes an older sister named Gertie, but serves the same function as Marilyn in the novel; the characters of George the valet, Miss Lemon, the man in the turtle-printed shirt, and Marlene's parents are deleted. The adaptation slightly changes the end of the story to reveal the fate of the Folliats, which was untold in the novel. As the police are digging up the folly foundations, Poirot lays out the truth to Mrs Folliat; Miss Folliat then goes into the manor house and admonishes her son. Two offscreen gunshots are heard, and Poirot both acknowledges and approves of this murder-suicide with the final word of the episode: "Bon".
Computer game
On 15 October 2009,
Publication history
- 1956, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), October 1956, Hardback, 216 pp
- 1956, Collins Crime Club (London), 5 November 1956, Hardback, 256 pp
- 1957, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 178 pp
- 1960, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
- 1966, Pan Books, Paperback, 189 pp
- 1967, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 205 pp
The novel was first serialised in the US in
In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in six abridged instalments from 11 August (Volume 100, Number 2615) to 15 September 1956 (Volume 100, Number 2620) with illustrations by "Fancett".[11]
References
- ^ a b "American Tribute to Agatha Christie". Home.insightbb.com. 20 July 1956. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
- ^ a b Chris Peers; Ralph Spurrier & Jamie Sturgeon (March 1999). Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions (Second ed.). Dragonby Press. p. 15.
- ^ George Worsley (2008). "England's Lost Homes". History Today. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ The Times Literary Supplement, 21 December 1956 (p. 761)
- ^ The Times, 15 November 1956 (p. 13)
- ^ The Observer, 18 November 1956 (p. 12)
- ISBN 0-00-637474-3.
- ^ "David Suchet to star in final Poirot adaptations". BBC.co.uk. 14 November 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
- IMDbSeason 13 Episode 3 expected release 30 October 2013; retrieved 26 October 2013
- ^ Henry Chu (19 July 2013). "David Suchet bids farewell to Agatha Christie's Poirot". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
- ^ Holdings at the British Library (Newspapers – Colindale). Shelfmark: NPL LON LD116.
External links
- Dead Man's Folly at the official Agatha Christie web site
- Dead Man's Folly (1986) at IMDb
- Dead Man's Folly (2013) at IMDb
- Agatha Christie: Dead Man's Folly game at I-Play web site