Christie, Agatha 1890–

A British mystery novelist, Miss Christie is the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 19-20.)

[What] makes all Agatha Christie's work commendable, on stage or between covers, is its total incapacity for offending, despite its burden of rage, hate and offensive weapons. Characters murder and are murdered, and not in jest either, but everything is cleansed and purified and raised to a level of calm speculation and cool logic. There's no gratuitous poring over horror: the camera-eye doesn't dwell on flies drinking the blood of the victim. The corpse is an item in an argument. We end up admiring the shape of this argument, not shuddering at the distortions of the criminal mind….

Agatha Christie has been entertaining us so long and so relentlessly that she has soared above the level of the entertainer. There are scholars who are prepared to take her art, the skill of...

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