Gale - A Study Guide for Agatha Christies Murder on the Orient Express

Project Editor: Sara Constantakis

Rights Acquisition and Management: Leitha Etheridge-Sims, Kelly Quin, Tracie Richardson, Mardell Glinski Schultz

Composition: Evi Abou-El-Seoud

Manufacturing: Drew Kalasky

Imaging: John Watkins

Product Design: Pamela A. E. Galbreath, Jennifer Wahi

Content Conversion: Katrina Coach

Product Manager: Meggin Condino

2010 Gale, Cengage Learning

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Since this page cannot legibly accommodate all copyright notices, the acknowledgments constitute an extension of the copyright notice.

For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Gale Customer Support, 1-800-877-4253.
For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at www.cengage.com/permissions.
Further permissions questions can be emailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com

While every effort has been made to ensure the reliability of the information presented in this publication, Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, does not guarantee the accuracy of the data contained herein. Gale accepts no payment for listing; and inclusion in the publication of any organization, agency, institution, publication, service, or individual does not imply endorsement of the editors or publisher. Errors brought to the attention of the publisher and verified to the satisfaction of the publisher will be corrected in future editions.

Gale
27500 Drake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI, 48331-3535

ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-4171-9
ISBN-10: 1-4144-4171-1
ISSN 1094-3552

This title is also available as an e-book.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4144-4949-4
ISBN-10: 1-4144-4949-6
Contact your Gale, a part of Cengage Learning sales representative for ordering information.

Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 14 13 12 11 10

Agatha Christie

1934

Although written somewhat early in a career that spanned almost six decades and over seventy novels, Murder on the Orient Express (1934; originally published in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach) is still considered one of mystery writer Agatha Christie's greatest works. The book features her most enduring literary creation, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and one of the trademark "twist" endings for which Christie was famous.

Murder on the Orient Express finds Poirot on his way back to England from Syria by way of the luxury rail transport known as the Orient Express. Along the way, a murder occurs in the very same passenger car in which Poirot is traveling, and the director of the rail linea friend of the detectiveasks Poirot to help solve the case. The more he investigates, the less the case seems to make sense, with the wide array of passengersall from different backgrounds and seemingly strangers to each othereach providing a substantiated alibi for the night of the crime.

Christie drew inspiration for the novel from several sources, most notably her own experiences aboard the Orient Express while traveling between England and her archeologist husband Max Mallowan's dig sites in the Middle East. Christie also modeled the back story that connects the characters on the real-life kidnapping and murder of the son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, which occurred just two years before the novel was published.

Although the novel is best remembered for its cleverly constructed mystery, it also contains themes seldom touched upon in previous works of detective fiction. One of the most surprising elements of the book is Poirot's brilliantly indirect participation in covering up the truth about the murder, since Poirot himself seems to agree that the killing is ultimately an act of moral justice.

Christie was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, England, the third child of Clarissa Miller, an English woman, and Frederick Miller, an American living in England. Her childhood was somewhat unusual, in that she did not attend formal school. However, the family home contained an abundance of books, and her pursuit of knowledge was always encouraged.

Her father died when she was eleven, but her early years were shaped by another male influence: author Eden Philpotts, who lived nearby and fostered in the girl a love of literature. In 1914, she married Archibald Christie, a lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps. In the midst of World War I, Christie worked as a nurse and even passed the required test to become a pharmacist. Her only child, daughter Rosalind, was born in 1919.

Christie did not consider a career as a writer until she was challenged by her older sister to write a mystery in which the ending could not be guessed. That first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), was inspired by the knowledge of poisons Christie gained as a pharmacist, and was received well by both critics and readers. The novel, which earned the author a meager fee of twenty-five British pounds, also marked the introduction of a Belgian detective named Hercule Poirot. From that point on, Christie wrote and published at a pace of nearly a book a year, and continued to do so for over fifty years.

In 1926, Christie's mother passed away, and then Christie discovered that Archibald was having an affair; the couple divorced soon after. Despite these personal tragedies, her writing soared in both popularity and creativity. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of her most audacious and controversial mysteries, was published in 1926. In 1930, Christie traveled to Baghdad, where she met archeologist Max Mallowan. The two quickly fell in love and married, and remained together until her death in 1976.

Christie made a habit of visiting her husband's archeological dig sites annually, and traveled back from the Middle East by way of the Orient Express on more than one occasion. On one particular trip in 1931, the Orient Express train on which she was a passenger became delayed; this delay planted the seeds of what would ultimately become Murder on the Orient Express (1934).

Although she was widely regarded by literary scholars as a writer of low caliber, she received several awards for her body of work during her lifetime. In 1954, Christie was honored as the recipient of the first Grandmaster Award from the Mystery Writers of America. In 1956, she received the rank Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the third-highest rank in the British order of chivalry; in 1971, she received the second-highest rank, Dame Commanderthe equivalent of knighthood.

During the 1970s, Christie's health began to fail. However, she lived to see a filmed adaptation of