The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Originally published: 1926
Dates read: 5/7/18-5/16/18
Back to the Classics category: Classic Crime Story
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is credited as the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespear. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in England, 1890. At 11 her father passed and she was then raised by her mother. By 18 she was writing short stories and she also was a talented pianist and singer. In 1912 she met Archie Christie, who was an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps - they were married 2 years later. During WWI, Archie was in France and Agatha worked as a nurse in a Red Cross Hospital in England. In 1919, Agatha and Archie moved to London and she gave birth to their daughter Rosalind. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was also published that year and she was contracted to write 5 more. This book was the introduction of Hercule Poirot.

By 1925 her mother passed and her husband fell in love with a family friend. In December 1926, Agatha left home without saying where she was going and was missing for 11 days. Her abandoned car was found a few miles away and a nationwide search ensued. It was eventually discovered that she took a train to Harrogate and checked into a hotel under a false name. Hotel staff recognized her and notified the police. When her husband met her, she didn't recognize him and didn't know who she was. She was sent to get psychiatric treatment for amnesia. It was never discovered what really happened.

Agatha and Archie remained apart and divorced in 1928. Later that year she wrote her first novel under the pseudonym, Mary Westmacott. While traveling in 1929, she met Max Mallowan, an archeologist - they were married a year later. During WWII, Max worked in Cairo and Agatha wrote and volunteered at a hospital in London. Her daughter was married and gave birth to a son in 1943. By 1945, the war was over and Max returned. Now in her mid-50s, she started to enjoy a slower paced life. In the 1940s and 1950s, she was involved in theatrical productions. She passed peacefully in 1976.
(source)

Plot summary:
Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the women he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He also knew that someone had been blackmailing her because of it. Then came the news that she had taken her own life with a drug overdose. The next evening, a letter came to him telling him who the blackmailer was. Before he could finish reading the letter, though, he was stabbed to death.

Favorite quotes:
"Everyone has something to hide."

"We work to obtain an object, and the object gained, we find that what we miss is the daily toil."

"Many crimes have been committed for the sake of less than five hundred pounds. It all depends on what sum is sufficient to break a man. A question of relativity, is it not so?

Review:
This was the first Hercule Poirot story I have read. I've seen the new Orient Express movie, but that's all the exposure to this detective that I've had. Everyone I've talked to really likes Poirot as a character, but I wasn't that impressed. All the eccentricity was just too much... and I think I'm just biased towards Sherlock.

There was actually a Sherlock and Watson reference in the novel, which made me smile. Similar to how the Sherlock stories are written by Dr. Watson, this book is written by Dr. Sheppard and you get to hear his perspective as the mystery unfolds. There is even a point where he gives the book to Poirot to read:

"Still somewhat doubtful, I rummaged in the drawers of my desk and produced an untidy pile of manuscripts which I handed over to him. With an eye on possible publication in the future, I had divided the work into chapters, and the night before I had brought it up to date with an account of Miss Russell's visit. Poirot had, therefore, twenty chapters."

And looking back, as this was written after chapter 20, that chapter break was accurate to the actual published novel I read. He clearly had some catching up to do on his writing at that point, but he finds time to write it all out in the midst of helping Poirot solve the murder.

The ending was definitely a huge a huge shock. I honestly don't know how much I should write in this review because I don't want to give anything away. I did briefly consider the actual murderer as a suspect, but I didn't want that person to be it, so I just ignored it. There was another person I really wanted to be the murderer, just because the character really annoyed me, even though there wasn't much evidence against the person. Another person that rubbed me the wrong way was Caroline. (She is not a suspect in the murder, so I feel I can actually name her.) She is a huge gossip and I think she was meant to be a source of humor for the story, but it just fell flat to me.

I know I didn't write a lot of positive things about the novel, but if I did, I would give things away. Overall, it's a decent story. If you haven't seen the movie already, I would suggest reading this! Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Agatha Christie have the last words:

"The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to the seeker after it."

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

    

Title: A Little Princess
Originally published: 1905
Dates read: 4/25/18-5/4/18
Back to the Classics category: Children's Classic
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
British-born author of romance novels and children's books. Best known for The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and A Little Princess. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and married Dr. L. M. Burnett of Washington D.C. in 1873. Their son died of consumption in 1890. She divorced Burnett in 1898, a large scandal at the time. Famous in her own lifetime, she was often criticized in the press for working, being away from her husband, and the way she raised her son. She married Stephen Townsend in 1900 and divorced him in 1902. She died of heart failure in 1924. (source)

Plot summary:
Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, she is forced to work as a servant. Then Sara's fortunes change again.

Favorite quotes:
"What I believe about dolls is that they can do things they will not let us know about. Perhaps, really, my doll can read and talk and walk, but she will only do it when people are out of the room. That is her secret. You see, if people knew that dolls could do things, they would make them work. So, perhaps, they have promised each other to keep it a secret. If you stay in the room, my doll will just sit there and stare; but if you go out, she will begin to read, perhaps, or go and look out of the window. Then if she heard either of us coming, she would just run back and jump into her chair and pretend she had been there all the time."

"Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage."

"If Nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that - warm things, kind things, sweet things - help and comfort and laughter - and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all."

"When people are insulting you, there is nothing so good for them as not to say a word - just to look at them and THINK. When you will not fly into a passion people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage, and they are not, and they say stupid things they wish they hadn't said afterward. There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in - that's stronger. It's a good thing not to answer your enemies. I scarcely ever do."

Review:
This is the first time I'm reading this book and I've never seen the movies. The very blatant message in the book is that a princess isn't a princess because of wealth or the clothes she wears, but a person's thoughts and actions determine if she's a princess. Basically to be kind, polite, and not let anger control you is what it means to be a princess.

To me, the book was rather bland. The story was simple, there wasn't much depth to the characters, and it was predictable. Though I wasn't impressed as an adult, I do think it would a good read for children. At the beginning of the book, Sara, the main character, is 7 and, by the end of the book she is 13. A child reading the book in that age range would probably enjoy the book.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Frances Hodgson Burnett have the last words:

"Being a princess has only to do with what you THINK of, and what you DO."