One, two, three…

One, two, three… ( in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe in the original edition British in English) is a Detective novel of Agatha Christie, published in November 1940, putting in scene the Belgian Détective Hercule Poirot.

The intrigue of the novel

Hercule Poirot badly recovers gladly liking from a visit in its dentist, Henry Morley, during whom this one leaded three teeth to him, when the Inspecteur Japp telephones to him to announce the suicide of the expert to him. He proves, during one moment, that the dentist could have put an end to his days after having made a mortal error for one of his other patients of the same day.

But the detective, noting the mysterious disappearance of a patient and the presence this same morning, among the other patients having received care, of Alistair Blunt, financier and known and respected politician, wonders whether somebody, in the extremists mediums of left or right-hand side, would not actually seek to make an attempt on the life of this last, in order to destabilize the the United Kingdom… (1)

(1) this in a context of approach of the Second world war, the novel, although published with the end of the year 1940, having been written by Agatha Christie in the current of the year 1939, probably before the release of the hostilities, as let it think several passages of the book.

Comments

For this novel, Agatha Christie took again to the technique of the nursery rhyme (counting rhyme) already used with brilliance in Ten small negros , while agreeing more freedom, and sometimes much of humor, in the manner of making “stick” the intrigue of the novel to the ten worms of the counting rhyme.

Although not appearing in the leading bunch of the most known novels of the “lady from Torquay”, One, two, three… is interesting by the skilful way in which intersect and are supplemented two very different literary kinds: in '' [[whodunit]] the '' traditional one (novel of enigma) and tinted fiction of elements connecting it, by far, with the Spy novel .

The nursery rhyme

The experts in nursery rhymes lose themselves in conjectures about the exact origin of the counting rhyme, only agreeing, which seems an obviousness, to see a convenient, pleasant and ludic means there to learn how to count to the young children. It also seems that there are some small localized alternatives.

See also the article on anglophone Wikipedia.

Characters

Hercule Poirot, the Belgian and patient detective of Doctor Morley
George, her manservant
the inspector-chief Japp, in charge of the investigation
Doctor Henry Morley, dentist with Harley street
Miss Georgina Morley, her sister
Doctor Reilly, dentist associated with Morley
Gladys Nevill, assistant of Morley
Alfred, groom of the dentist's surgery
Alistair Blunt, banker and patient of Doctor Morley
Mrs Julia Olivera, niece of Rebecca Arnholt-Blunt, late woman of Alistair Blunt
Miss Jane Olivera, small-niece of Rebecca Arnholt-Blunt, late woman of Alistair Blunt
Mr. Amberiotis, patient of Doctor Morley
Mr. Barnes, former civil servant with the in [[Home Office]] and patient of Doctor Morley
Miss Mabelle Sainsbury Seale, has patience of Doctor Morley
Agnès Fletcher, good then cooker of Miss Morley
Howard Raikes, patient of Doctor Morley
Frank Carter, promised in marriage of Gladys Nevill
Mr. Selby, secretary of Alistair Blunt
Miss Helen Montressor, relationship poor of Alistair Blunt
Mrs Adams, friend of Mabelle Sainsbury Seale
the sergeant Beddoe
Mrs Harrison, owner of the Glengowrie Court , where Put cabin Sainsbury Seale
Mrs Merton, neighbor and friend of Mrs Sylvia Chapman to the 82, King Leopold Mansions

Eight characters of the novel (some having besides a minor and fugitive role there) do not appear in the adaptation televised below: the manservant George, the Reilly dentist, Mr. Barnes, Howard Raikes, Mr. Selby, Mrs Adams, Mrs Harrison and Mrs Merton.

In addition, in the telefilm, Julia and Jane Olivera are respectively sister-in-law and niece by alliance of Alistair Blunt, while Miss Montressor does not have a relationship with the banker but is her private secretary.

Editions

1940 : in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe - Hakes, London
1941: in The Patriotic Murders (alternate title) - Dodd Mead, New York
1948: One, two, three… - Bookstore of the Fields-Élysées, coll. The Mask , n° 359, Paris, in a translation of Michel Houbie
1953: in Year Overdose off Death (new title) - New York, Dell
1993: One, two, three… - Bookstore of the Fields-Élysées, coll. Integral volume 6 (the years 1938-1940) , Paris, in a new translation of Thierry Arson and Sylvie Barjansky

Note: the British and French republications of the novel always preserved the original titles in the respective languages ( One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and One, two, three… )

Televised adaptation

The novel was the object, in 1992, of a televised adaptation under the same title , within the framework of the British televised series Hercule Poirot ( Poirot ).

In the anglophone original version, it carries the British title of the novel ( One, Two, Buckle My Shoe ) and its French-speaking version the French title ( One, two, three…).

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