The Mysterious Business of Styles

the Mysterious business of Styles is the first novel of Agatha Christie and it is also the first where Hercule Poirot appears, its character fetish. She writes the book in 1917, but it was published only in 1920.

The intrigue of the novel

During the First World War, Arthur Hastings, repatriated in England, is invited in the residence of Styles Short (or Styles in shortened version) by his/her friend John Cavendish, who teaches him that his mother remariée herself with a man much younger, mysterious Alfred Inglethorp. With Styles, everyone with the air to hate it. Except obviously Mrs Inglethorp.

Later, Emily Inglethorp is poisoned and the suspicions weigh on Alfred Inglethorp. Hercule Poirot, former Inspector of Belgian police, which is also at the village of Saint-Mary Styles, is invited by Hastings to solve this business. Apparently, Poirot thinks that Alfred Inglethorp is not the assassin and it tries to clear it. But makes some, this curious character knows that a person that one cleared cannot be given to the dock… Therefore, Mr. Inglethorp is guilty…

Characters

Hercule Poirot - Captain Hastings - the Inspector Japp - Mary Cavendish - John Cavendish - Doctor Bauerstein - Mrs Inglethorp - Alfred Inglethorp - Evelyne Howard - Lawrence Cavendish - Doctor Wilkins - Mr. Wells - the inspector Summerhaye - Mrs Raikes - Cynthia Murdoch - Dorcas

Comment

In this novel as in several others, the Poison is the weapon of the crime. Agatha Christie, which worked as nurse during the First World War and saw the effects of many medicamentous substances on the casualties, was indeed highly documented on the subject, not hesitating, later, to correspond with such or such medical celebrity to check if its assumptions on the effect of such or such poison were plausible, before using them in the screen of its novels.

On the other hand, it seems that the author did without the opinion of the historians or the soldiers: in this supposed history to be held in 1914, a character makes a nightmare concerning the war and in particular compared to the tanks and tanks. However this weapon goes back only to 1916.

Editions

1920: in The Mysterious Affair At Styles - John Lane, London
1920: in The Mysterious Affair At Styles - John Lane, New York
1932: the Mysterious Business of Styles - Bookstore of the Fields-Élysées, coll. The Mask n° 106, Paris, in a translation of Marc Placed
1990: the Mysterious Business of Styles - Bookstore of the Fields-Élysées, coll. Integral volume 1 (the years 1920-1925) , Paris, in a new translation of Thierry Arson

Televised adaptation

In 1990, at the time of the hundredth birthday of the birth of Agatha Christie, the Mysterious business of Styles was adapted for television, with David Suchet (Hercule Poirot), Hugh Fraser (Arthur Hastings) and Philip Jackson (Japp Inspector).

In the opinion of expert, David Suchet would be most credible of Hercule Poirot of large and the small screen, and in any case most faithful to the character imagined by the novelist.

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