Why Miss Marple has no place in the modern world, and why books about her are so popular today

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

If other heroes of classic detective stories - take the same Sherlock Holmes - can be easily entered into modern realities, give the character the opportunity to live a new life in new works, for some reason this trick does not work with Miss Marple, it exists only in the books of Agatha Christie. for some reason, it is impossible to reproduce such an old detective in the 21st century. And at the same time, the stories of this old maid's investigations have now and then been drawn by readers for generations. Why does the world need the real Miss Marple, and what prevents the creation of her more modern counterparts?

The story of the birth of seventy-year-old Jane Marple

Miss Marple first appeared on the pages of a detective novel in 1930. Its creator, Agatha Christie, nee Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, by that time had gone through an unsuccessful marriage that ended in a difficult divorce, became a famous writer, whose main brainchild was the little Belgian Hercule Poirot, and remarried. Maximillian Mallowan, an archaeologist, 15 years older than Christie, loved his wife, she reciprocated.

In September 1930, the wedding took place, and in the same year the first novel about Miss Marple appeared - Murder at the Vicar's House. True, back in 1927, the collection of stories "Thirteen Mysterious Cases" was published on the pages of The Royal Magazine, which also featured an old detective.

Agatha Christie immediately made Miss Marple an elderly lady, which she later regretted, because the old woman had to appear in books for several more decades. The same story happened with Hercule Poirot, who from book to book remained a detective of advanced years, forcing the writer to think whether it would not be better to start describing his adventures from childhood? But such consistency does not harm the charm of Miss Marple, since both in 1930 and in 1971, when the last of the novels about her was written, the old woman was the embodiment of something irretrievably lost, but not forgotten - either the Victorian era, or readers' own childhood.

The second novel, The Forgotten Murder, was written in 1940, but it went to print after the death of Agatha Christie, 36 years later. In the period from 1942 to 1971, ten more novels about Miss Marple were born.

What is she, a quiet old lady from St. Mary Meade?

You can easily notice the changes that the character has undergone - if in the first book Miss Marple is an overly curious, talkative and rather annoying old woman, then in later books she becomes less and less verbose, more and more tactful, pleasant for interlocutors. Jane Marple is an old maid who has lived for many years in the English village of St. Mary Mead and occasionally makes trips to London or goes on more distant travels.

Miss Marple has never worked, she has a small income of her own, and in addition, her beloved nephew, the famous writer Raymond West, provides financial assistance to the old woman. Among the main activities of this elderly lady are knitting for numerous relatives and their children, caring for plants in a small garden, social activities befitting a lady of the Victorian era, and also observing human nature, those that give Miss Marple not only food for reasoning, but also the key to solving complex detective puzzles.

Despite the fact that the old lady's speech is always confused and confused, which makes her seem like a harmless strange old woman, her mind is clear and cold, Miss Marple is an excellent analyst, not to mention the fact that she does not lose sight of a single trifle, which later become key details in the overall picture of what happened. Miss Marple is always aware of all the events in the vicinity - which, in truth, is not a peculiarity of exclusively English ladies - but she shows an interest so decently, in English, that readers around the world associate it not with annoying interference in someone's personal affairs. rather, with a persistent, naive, but polite interest in privacy. The interest shown by a completely safe-looking person - and at the same time one of the best detectives, to whom Scotland Yard takes off his hat.

About who became the prototype of Miss Marple, various guesses arose, they found in her the features of the writer herself. Agatha Christie talked about how one day she "found an old reticule in the attic of one of the grandmothers' house, shook out crumbs from sweet crackers, two pennies and half-rotted lace - here's Miss Marple for you." creation was primarily the grandmother of the writer Margaret West (Miller), who was cheerful, but always suspected the worst in people - and often turned out to be right, as well as her friends, the same active sociable old ladies. The surname itself - Marple - was probably taken from the name of the railway station, which Christie often passed by.

Why Miss Marple is not destined to break out of the books written by Christie

Miss Marple, along with Hercule Poirot, became not only the main brainchildren of Agatha Christie during her many years of writing career, they personify the English detective in general, and whatever one may say, no one could create a similar and just as beloved by readers after Christie, despite the fact that attempts constantly undertaken - so, Akunin appeared Miss Palmer in the story "Tea Party in Bristol."

Agatha Christie was once asked the question - why did not these two meet in any of her works? "It is unlikely that they both would like this," - replied the writer. Poirot, in her opinion, would not have endured interference in his affairs, especially from an elderly lady. And, apparently, Poirot and Miss Marple have different approaches to investigations - or are they basically similar?

Miss Marple was not slow to appear on the screens, in the movie her role was first played by Agatha Christie's friend, Margaret Rutherford. Five films were released between 1961 and 1965. On television, Jane Marple appeared even earlier - in 1956, then her role was played by Gracie Fields. Later, several more actresses were reincarnated on the screen as an old detective, but Joan Hickson remained perhaps the most famous, who played in the film adaptation of all twelve novels about Miss Marple. Back in 1946, Agatha Christie said to Joan, a rather young then: "I hope that one day you will play my dear Miss Marple."

In the television versions of Christie's detectives, one can often notice deviations from the texts of the books - as, for example, in the story "At 4.50 from Paddington", the character of Mrs. McGillicady, the witness of the murder, is completely excluded, instead of her, Miss Marple herself appears next to the crime scene. However, any interference in the author's intention, in the idea that Agatha Christie created, runs the risk of spoiling the effect of the story, and therefore must be carried out very carefully. As for the books, there is no competition for the published stories about Miss Marple, again and again fans of the detective turn to the novels read many times about the investigations of an old maid who seems to have no place in the modern world. Strictly speaking, Miss Marple has always been a little old-fashioned - immediately after her birth at the age of seventy.

It is also old-fashioned for the present reader - and the reality in which this character is placed is probably turning into an island of peace, tranquility and nostalgia. After all, it is difficult to imagine such a leisurely, thoughtful, thorough investigation of a murder in an age of constant movement, speed, fuss and solving several cases at the same time. And the value of one human life has fallen dramatically: a modern person will hardly be intrigued by the find of a corpse in the library of a private house.

And that is why, perhaps, the attractiveness of all those "murders" is so great that Miss Marple is investigating: after all, reading Christie, you can imbue with already lost values, views, see with the help of the writer every little thing in houses and surroundings, delve into every word of those involved in the investigation, immerse yourself in thinking about cause and effect.

One of the film incarnations of "Miss Marple" was Angela Lansbury, who played in 1980 in The Mirror Cracked, she may have come closest to the popularity of the lady detective in Murder, She Wrote.