Episode 79: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
This week on The Literary Life podcast, our hosts explore the popular Agatha Christie mystery novel, Death on the Nile. This discussion will contain spoilers, so if you haven\u2019t read or listened to the book yet, stop this episode! But before we get to the book chat, we want to announce that our brand new The Well Read Poem podcast is now live! Also, head over to HouseofHumaneLetters.com to check out the Winter Webinar Series and Kelly Cumbee\u2019s class on King Lear.
Angelina, Cindy and Thomas begin the book discussion with a comparison of the authors known as the \u201cQueens of Crime.\u201d They also talk about the form of detective novels and how Christie in particular plays with the form to keep readers on their toes. Thomas notes the similarities between Death on the Nile with Henry James\u2019 novel The Wings of the Dove. In addition to covering the plot of the story, our hosts walk us through the ways in which Christie writes in order to keep us guessing.
If you haven\u2019t heard it before, please go and listen to Episode 3: The Importance of the Detective Novel.
Commonplace Quotes:The sacrifices of friendship were beautiful in her eyes as long as she was not asked to make them.
Saki (pen name of H. H. Munro)
Pious worshipers, whether or mortal or immortal artists, do their deities little honor by treating their incarnations as something too sacred for rough handling. They only succeed in betraying a fear lest the structure should prove flimsy or false.
Dorothy Sayers
When We First Met\u201cOnce I went professionally to an arch\xe6ological expedition\u2013and I learnt something there. In the course of an excavation, when something comes up out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it. That is what I have been seeking to do\u2013clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth\u2013the naked shining truth.\u201d
Hercule Poirot, Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
by Robert Bridges
When first we met, we did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master;
Of more than common friendliness
When first we met we did not guess.
Who could foretell the sore distress,
This irretrievable disaster,
When first we met? -- We did not guess
That Love would prove so hard a master.
Beasts and Super-Beasts by Saki (H. H. Munro)
The Toys of Peace by Saki
The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
Leave It to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse
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Connect with Us:You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford,\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
Find Cindy at\xa0https://cindyrollins.net, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris\xa0and on Facebook at\xa0https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy\u2019s own Patreon page also!
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