Agatha Christie [Paperback]

Janet Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1997

Using family papers and other protected material, this biography sheds light on Agatha Christie's life, work and relationships.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Invited to write this "authorized biography" by Christie's daughter, Morgan had access to the private Christie papers - letters, manuscripts, diaries, etc. - and to previously un-forthcoming interview subjects. But, while the result is thickly detailed and occasionally intriguing, there's little new light shed on the subjects of greatest interest or importance: the sources of Christie's fearsomely lethal imagination, the reasons for her work's phenomenal success, and the truth about her famous disappearance. In documenting Agatha's Victorian childhood (so gorgeously evoked in AC's Autobiography), Morgan does come up with a few teasing, unexplored clues: her older sister's "passion for disguise," her father's love of amateur theatricals, the feeling that this serene childhood "was vaguely, but not unmanageably, disturbed beneath" the surface. When it comes to that 1926 scandale, Morgan reviews all the evidence, considers every theory, and settles on the most commonly held view (nervous breakdown, genuine temporary amnesia) - while railing at the "greedy, sensational, and importunate" press. And some of Christie's recurring themes - in the revealing Mary Westmacott novels as well as the mysteries - are remarked upon: maternally possessive love, evil and innocence, mirrors, disguise. Unfortunately, however, though Morgan uses the AC notebooks to provide a glimpse of a Christie plot's development from first notion to finished puzzle, her commentary on the mysteries is painfully thin: there's virtually no attempt at critical assessment; only the most obvious life/work parallels are noticed; faulty generalizations abound ("Her books do not make the blood run quicker"); the few strong insights are duly credited lifts from Robert Barnard's A Talent to Deceive. Nor is there anything surprising in the portrait of Agatha herself: industrious, good-natured, insular (the anti-Semitism), "self-protective." And the bulk of this biography, especially in later chapters, is devoted to the minutiae of travel, publishing, playwrighting, and domestic life. In sum: a valuable gathering of facts, documents, and testimony - but too superficial to please serious students of the genre, too lumbering to engage most fans (who'll prefer to stick with the imperfect yet irresistible Autobiography). (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (February 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006369618
• ISBN-13: 978-0006369615
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,911,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Agatha Book Ever, May 27, 2011

By 

dearjanemarple (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Agatha Christie (Paperback)

I recently read Janet Morgan's biography of Agatha Christie. I take umbrage with her sophomoric critical judgements of Agatha's writing. Consider the following passage: The feelings and beliefs Agatha revealed through her writing, if only there, were genuine and strongly held. That, as well as the fact that her work dealt with familiar, universal themes, accounts for the success of her books and plays. Their style is not graceful or magical, their characters are stereotypes, the plots often implausible, but her work is sincere and, for all its contrivance, spontaneous. (Chapter 18, pg. 250). I suppose one almost has to expect such dismissive arrogance when a mediocrity tries to explain a genius. The name "Janet Morgan" will, in the end, simply be remembered as someone who wrote about the great Agatha Christie, a woman whose name will be universally celebrated for ages to come. Although, I suspect people may, in future generations, if not now, read Janet Morgan's prose and say to themselves,"Her style is not graceful, but I guess her work is sincere, for all her contrivance". They might also think to themselves that any hackneyed writer worth his or her salt could write a decent biography if named the official biographer and been given access to journals, papers, and interviews with almost all of her living friends and relatives. Sorry Janet ... just not a fan!

P . S . Christopher Hitchen's wrote an excellent review of Janet's biography of Edwina Mountbatten (look it up).