Customer Reviews

Labours of Hercules (Masterpiece Edition Poirot)

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Published in 1947, THE LABORS OF HERCULES finds Agatha Christie writing in a bright, slightly relaxed manner. The result is a mixture of mystery, adventure, and an unexpected literary conceit: she transforms the ancient Greek mythology of the twelve labors of Hercules into a modern mythology of the twelve labors of Hercules--Poirot, that is. And the resulting work is quite charming.

The book will be best appreciated by those who have actually read a bit of Ancient Greek mythology. Much of its charm comes from the clever manner in which Christie juxtaposes the physical strength of the ancient Hercules with the mental power of the modern Hercules and the witty way in which she transforms the ancient stories into a 20th Century setting. The Learnean Hydra becomes malicious gossip; The Augean Stables concerns a dirty political scandal; and so on. It is exceptionally well thought out and written with tremendous humor.

The book consists of a short preface and twelve stories, two of which have been widely anthologized: The Nemean Lion, which finds a wily lapdog at the center of a dognapping gang; and The Girdle of Hyppolita, which concerns a missing art treasure. And from a "mystery" point of view, these are very likely the best of the twelve stories, for on this occasion Christie is much less concerned with creating a head-spinning plot than she is in having fun. But each of the stories has its own charms, with the concluding The Capture of Cerebus among my favorites.

Many writers consider the short story the single most difficult narrative form, and many a famous novelist has run aground on the genre--including quite a few mystery novelists, Dorothy Parker among them. But at her best, Christie was as comfortable with the short story as with the novel. While this particular collection doesn't quite top her own Miss Marple's TUESDAY CLUB MURDERS short story collection, it is extremely well done nonetheless. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

If you're interested in an unabridged audio version, the Raymond Massey recording is excellent, although it omits both the prologue and the last paragraph or so of the final adventure. In the prologue, Poirot plans, as an artistic finale to his career, to take 12 last cases - no more - in imitation of the Labours of Hercules, before retiring to grow vegetable marrows. (He even followed through - see _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd_ for Poirot in retirement.)

"The Nemean Lion" - Poirot dreamed of a really grand case for his first labour - but the excellent Miss Lemon has recommended a man who wants Poirot to investigate the disappearance of his wife's Pekinese dog. Alas, it has one unusual feature that makes Poirot curious...This case is mentioned occasionally in later years (e.g. in _Hickory Dickory Dock_), though not by name.

"The Lernean Hydra" - The many-headed monster, in this case, is the rumour that Dr. Oldfield poisoned his wife to be free to marry his assistant. Poirot begins by asking Miss Moncrieffe to introduce him to the biggest gossip in the village. Stripped of its trimmings, this case has the same core situation as the Marple story _The Blue Geranium_.

"The Arcadian Deer" - When Poirot's hired car breaks down in the snow, Ted Williamson (a young mechanic with the face of a Greek god), approaches him, and asks him to find Nita, a pretty girl met by chance and never seen again. As lady's maid to a Russian dancer then staying with Sir George, she might be in a jam, considering the crowd that Sir George runs with...

"The Erymanthian Boar" - His last case having brought him to Switzerland, Poirot receives a note from an old friend who's trying to capture alive the killer Marrascaud - a man with a wild pig's soul.

"The Augean Stables" - The Prime Minister, Edward Ferrier, and his party forced Ferrier's father-in-law to retire when they uncovered his fiduciary misconduct - now they're asking Poirot for a miracle: to clean up the mess and avert a scandal that would destroy the party, now that _The X-Ray News_ has ferreted out the story.

"The Stymphalean Birds" - Harold Waring, a rising young politician on holiday, feels uneasy about the two harpy-like spinsters at his hotel. But who are the real monsters who feed on human misery? (Poirot enters rather late in the story to sort things out.)

"The Cretan Bull" - Hugh Chandler broke his engagement to Diana Maberly's engagement, fearing that he's inherited the streak of insanity that runs in his father's family. He left the Navy, but now he seems unsafe even for life in the country. So Poirot goes to see this young bull, once dedicated to Poseidon, when Diana insists that he can't be crazy.

"The Horses of Diomedes" - The wild horses that eat human flesh - in this case, a ring of cocaine smugglers. Young doctor Stoddart puts him onto some of the recipients, having been called in to tend the wreckage from a particularly wild party.

"The Girdle of Hyppolita" - In this case, a stolen work of that name by Rubens introduces Poirot to the case of a missing schoolgirl, which interests him very much indeed. (A tribe of modern Amazons, indeed.) She disappeared off the school train to France, just before arriving for her first term, leaving no trace. (If you want to see how Christie's mastery of her art, especially character development, improved over time, compare this with the much earlier "Case of the Kidnapped Prime Minister". Here she makes us *care* about what happened to the victim.)

"The Flock of Geryon" - Miss Amy Carnaby (former companion to Lady Hoggin in the first labour) has come to Poirot, seeking help for Mrs. Clegg, a widowed friend who has joined a cult - the Flock of the Shepherd. Several wealthy women have died after leaving all their money to the Cause...

"The Apples of the Hesperides" - Emery Power, a great financial force and a collector of historical works of art, believed for 10 years that Sir Reuben Rosenthal engineered the theft of his newly-purchased Cellini goblet (a gold cup, decorated with a serpent-and-apple tree motif, which once belonged to the Borgias). But Sir Reuben, now a business ally, didn't do it - so Power hires Poirot to recover the cup. ("If the affair were easy, it would not have been necessary to send for you.")

"The Capture of Cerberus" - Poirot sees Countess Rossakoff in a crowd on the Underground, and calls out, asking where he can find her. "In Hell!" And upon asking Miss Lemon what she would do if a friend said that, Miss Lemon replies, "I should ring up for a table." (!) So we meet the Countess in London's most fashionable nightclub, and of course, adventure follows in her wake.

Agatha Christie came up with some pretty unusual premises for her mysteries and this one is no exception. Hercule Poirot is enjoying a casual after-dinner conversation with a friend when the topic goes on to names and it is pointed out that his namesake Hercules became a Greek God and was instrumental in ridding the world of beasts and monsters. The idea piques Poirot's interest; he begins looking at himself as a modern-day version of Hercules whose task is to catch criminals - the modern version of monsters. He then resolves to take on 12 cases that in some way, are comparable to the original 12 labors of Hercules, and this forms the starting point. Each mystery is highly ingenious and introduces interesting new characters such as Miss Carnaby as well as old friends such as Inspector Japp and Countess Rossakoff. Christie is at her inventive best as she is able to present very modern themed stories concerning political corruption, drug trafficking, the phenomenon of cults, art thefts and confidence tricksters and still somehow link the stories to the original labors of Hercules. Very, very entertaining and an aboslute must for her fans!

Imagine- you have the strength of many men, you are famous for your feats, and you're a short Belgian detective named Hercule Poirot. Poirot's strength is not in his muscles like the legendary Greek hero, but instead in his mind, where his `little gray cells' make him fantastic at what he does. Christie is possibly the best mystery writer of her time, the depth and intrigue in her stories are amazing. The Labors of Hercules wasn't a great story for its mysteries, though. Its outlook on society and everything we believe in was phenomenal, and what topped it all was the metaphor between Poirot and Hercules. 2 heroes, yet of 2 completely different times, going about their `labors' in completely different fashions.

If you've never read a Poirot before, though, don't read this book first. You'll enjoy it a lot more if you go through the earlier books first.

I liked this book because while it's a collection of short stories, it is also a long story featuring Herclue Poirot. These 12 stories are almost more fun to read then a long murder mystery, because you can put down the book for a long time and then pick it up again without having to try to remember who all the characters are. One of my favorite Agatha Christie mysteries, I'd recommend it to all of her other fans.

This is a pretty good book. It introduced some new characters that I liked, for example, Amy Carnaby, who I wished would be in more of Poirot's books, and brought up old characters, like Vera Rossakoff, and Japp. The physcology and characterization was very good, although it's not one of her best books. I loved the many different settings and enjoyed the way each story related to each labour of the legendary Hercules. I recommend it for those who like short stories and see England of the 1930's.

As always, Hercule Poirot is on the verge of retirement. But before he settles down to cultivate vegetable marrows once and for all, he decides to take on twelve last cases, in honour of his famous mythological predecessor Hercules. The twelve cases are each quite different: from searching for a lost pet to hunting down a ferocious murderer.

Although this is widely considered to be the best of Christie's short story-collections, I do have some doubts about this statement. Personally I am not a big fan of the short stories featuring Hercule Poirot, where Jane Marple has had more success in this format. An obvious weakness of this particular collection is that in quite a few stories the conclusion is so utterly obvious, that you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery. What makes this collection worth reading though is the skilfully incorporated links to Greek mythology: sometimes quite burlesque, sometimes very subtle.

The stories listed in this collection are "The Apples of the Hesperides", "The Arcadian Deer", "The Augean Stables", "The Capture of Cerberus", "The Cretan Bull", "The Erymanthian Boar", "The Flock of Geryon", "The Gridle of Hyppolita", "The Horses of Diomedes", "The Lernean Hydra", "The Nemean Lion" and "The Stymphalean Birds".

Hercule Poirot faces retirement as he converses with classic scholar Dr. Burton. Poirot lacks a background in Greek mythology being busy solving murder cases from the Middle East to Mayfair. Poirot accepts the challenge from Burton to solve twelve cases with analogies to the labors of Hercules in myth. This is the premise for Agatha Christie's 1947 novel. The stories are unrealistic but provide hours of escapist reading.The cases are:

The Nemean Lion: No murders involved in this humorous tale. The dogs of rich and despicable old women are disappearing. Who has pilfered the pups? Meet Miss Carnaby a fascinating character who pops up in the last story in this collection.

The Lernean Hydra deals with Dr. Oldfield who is alleged to have poisoned his wife so as to be able to frolic with the fetching assistant who loves him. A solicitous nurse adds to the intrigue. Christie was fascinated and expert

on poisons.

The Arcadian Deer is a sweet story about a mechanic Ted Williamson in love with the maid of a famous Russian dancer. The maid has disappeared but we discover who she is as Poirot tracks her down in a faraway locale.

The Erymanthian Boar is set in a remote Swiss resort where a desperate murderer is hiding. Poiret is in the area due to the tremendous snow fall blocking exit.

The Augean Stables reminds readers of how Hercules cleaned out a huge stable with the flow of a river. This is a politcal tale of scandal dealing with the noble wife of the Prime Minister of Great Britain. This reviewer thought this was one of the best stories in this collection.Perhaps Prime Minister David Cameron should peruse this one!

The Stymphalean Birds finds Poiort in an Eastern European water hole. He meets aspiring British politician the callow Harold Waring. He is seduced and betrayed by two clever criminals but is rescued by Poirot with his reputation intact and his future among the femmes of Britian secure. This story has a superb and unexpected twist!

The Cretan Bull-The bull in this labyrinth is the wealthy Hugh Grant. Grant fears he has inherited the strain of insanity in his family because he fears he has cut the throats of sheep on a farm. Is in insane? Will he lose the love of a fetching neighbor madly in love with him? Read the tale as Hercule Poirot wins this bullfight!

The Horses of Diomedes refers to an odious group of cocaine smugglers wont to inhabit wild parties. One of the lesser tales.

The Girdle of Hyppolita is the name of a famous painting by Peter Paul Reubens (1577-1641) which is stolen. Poirot takes the case because it has gotten his little white cells busy in his eggshaped noggin. Linked to the art theft is the story of a young 15 year old English schoolgirl who has disappeared from a train speeding through France.

How are the crimes linked? Will the girl be found? Are imposters abroad in the land? Only Poirot knows for sure!

The Flock of Geryon: The fascinating former dog theif Amy Carnaby has a kooky friend who has joined a religious cult led by a cruel expert on drugs. Amy infiltrates the group helping Poirot save the day. Shades of Jim Jones and his Kool-Aid sipping cult.

The Apple of the Hesperides is the yarn of a rich man who has a golden goblet stolen. The cup belonged to the corrupt and murderous Borgia Pope Alexander VI. This story leads Poirot to of all places a nunnery where the story is resolved.

The Capture of Cerebus (the huge dog guarding the gates of hell). The story concerns the Hell nightclub in London operated by the older but still flamboyant Countess Rossakoff. She has been a jewel thief but the little Belgian is enamored of her. Is she involved in a gang of cocaine dealers?

I enjoy Christie's short stories because they have fewer characters to keep straight as Poiort unweaves the web of crime. While highly unrealistic this is a fine book! Enjoy!

Although presented in the format of a novel, "The Labors of Hercules" is really a collection of 12 short stories, each story corresponding to one of the classical 12 labors of the Greek hero Hercules. It is a clever idea, and the parallels are neatly done. The copyright dates indicate that Miss Christie wrote these stories over an 9-year span, 1939-1947. Perhaps this is a cause for the uneven quality of the stories; most are excellent, but few are just so-so.

Miss Christie's detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple in particular, are at their best in talking, listening, and picking out the vital information needed to reach a conclusion. The short story format does not allow for this kind of detection process; so we do not see Poirot in his usual modus operandi. Instead these stories are more reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes stories - faster pace, more emphasis on clues, and an almost magical solution.

Agatha Christie is the greatest. "The Labors of Hercules", although not among her best works, is very good indeed.

Poirot, nearing the end of his career, dreams of retirement, but an old friend reminds him of his namesake--Hercules. Hercule Poirot decides to take on his own set of twelve tasks. Each task ties into one of Hercules, and the way that the takes of Poirot are tied to the tasks of Hercules is quite clever. Each task will keep you guessing as to who is the real criminal. I was surprised almost every time. If you're looking for a good mystery novel, this is definitely one worth reading.