Miss Marple (Agatha Christie novels)

Miss Jane Marple is the amateur sleuth in twelve novels and twenty short stories by British author Agatha Christie. Marple is one of the most well-known fictional characters in the world and has been featured in numerous film, television, and radio adaptations. Although some disagree, many people regard the Marple novels as the first cozy mysteries and the template for the subgenre. Cozies generally feature amateur detectives, are set in small towns or neighborhoods, focus on a small cast of characters, tend to be more upbeat, and reach a satisfying conclusion—the criminal is caught, and justice is served. If they address social issues at all, cozy mysteries do so with a light touch. In 2022, Miss Marple was featured in twelve original tales by a dozen contemporary female authors. The collection, Marple, was sanctioned by Christie’s estate.

Background

Agatha Christie, who also wrote using the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, was born Agatha Miller on September 15, 1890, in Torquay, southwest England. Her father, Frederick Miller, was a wealthy American. Her mother, Clara, encouraged her imaginative youngest child to write. Christie had two older siblings, brother Monty and sister Madge. When she was eleven, her father died. She married Archie Christie in 1914. Their only child, Rosalind Hicks, was born in 1919.

Archie was a pilot during World War I, while Christie worked first as a volunteer nurse and later in a hospital dispensary. Her sister bet that Christie could not write a good detective story, and as she was bored with her work, she wrote a plot. She met many Belgian refugees who settled in Torquay; these inspired her to create a former Belgian policeman, Hercule Poirot, for her first novel. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) features a murder method inspired by her work in the dispensary—poison. Thanks to her ingenious application of poison, the novel, which was rejected by six publishers before the Bodley Head accepted it, was reviewed in the Pharmaceutical Journal.

In 1922, the couple went on a world tour as part of a trade mission. Already enamored with travel, Christie thoroughly enjoyed the ten-month sojourn, which included Australia, Botswana, Canada, Fiji, Hawaii, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Many of the sites they visited and people she met on the journey would later feature in her fiction.

Archie Christie asked for a divorce in 1926, not long after the death of Christie’s mother. Distraught after an argument, she left home and was missing for eleven days. A national manhunt ended when a stranger recognized her at a hotel. She had no memory of the eleven days.

The divorce was finalized in 1928. Christie traveled on the Orient Express alone in search of adventure and found it. She befriended archaeologist Leonard Woolley and his wife, Katherine, in Ur in modern-day Iraq. Through them, she met her second husband, British archaeologist and academic Max Mallowan. After their marriage in 1930, she accompanied him during the Middle East digging season from October through March. When she was not busy writing, she helped him clean, catalog, and photograph artifacts. In December 1931, she journeyed back to England on the Orient Express. A storm delayed the train by two days, during which time she closely observed the other passengers. The novel Murder on the Orient Express was published in 1934. Her novel Death on the Nile (1937) was likewise inspired by watching passengers on a cruise on that river in 1933.

Over the course of her career, Christie published eighty-three books under her name and that of her pseudonym. She also wrote the play The Mousetrap. Christie, who died January 12, 1976, remained one of the best-selling authors into the twenty-first century.

Overview

Miss Jane Marple is described as an elderly spinster, a gentle, white-haired old lady. In her first appearance, Miss Marple is somewhat acidic, but in later novels, she is more mild-mannered and inoffensive. She lives in St. Mary Mead, a small village, where everyone knows everyone’s business. Miss Marple spends her days gardening, gossiping, and knitting. As such an unassuming, mild person, she easily disarms others and therefore gains their confidence. She also is so adept at blending in that she often is overlooked, which allows her to observe others surreptitiously. This mild exterior belies a shrewd intelligence.

Miss Marple’s first appeared in a short story, “The Tuesday Night Club,” that was published in the December 1927 issue of Royal Magazine. It was also published in the collection The Thirteen Problems. Her readers were delighted by the character. The first Miss Marple novel, The Murder at the Vicarage, was published in 1930. The amateur detective soon rivaled Poirot in popularity with the mystery-reading public.

Christie said that she originally modeled Miss Marple on her grandmother. She said the woman was cheerful but always expected the worst of people and events. Though initially quite fussy, over the course of a dozen novels and twenty short stories, Miss Marple mellows somewhat.

Though Miss Marple has had several boyfriends, she never married. Her nearest relatives are nieces and nephews. The most common family members in her life are her nephew, author Raymond West, and his wife, who was originally named Joyce but in later books is Joan. Miss Marple’s household often includes a young woman from a nearby orphanage who Marple employs as a maid.

The Miss Marple novels have been adapted for film and television many times. Among the famed actresses to portray her are Margaret Rutherford, Angela Lansbury, Helen Hayes, Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan, and Julia McKenzie. Hickson starred in a BBC Miss Marple series that adapted all twelve novels from 1984 to 1992. Her portrayal is regarded as the most like the literary character. From 1993 to 2001, June Whitfield starred in the role in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation. Miss Marple’s first stage appearance was in a 1949 adaptation of The Murder at the Vicarage. Barbara Mullen, who was then thirty-five, was cast as the elderly sleuth.

Christie also voiced her creation. She penned wrote a radio story at the BBC’s request. Christie read the first-person tale, “Miss Marple Tells a Story,” in May 1934.

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Bibliography

Aldridge, Mark. “Miss Marple on Stage, Screen and Radio.” The Home of Agatha Christie, 1 Sept. 2022, www.agathachristie.com/news/2022/miss-marple-on-stage-screen-and-radio. Accessed 30 May 2024.

Bernthal, J. C. Agatha Christie: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction. McFarland, 2022.

Carson, Jan. “Agatha Christie: A Realist Writer Who Created True Literary Magic.” The Irish Times, 4 Nov. 2020, www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/agatha-christie-a-realist-writer-who-created-true-literary-magic-1.4392556. Accessed 29 May 2024.

Dallas, Sally. “Cozy Mystery History.” Mystery and Suspense Magazine, 30 July 2021, www.mysteryandsuspense.com/cozy-mystery-history/. Accessed 30 May 2024.

“Facts About Miss Marple.” The Home of Agatha Christie, 25 Sept. 2018, www.agathachristie.com/news/2018/facts-about-miss-marple. Accessed 30 May 2024.

Katz, Brigit. “Twelve Writers Bring Back Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.” Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Sept. 2022, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/twelve-writers-bring-back-agatha-christie-miss-marple-180980762/. Accessed 29 May 2024.

“Miss Marple.” The Home of Agatha Christie, www.agathachristie.com/characters/miss-marple. Accessed 29 May 2024.