7.8 /10 1 Votes7.8
Cover artist Lambart Language English Publication date September 1933 | 3.9/5 Goodreads Country United Kingdom Originally published September 1933 Genre Crime Fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Media type Print (hardback & paperback) Similar Agatha Christie books, Hercule Poirot Mysteries books, Hercules books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lord Edgware Dies is [mapback] work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Thirteen at Dinner. Before its book publication, the novel was serialised in six issues (March–August 1933) of The American Magazine as 13 For Dinner.
Contents
- Plot summary
- Characters
- Alternative title
- Literary significance and reception
- Radio
- Film
- 1985 adaptation
- 2000 adaptation
- French television adaptation
- Publication history
- Book dedication
- Dustjacket blurb
- References
The novel features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings and Chief Inspector Japp. An American actress married to Lord Edgware asks Poirot to aid her in getting a divorce from her husband. Poirot agrees to help her, meeting her husband. That evening, the actress is seen at a dinner with thirteen guests, which has an associated superstition. By the next morning Lord Edgware and another American actress are found murdered, each at their own homes. Poirot investigates.
The novel was well received at publication, in both London and New York, noting the clue that came from the chance remark of a stranger, calling it ingenious. A later review called it clever and unusual.
Plot summary
The actress Jane Wilkinson asks Poirot to convince her husband Lord Edgware to agree to a divorce. When Poirot does so, Edgware says that he has already agreed to a divorce and written a letter to Jane informing her. When Poirot reports this to Jane, she denies having received the letter. That evening, two things happen. First, Lord Edgware is murdered in his study. Second, in the morning newspaper, it is reported that Wilkinson attended a prominent dinner party the previous evening.
Inspector Japp informs Poirot of the murder at Regent Gate. He reports that Jane Wilkinson went to Regent Gate, announced herself to the butler, was seen from above by the secretary, and entered her husband's study. He is not found until the next day. Jane is described as amoral by her fellow movie actor Bryan Martin, meaning she thinks and cares only about herself.
At the party, there were thirteen guests at the dinner table. One guest mentioned that thirteen people at table means bad luck for the first guest to rise. Guest Donald Ross thought he was first to rise, but Jane Wilkinson was first, when she answered a telephone call. On the morning Lord Edgware's murder is discovered, comedian/actress Carlotta Adams (known for her uncanny impersonations, including one of Wilkinson) is found dead from an overdose of Veronal, a death Poirot hoped he could prevent. A gold case with her initials marked in rubies and filled with the sleeping powder is found among her possessions. The case bears an inscription: "C.A. from D, Paris, November 10th Sweet Dreams".
Inspector Japp takes Lord Edgware's heir into custody; his nephew had needed money, which his cousin helped raise by loaning her pearls to him when they met at the opera the night Lord Edgware was murdered. The butler, who bore a striking resemblance to the actor Bryan Martin, disappeared from the house, as did money cashed in francs the last day of Lord Edgware's life. A few days later, Wilkinson attends another dinner party where several guests talk about Paris of Troy. Jane Wilkinson thinks that the guests refer to the French capital. Ross is confused because Jane was speaking knowledgeably about the Paris of Greek myth at the party on the night of the murder. Ross rings up Poirot about his concern. Before he can say what troubles him, he is stabbed to death at home. Poirot is frustrated waiting on the line, realizing what is happening, wishing Hastings had taken Ross to their flat from the dinner. Poirot pursues a new line of thought when he hears a chance remark from a crowd leaving a theatre about asking Ellis; he interviews the Ellis in this mystery.
Poirot gathers the suspects and details the trajectory of the three murders: With Carlotta Adams impersonating Wilkinson at dinner, the real Jane took a taxi to the Edgware house, where she murdered her husband. Later, Jane and Carlotta met to exchange clothing. Jane promised Carlotta a huge fee for this impersonation. Instead, Jane slipped a fatal amount of Veronal into Carlotta's drink. Jane found a letter Carlotta had written to her sister but not yet posted. Jane tore one page of the letter so it read "he" when Carlotta had written "she", putting blame for the scheme on the last man named in the letter. Jane then put the gold case in a visible spot to encourage the notion that Carlotta was addicted to the drug. Jane had ordered the gold case the week prior under a false name and had her maid go to Paris to pick it up, which Poirot discovered. Poirot realised that its engraving had no meaning. Carlotta had been knowledgeable about Greek mythology, so she talked about the subject easily with other guests at the first dinner party. Jane realised that Ross was a risk, as she watched him pursue Hastings, asking about Poirot at the end of the second dinner party. She heard Hastings say that Poirot would not be home until later. She killed Ross as he was on the telephone to Poirot.
Her motive for killing Lord Edgware was that the wealthy Duke of Merton is a Roman Catholic and would not marry a divorced woman; a widow is acceptable. From prison, she writes a letter to Poirot, remarkably devoid of remorse or anger that her scheme was foiled. She wonders why hangings are not done in public any more, as she perhaps preferred an audience.
Characters
Alternative title
Lord Edgware Dies is alternatively titled Thirteen at Dinner. This second title, used on American editions, arises from a superstition that sitting down thirteen to dinner means bad luck to the person who first leaves the table. The dinner at which Carlotta successfully impersonated Jane Wilkinson had an unexpected missing guest, leaving them thirteen instead of the invited fourteen. The superstition weighs heavily on young actor Donald Ross, but plays out for both him and Jane Wilkinson, and her impersonator.
Literary significance and reception
The Times Literary Supplement of 21 September 1933 reviewed the book positively, commenting on the fact that "it was the chance remark of a stranger in the street that put him on the right track. Three such murders, however, are enough to tax the powers of the most superhuman sleuth, and we do not grudge him one stroke of good fortune."
Isaac Anderson concluded his review in the 24 September 1933 issue of The New York Times Book Review by saying, "This story presents a most ingenious crime puzzle and a still more ingenious solution, all set forth with the consummate skill of which Agatha Christie is mistress."
Robert Barnard: "Deals with a social/artistic milieu rather off Christie's usual beat: aristocrats, actresses, socialites, rich Jews. The anti-Semitism is more muted than in the early thrillers, but still leaves a nasty taste (this is the last book in which it obtrudes). Otherwise clever and unusual, with the Hastings/Poirot relationship done less crudely than usual."
Radio
John Moffatt starred as Poirot in a five-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation by Michael Blakewell directed by Enyd Williams and also starring Simon Williams as Captain Hastings and Nicola Pagett as Jane Wilkinson.
Film
The novel was first adapted in 1934 as an eighty-minute film directed by Henry Edwards for Real Art Productions. The film was the third to star Austin Trevor in the role of Poirot after his appearances in Alibi and Black Coffee, both in 1931.
1985 adaptation
The novel was adapted for an eighty-seven-minute TV movie in 1985 starring Peter Ustinov in one of his six appearances as Poirot. The production was made under the US book title of Thirteen at Dinner and co-starred Faye Dunaway in the dual role of Jane Wilkinson and Carlotta Adams. The story was updated to be set in contemporary times and not in the 1930s. David Suchet played Chief Inspector Japp; Suchet would later play Poirot himself on the long-running ITV series.
2000 adaptation
The novel was adapted under the title Lord Edgware Dies in 2000 by Carnival Films as a two-hour drama and transmitted on ITV in the UK on Saturday, 19 February 2000 as a special episode in their series Agatha Christie's Poirot. The adaptation remains faithful to the plot and story of the novel, yet some minor changes were made such as:
- The character of Miss Felicity Lemon was added into the story.
- The story is set after the events of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in which Poirot returns to his apartment.
- The wife of the host of the first dinner party mentions the superstition about setting a table for thirteen. The information about the dinner party being attended by Wilkinson is learnt from speaking with her, and not from a newspaper.
- The inscription of the box was altered - the D was replaced with P, and there is no mention of Paris. Also, the box was collected by Wilkinson in disguise, not her maid.
- The name of Jenny Driver was changed to Penny Driver.
- Poirot's important clue near the end comes from Hastings, and not from a chance remark overheard at a theatre.
- The scene of Wilkinson writing to Poirot from jail is not included.
Adaptor: Anthony Horowitz
Director: Brian Farnham
Cast:
French television adaptation
The novel was adapted for French television as "Le couteau sur la nuque" ("The Knife on the Neck") in 2012, fr:Saison 1 des Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie. It was Episode 11 of Season 1 of the series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie ("The Little Murders of Agatha Christie"), which aired 14 September 2012. As with the other episodes, the setting was changed to France in the 1950s, and Christie's detectives were replaced by French characters: Commissaire Larosière (Antoine Duléry) and his clumsy assisstant, Inspecteur Lampion (Marius Colluci). The scene is a theater in the city of Amiens; the killer is glamorous actress Sarah Morlant (Maruschke Detmers), but her inconvenient husband is fellow actor Pierre Fougère (Jean-Marie Winling). There is an additional murder subplot involving the theater's concierge.
Publication history
Book dedication
The dedication of the book reads:
To Dr. and Mrs. Campbell Thompson
Reginald Campbell Thompson (21 August 1876 – 23 May 1941), married to Barbara, was an eminent British archaeologist and the second expedition leader to employ Christie's husband Max Mallowan to work on one of his digs. The offer of work came in 1930 when Mallowan's employer, Leonard Woolley, was proving difficult over his proposed marriage to Agatha and their wish that she should join her husband on the dig at Ur although the real opposition came from Leonard Woolley's difficult wife, Katharine (see the dedication to The Thirteen Problems). Thompson's dig was at Nineveh and Max joined the team there in September 1931 followed the next month by Agatha. The invitation was only confirmed after the Mallowans had joined Thompson for a weekend in the country near Oxford where they were subjected to a cross-country scramble on "the wettest day possible over rough country" followed by another test to ensure that neither Agatha nor Max were fussy eaters. These were to ensure that both could withstand the rigours of a season in the wilds of Iraq. Used to walking over Dartmoor and having a very healthy appetite, Agatha passed the tests with flying colours.
The relationship between the Mallowans and the Thompsons was far more relaxed than it had been with the Woolleys. The only source of contention was that Thompson was notoriously frugal with money and questioned every expense. Horses were a vital part of the expedition but Thompson only bought poor, badly-trained animals. He nevertheless insisted that Max ride them with skill as to fall off one would mean that "not a single workman will have a scrap of respect for you". Christie's clash with Thompson in regards to this facet of his character was over her insistence on purchasing a solid table to place her typewriter on in order that she could complete her next book. Not seeing why she couldn't use orange boxes, Thompson was aghast at her personal expenditure of ten pounds on a table at a local bazaar (although Max's recollection in his own memoir was that three pounds was the sum.) and he took some two weeks to recover his temper over this 'extravagance'. After this though, he made frequent polite enquiries over the progress of the book, Lord Edgware Dies, which was dedicated to him and his wife. A skeleton found on the dig was named 'Lord Edgware'. A singular honour that Christie bestowed on the Thompsons was to read aloud the manuscript of the book to them, something that she normally only ever did to her family (See External Links below).
Dustjacket blurb
The blurb on the inside flap of the dustjacket of the first edition (which is also repeated opposite the title page) reads: "Supper at the Savoy! Hercule Poirot, the famous little detective, was enjoying a pleasant little supper party there as the guest of Lady Edgware, formerly Jane Wilkinson, a beautiful young American actress. During the conversation Lady Edgware speaks of the desirability of getting rid of her husband. Lord Edgware, since he refuses to divorce her, and she wants to marry the Duke of Merton. M. Poirot jocularly replies that getting rid of husbands is not his speciality. Within twenty-four hours, however, Lord Edgware dies. This amazing story once more reveals Agatha Christie as the perfect teller of Detective stories. It will be difficult indeed to lay down the book until one learns the true solution of the mystery."