6. Agatha Christie (1923), Murder on the Links
Thursday, 9 April 2009 21:12![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strange_complexSo, back to Poirot! I've got loads of them to get through now, after all.
This is Hastings' second outing, and takes the duo to northern France. There, of course, Hastings serves the very useful linguistic purpose of being the only person present in quite a large number of scenes who needs everything to be explained to him in English. That said, there are a number of other scenes in which he isn't present and Poirot discusses the developments of the case with local French officials, but Christie takes the classic SF approach of just carrying on as though everyone spoke English anyway. She even continues to characterise Poirot via the use of French phrases and syntax, while the French characters around him converse in perfect English - which is slightly disconcerting.
The story is again largely as replicated by the TV adaptation, but with a few differences which speak volumes about the approaches and priorities of each. In the book Poirot and Hastings go to Merlinville (the scene of the action) in the first place because they are summoned there by a letter from the murder victim, Paul Renauld, written before his death. As it transpires, their presence was intended by Renauld to help reinforce the impression that he had been murdered, when he actually intended to fake his own death. The fact that, after all, he was murdered anyway represented the intervention of a third party, and was not part of the clever scheme he had concocted. In the TV adaptation, though, Poirot and Hastings' presence on the scene (this time, the real northern French town of Deauville) is a coincidence. They have gone there, not because Renauld has drawn them into his clever plans, but because Hastings wants to avail himself of the local golfing facilities.
The result of the change is that in the TV version, the plot is somewhat weakened. Renauld's fake-death plan comes across as less carefully worked out, and we have less reason to believe the false impression of the circumstances of his death which it creates in the novel. This is part of a general simplification strategy which keeps the main lines of the plot intact, but dispenses with a few red herrings and merges a rather confusing pair of twins into one person. On the other hand, the characterisation is immensely strengthened. In particular, there is some great Poirot / Hastings tension, as Poirot gradually realises about the golf, and sees that Hastings' claims about Deauville being a famous centre of gastronomy were in fact a ruse to get him to agree to go there - which is then sweetly resolved as it turns out that the local cuisine does live up to Poirot's expectations after all.
In short, then, the novel is stronger on the plot, but the TV adaptation is stronger on characterisation. And, as I observed for the last Poirot novel I read, the TV version is better on detail and richesse, too. Once again, Christie gives us lots of dialogue and action, but very little setting and atmosphere. And my personal preference is very much for the TV approach.
That said, I was distinctly impressed by the literary twist which she suddenly served up on the last page. Throughout the novel, Hastings has been involved in a blossoming romance with a young lady whom he has known mainly as 'Cinderella'. Meanwhile, once Poirot has resolved the mystery of Paul Renauld's murder, his surviving wife and son decide to move away from France, and make a new life for themselves in South America. Hastings, in his role as the narrative voice, wraps matters up thus:
In other words, all of a sudden Christie is drawing attention to the fictional nature of her story, both by suggesting that Hastings is an unreliable narrator who may be relating what he wanted to happen, rather than what actually did happen, and by suddenly transforming her two characters into figures from a romantic fairy tale. In some ways, it's rather out of keeping with the straightforward tone of the rest of the novel - but it is nice to see the occasional touch of something a bit more interesting popping up alongside all the careful plotting, in any case.
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This is Hastings' second outing, and takes the duo to northern France. There, of course, Hastings serves the very useful linguistic purpose of being the only person present in quite a large number of scenes who needs everything to be explained to him in English. That said, there are a number of other scenes in which he isn't present and Poirot discusses the developments of the case with local French officials, but Christie takes the classic SF approach of just carrying on as though everyone spoke English anyway. She even continues to characterise Poirot via the use of French phrases and syntax, while the French characters around him converse in perfect English - which is slightly disconcerting.
The story is again largely as replicated by the TV adaptation, but with a few differences which speak volumes about the approaches and priorities of each. In the book Poirot and Hastings go to Merlinville (the scene of the action) in the first place because they are summoned there by a letter from the murder victim, Paul Renauld, written before his death. As it transpires, their presence was intended by Renauld to help reinforce the impression that he had been murdered, when he actually intended to fake his own death. The fact that, after all, he was murdered anyway represented the intervention of a third party, and was not part of the clever scheme he had concocted. In the TV adaptation, though, Poirot and Hastings' presence on the scene (this time, the real northern French town of Deauville) is a coincidence. They have gone there, not because Renauld has drawn them into his clever plans, but because Hastings wants to avail himself of the local golfing facilities.
The result of the change is that in the TV version, the plot is somewhat weakened. Renauld's fake-death plan comes across as less carefully worked out, and we have less reason to believe the false impression of the circumstances of his death which it creates in the novel. This is part of a general simplification strategy which keeps the main lines of the plot intact, but dispenses with a few red herrings and merges a rather confusing pair of twins into one person. On the other hand, the characterisation is immensely strengthened. In particular, there is some great Poirot / Hastings tension, as Poirot gradually realises about the golf, and sees that Hastings' claims about Deauville being a famous centre of gastronomy were in fact a ruse to get him to agree to go there - which is then sweetly resolved as it turns out that the local cuisine does live up to Poirot's expectations after all.
In short, then, the novel is stronger on the plot, but the TV adaptation is stronger on characterisation. And, as I observed for the last Poirot novel I read, the TV version is better on detail and richesse, too. Once again, Christie gives us lots of dialogue and action, but very little setting and atmosphere. And my personal preference is very much for the TV approach.
That said, I was distinctly impressed by the literary twist which she suddenly served up on the last page. Throughout the novel, Hastings has been involved in a blossoming romance with a young lady whom he has known mainly as 'Cinderella'. Meanwhile, once Poirot has resolved the mystery of Paul Renauld's murder, his surviving wife and son decide to move away from France, and make a new life for themselves in South America. Hastings, in his role as the narrative voice, wraps matters up thus:
And what of Captain Arthur Hastings, humble chronicler of these pages?
There is some talk of his joining the Renaulds on a ranch across the seas, but for the end of this story I prefer to go back to a morning in the garden of the Villa Geneviève.
'I can't call you Bella,' I said, 'since it isn't your name. And Dulcie [her real name] seems so unfamiliar. So it's got to be Cinderella. Cinderella married the Prince, you remember. I'm not a Prince, but --'
She interrupted me.
'Cinderella warned him, I'm sure. You see, she couldn't promise to turn into a princess. She was only a little scullion after all --'
'It's the Prince's turn to interrupt,' I interpolated. 'Do you know what he said?'
'No?'
'"Hell!" said the Prince -- and kissed her!'
And I suited the action to the word.
In other words, all of a sudden Christie is drawing attention to the fictional nature of her story, both by suggesting that Hastings is an unreliable narrator who may be relating what he wanted to happen, rather than what actually did happen, and by suddenly transforming her two characters into figures from a romantic fairy tale. In some ways, it's rather out of keeping with the straightforward tone of the rest of the novel - but it is nice to see the occasional touch of something a bit more interesting popping up alongside all the careful plotting, in any case.
Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.
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Date: Friday, 10 April 2009 11:49 (UTC)The scenario you suggest, of actual French with subtitles, would indeed be unthinkable for a show of this nature - too alienating, and too distracting from the generally light-hearted, escapist tone of the stories. Although, that said, there are also one or two scenes in Death in the Clouds (partially set in Paris) when Poirot does exchange a few fairly simple sentences in French with characters who are unable to speak English. No subtitles are provided at all - translation issues are handled by having an English character also present, who then needs the basics of the conversation to be glossed by Poirot afterwards. But that would become very unwieldy, too, if it was overdone. I think it was only done at all in this case because quite a lot of the characterisation and atmosphere in this particular story revolves around the communication divide between the English-speaking and French-speaking characters.
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Date: Friday, 10 April 2009 12:20 (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, 10 April 2009 12:42 (UTC)And I would thoroughly recommend the TV adaptation of Murder on the Links - I think it is a great deal better than the book, and it has some really god actors in it, too.