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Loading... Dumb Witness (1937)by Agatha Christie
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Books Read in 2013 (42) Books Read in 2016 (2,721) Books Read in 2023 (2,100) » 8 more No current Talk conversations about this book. Very enjoyable whodunnit ( ![]() I am re-reading this for my U3A Agatha Christie Reading class. I read it on my Kindle because it enables me to make notes as I go, so I can come up with discussion questions. I have found that these questions help to bring the plot back to the people in the class. So here are some of the questions I want to discuss: This novel leaps straight into the fact that Emily Arundell has died. Did you know straight away who the narrator was? What did you base this on? Do you expect this narrator to be reliable? What do you learn straight away about the Arundell family, and about Emily's character in particular? What does it mean to say the family were"service people"? When is this novel set? Are there any clues? Emily Arundell has not been well for a number of years. What causes her ill health? Why would various members of the family like to see her death? What caused Emily to fall down the stairs? When Emily wrote to Poirot she "crossed and recrossed the page". What do you envisage that to look like? Why did people do that? We find out in Chapter 5 that Hastings is the narrator. How did he come up with the detail evident in the first 4 chapters (dialogue, thoughts etc) Why did so much time elapse between the writing of the letter to Poirot and its final delivery? Hastings can't see why Poirot wants to follow this up. What is Poirot's reasoning? Bob the dog is made a real character. How does Christie do this? Hastings challenges Poirot's decision to tell "white lies" in his search for information about what happened to Emily Arundell. Do you think Emily meant to destroy her new will? Why? What caused the "halo" around Miss Arundell's head at the seance? If Emily had not made a new will, how would her estate have been distributed? If she hadn't told the family about the new will, would she have been murdered? Who did you suspect of plotting the murder? Did you change your mind? How difficult was it to work out? Bear in mind the fact that Poirot said he had concluded that there could only be one person, but Hastings could not work it out. What did you think of Poirot's account of what had happened? Why did he give Bella a copy of his conclusions? What he fear would happen if he didn't do this? Was justice done? How does Agatha Christie demonstrate her own knowledge of poisons? What happens to the dog Bob? Does he feature at all in later books? If Bob could talk.... Would he have been able to say who murdered Emily? Bob the dog was super cute! The mystery itself didn't pique my interest too much, but as always Agatha Christie is eminently readable. Love Christie’s work, always a good read! Fortunately saw the T.V. version the night before I picked this up randomly, delighted to have seen Bob the dog, wire-haired Terrier, and his trick rolling the ball down the stairs, running down and catching it himself. Not in the book, where he pushes the ball downstairs, and Charles catches it, throws it back up. Also, Bob's not on a "lead" in the book; he heels, though Poirot in the film has him leashed. Nor does Poirot himself advise Emily Arundell on making a new will; in fact, Poirot only arrives after Miss Arundell has died. Nor does Charles have a grand, fast boat in the novel, though he does still need money. Serious personality differences such as the Greek Dr. Tanios, who is fat, jolly and amusing in the novel, and yes, despised as a foreigner (from Smyrna) in both. In the film, he's another handsome actor, a loss in variety. At dinner, Dr. Tanios amuses; not in the film, where it's hard to see his charm. Poirot finally arrives in Chapter V, at breakfast, reading letters and sorting into four piles; he re-reads the one, cross-written, from Emily Arundell, months earlier. Hercule drinks chocolate eveyr morning at breakfast. Hastings' car is a second-hand Austin. The T.V. film made several improvements in addition to the dog's great trick: Poirot meets Emily Arundell, and even advises her to make a new will, whereas in her novel Poirot only arrives after she dies. Also, the inheritrix Lawson lives in Bayswaater, in a flat crowded with too much furniture, while the spendthrift niece Theresa lives in Chelsea, on the river, in a house almost without furniture, probably sold as she works through her 30K pound inheritance. Her fiance Dr Donaldson is "a stick" who also needs money, not personally, but for lab research. Bella and Dr. Tarios live at the Durham Hotel, Bloomsbury, a part of London I know well from stayig at B&B's nearby, and of course the British Museum, as well as the literary Bloomsbury Group. Theresa's brother Charles has no fancy motorboat (a fine film addition) but whiles away money on gambling--visually so much less interesting (107). The novel has a great scene on Dr. Grainger's "bullying" Miss Emily into taking her medicine because "You show me anyone who's lived to over seventy [in the late 1930's] and you show me a fighter, someone who's got the will to live"(54). Charles confesses that Atty Purvis tried to dissuade Aunt Emily from her 2nd will. And after Charles tells the narrator Hastings that Aunt Emily showed him the new will, Poirot exits, and slams the door as if he's left, but goes back to hear at a crack in the door, Theresa shout "You Fool!" to her brother (111, end of Ch.XIV). Poirot then exits quickly, shutting the door silently. Evidently a detective's skill, how to shut the door quietly or... with a bang. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesHercule Poirot (14) Belongs to Publisher SeriesThe Albatross Crime Club (No. 428) I classici del giallo [Mondadori] (1147, 557, 236) Fontana (250) — 7 more SaPo (6) Scherz Krimi (689) Selecciones de Biblioteca Oro (libro 142) Vampiro (205) Weltbild SammlerEditionen (48049) Öölane (5) Is contained inAgatha Christie Crime Collection: And Then There Were None, Dumb Witness, The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie A Poirot Quintet: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; The Mystery of the Blue Train; Dumb Witness; After the Funeral; Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie Death on the Nile; Dumb Witness; Appointment with Death; Murder for Christmas; Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie Has the adaptationIs an expanded version of
An elderly spinster has been poisoned in her country home... Everyone blamed Emily's accident on a rubber ball left on the stairs by her frisky terrier. But the more she thought about her fall, the more convinced she became that one of her relatives was trying to kill her. On April 17th she wrote her suspicions in a letter to Hercule Poirot. Mysteriously he didn't receive the letter until June 28th... by which time Emily was already dead... No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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