Political scientist Stephen Bronner has noted that in another Poirot novel, “The Big Four” (1927) Christie made a satirical reference to “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a fabricated anti-Semitic text about a supposed Jewish plan for world domination, by alluding to a conspiracy text entitled “The Hidden Hand in China.”Ĭhristie specialist Gillian Gill was unequivocal: Worse in a way, her casual comments illustrate the stereotypes and caricatures widespread in British society of her day.”Īs alert to current trends as her brilliant Belgian detective Poirot, Christie would insert allusions to Jewish history into her narratives.
In “Challenges in Jewish-Christian Relations” the religious historian Martin Forward wrote of “reflex antisemitism” among 20th century popular writers in Great Britain: “A particularly noteworthy example of such unthinking prejudice is Agatha Christie, the so-called Queen of Crime.”įorward cited the novel “Three Act Tragedy” (1935) a Poirot mystery in which “barbed language about Jews appears,” in addition to “many more of her works…The point is not that was a particularly virulent exponent of anti-Jewishness or even consciously anti-Jewish. The upcoming “Agatha Christie’s Poirot” (William Morrow) by UK television historian and Christie superfan Mark Aldridge does not mention anti-Semitism.īut then, the matter has been investigated elsewhere.
Thenceforth, American readers have had an edulcorated view of just how anti-Semitic Christie’s earlier books were.įor some Christie fans, the subject remains taboo. This effort at retrospective image-polishing was not done in her native England. While Christie’s novels are a mechaya for researchers thinking about Yiddishkeit, some previously published content, long suppressed in the USA, might cause eyebrows to be raised today.Īfter World War II, Christie’s literary agent authorized her US publisher to silently delete anti-Semitic references in reprints of her pre-war novels. Sometimes historical Jews have even been retrospectively assimilated to Christie’s Belgian detective, as when the biographer Jane Ridley referred to 19th century philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch’s “waxed Hercule Poirot-like mustaches.” In the case of a scholarly investigation of the past, especially of this nature, we do not have this confirmation after our sleuthing.” “When Christie’s Hercule Poirot sets out his case in front of a tense audience of suspects, someone generally confesses to clinch the accuracy of his cool reconstruction of events. Similarly, in “Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria,” Joan Taylor, a historian of religions, wrote: “An analogy to the modus operandi of Hercule Poirot may not be out of place - pale as my skills at detection may be by contrast to those of Agatha Christie’s master sleuth, not to mention to Agatha Christie’s mastery of the written word: first the long build-up, the problems carefully arrayed, then Poirot confronting the assembled suspects and meticulously sorting out the clues.” In “Jewish Dogs: An Image and Its Interpreters” Kenneth Stow introduced a new interpretation of Hebrew texts this way: She was so true, so sure of me and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint.Even the world of Jewish historical scholarship has been inspired by Poirot’s delving into the past to find solutions. Agatha overcame her Disability by encouragement from her mom who wanted her to continue on. How did Agatha Christie overcome dysgraphia?Īgatha Christie most of all had a hard time spelling throughout her life.