The best era of Hercue
As the stories of Hercue Poirot spanned over 59 years, and over the course of each era/decade the life and cases of Hercue Poirot change. I wonder which decade you prefer, or if you were ONLY allowed to read all the stories of one era which would be?
Is it the 1910s, Poirot Police years are examined in The Chocolate Box, The Mysterious Affair At Styles introduces us to Inspector Japp, Captain Hastings and Styles during WWI, then we have the celebration of the Victor Ball.
Or is it 1920s, the majority stories are short-stories, Poirot is gaining his fame. Hastings is in most of them, Poirot has his Private Detective Career. Poriot solves The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, also Vs. evil criminals in The Big Four.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Or it could be the 1930s the most novels featuring Poirot are in this decade, Poirot is at the height of his career. He solves The ABC murder, Murder On the Orient Express. We still also have the short-stories as well.
Perhaps it is the 1940s, the first half of the stories have interesting minimal locations, The Hollow is set in a country house, Evil Under the Sun takes place at a sea side hotel. Hastings is no longer in the stories. If you didn't like him you may prefer these stories, they are also solely third person narration.
Moving on to the 1950s, Mrs Oliver becomes a recurring character. No more short stories, purely novels. We start to get Poirot not appearing much in the novels like in Cat Among the Pigeons where he makes his appearance 2/3 of the way through, this is good if you think Poirot is focused too much in the earlier ones.
The 1960s, only 3 novels published in this decade, The Clocks, Third Girl, and Halloween Part, Poirot now only excepts cases that interest him and is partly retired, do you prefer it like this? Poirot goes back into the thriller genre like The Big Four in The Clocks, Third Girl features the return of Miss Oliver and Halloween Party is perhaps the darkest Christie story yet.
Finally the 1970s only 2 novels made by Agatha Christie with Poirot, they are: Elephants Can Remember and Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. If you felt there were too many stories in the others then this decade is for you. Elephants features the return of Mrs Oliver for the last time. In Curtain we see the return of Styles and Hastings as well as the death of Poirot. Also if you like modern stories then the 70s is still quite recent.
So which decade do you think is the best?
Comments
I like a lot of the 40's. First of all, there's Evil Under the sun, my favorite one and Five Little Pigs, another amazing book!
But I think I will follow the majority and take as the best era of Poirot the 30's. Lord Edgware dies, Death on the Nile are excellent and, of course the masterpieces ABC Murders, Cards on the Table and Murder on the Orient Express.