Just Finished The Mysterious Affair At Styles

Ariadne

I just finished reading The Mysterious Affair At Styles. I loved that Captain Hastings was narrating it. Did anyone else feel a similarity between Hastings and Bertie Wooster from the Jeeves books by P.G. Wodehouse? I feel they are both bumbling (although Bertie is much more so, I think), a bit goofy, dense, but good-hearted. I love it that Christie incorporated humor into her mysteries. I kid you not, I laughed so hard I cried a couple of times during the book.....once was during the scene between Hastings and Cynthia - when she asks his advice. Hilarious! I loved it. Love the character of Poirot, too, and we really get a good introduction to his personality in this book, huh? This is so nice to be able to discuss some of Christie's amazingly constructed work with other fans (her little grey cells must have been multitudinous - if that's a word!)

~Ariadne (I love her character too, hence my username)

Tommy_A_Jones

I love the Wodehouse books but have never seen a similarity between Hastings and Bertie, Bobby Jones and Bertie maybe or Tommy Beresford and Bertie perhaps but not Hastings and Bertie although as Both sets of Books are narrated when I have read a Poirot and Hastings book I read a Bertie and Jeeves Book, I have just enough Bertie and Jeeves books to do that.

Ariadne

Hi Tommy,

Glad to meet another Wodehouse fan! That's cool how you read a Bertie and Jeeves book after a Poirot and Hastings book.

Tommy_A_Jones

Hi Ariadne, I have Audio Cassettes too, most of these are Blandings stories though.

shifra.shomron

Ariadne, I felt just like you did... especially with all that confusion over who's in love with whom, and poor Hastings getting in the thick of it all, trying to help, and getting it all wrong. And of course, falling on love with both women and almost getting engaged - well, yes, classic Bertie.
But since Christie actually dedicated one of her books to Wodehouse, we know (as if we couldn't tell...) how influenced she was by him. I also felt that The Clocks is almost Wodehousian.

Ariadne

Hi Shifra,

I didn't know that about The Clocks....interesting. Hastings is such a goof because he thinks a woman who is extremely pretty can't possibly be a murderer! lol "I'll never understand women.", he often says. He provides good comedy in the books.

Tommy_A_Jones

I have just read The Clocks, I can't say I think it is Wodehousian, I think it feels almost like a Non-series book o me, If anything it reminds me of The Moving Finger, which instead of The Detective that book has it has Hardcasle and instead of Jerry it has Colin and instead of Miss Marple it has Poirot