Questions about "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding"
TonyRo
North Carolina, United States
The plot of this short story doesn't make sense to me and I have a few questions about it.
- How did they know the ruby was at Kings Lacey? If they knew it was there, why did they ask Poirot to get involved? Why couldn't the prince just show up with his hired hands and get it back?
- Why did the thieves even stick around Kings Lacey once they had the jewel? In the TV version of this story, they mention it's because they ran into problems with the airplane, but that isn't in the story.
- Are we supposed to believe that the granddaughter was hanging around with a jewel thief for a long time? Was Desmond already involved with her when he had the ruby stolen?
- Why did they put the ruby in the Christmas pudding? Seems like a terrible place to hide something, especially if everyone in the family has a chance to get a hold of it (even if was served at New Years like they intended).
- There seems to be a strong political undertone to the story in the TV version, but this isn't present in the original story. Did Agatha Christie intend for that undertone to be implied?
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Comments
The only one I can answer is putting the ruby into the pudding. That was done to hide it when it was announced that Poirot, a detective was there. I believe they intended to take the whole New Years pudding with them when they snuck away, or sneak down in the middle of the night and smash it to get the ruby out, then take off.
It was a great plan and fell apart because the Christmas Day pudding was destroyed.
In the novella with spoilers -- The ruby was in
the possession of the woman with whom the prince had a dalliance. She was
associated with the unsavory “Des,” now Sarah’s young man. Both Des and the
girl were under suspicion. Sarah was inviting Des to spend Christmas with
her family, the Laceys, and it was surmised that he was bringing the ruby with
him. Des had the girl assume the role of his sister – a plan they both hatched.
Apparently, they were to fence the jewel in Paris. Des was a charming
blackmailer and preyed upon wealthy women. The sister was promised money. She
also was the one to procure the ruby from the prince. Des intended to get
the ruby out of the country by way of getting Sarah to elope with him in his
private airplane. He was aware that the fear of scandal gave him great
leverage to do these things as no one wanted anything in the papers and
having noble Sarah present was added security. So, it was supposed to be a
Christmas dinner at Sarah's grandparents and then the elopement. It all
went awry when Des and the sister heard the famous Poirot was attending. Mr.
Jesmond, an intermediary to the prince, gets Poirot an invitation to attend.
The sister was afraid to be recognized by Poirot so she remained bedridden. She
also thought she could be searched and wanted to hide the ruby. She managed to
go the kitchen when they were making the pudding and put the ruby in
the New Year's mold as she thought they would be leaving with it after
Christmas. It was just by chance, that the Christmas mold was broken and
the New Year's mold used instead for the dinner. Des knew when the Colonel
Lacey discovered red glass in his pudding that it was the ruby. Poirot pocketed
the red glass/ruby. Des then decided to get the ruby from Poirot by putting
something in Poirot's coffee which Poirot pretended to drink. Poirot also
pretended to be asleep when the visitor came to his room and looked at his
belongings for the ruby. Poirot also mentions he brought with him a fake ruby
so he could substitute when the time came. When Poirot overheard the young
people wanting to make a mock murder; he thought it was a good idea to use this
as a way to reveal Des’ true character and mission and enlisted Bridget to go
along with his plan. When Des saw the ruby (this one was fake) clenched in
Bridget’s hand and she was supposed to be dead, he just took off without the
sister and without Sarah figuring he did not want to be associated with murder
and he was so happy to locate the ruby he just wanted to escape abroad as
quickly as possible. The sister revealed everything as she was dumped. Sarah
was wiser and rather lucky not to have been associated publicly with a
scoundrel. The prince got back his ruby - the real one. And Des would probably
discover in Paris or wherever abroad that he had been tricked. But nobody will
have been charged and nothing will be in the papers.