A Underestimated Detective?

SeaSnap

Post here if you like Ariadne Oliver!

MissQuin

I think that in the later stories, Poirot needs to have someone who urges him on a little. I mean in Halloween Party he did start to mull over if he should have had another career. I also think she provides a little comic relief. 

I didn't actually take to Mrs Oliver straight away. I think I read her in Dead Man's Folly first and I thought"who is she?". I like her best in Third Girl, she has an important role to play. The affinity between her and Poirot is quite moving.

Tommy_A_Jones

I also like her, without her Poirot wouldn't have 4 of his cases, the first on with Ariadne I read was Cards On The Table which isone where Ariadne didn't bring the case to Poirot, apart from that one I like her best in Mrs McGinty's Dead but having said that I don't remember much about Elephants Can Remember even though I saw the Adaptation

SeaSnap

I think that she should be in a book narrated by Hastings. I wonder how he would have taken to her as another assistant to Poirot. :-?

glalonzo0408

I love her...she gives a bit of comic relief.....

MissQuin

SeaSnap said:

I think that she should be in a book narrated by Hastings. I wonder how he would have taken to her as another assistant to Poirot. :-?

Anne Hart in her book The Life And Times Of Hercule Poirot speculates what it would be like if characters met. I think Hastings and Mrs Oliver would get along quite well, although Mrs O wolud probably think Hastings not imaginative enough. 

SeaSnap

I think that Zoë Wanamaker's portrayal of Mrs Oliver is really quite good. I love the fact that all 4 suspects of 'Cards on the Table' are the murderer at least once to Mrs O! At least (SPOILERS) she gets it right first!

Tommy_A_Jones

I don't think Hastings would like to be in a Book with Ariadne, I think he would feel his nose was being put out of joint, I think Ariadne would soon have Hastings down as a fantasist who thinks he is cleverer than he is, I in moments of probably madness, imagine Hastings replacing Race In Cards On The Table and pitting his wits against Ariadne and Poirot because he thinks he has what it takes to make a Detective. 

MissQuin

I think that Zoe Wannamaker was excellent in Mrs McGinty's Dead and  Halloween Party. In Cards I thnik she was settling into the role. I love it when she gets crazy ideas for her sleuth. They added one in Halloween party I think- a murder in a hot air balloon?!

Oddly enough the writer in Death In The clouds seems like a prototype for Mrs O. He eats lot's of bananas (instead of  Mrs O's apples) and is very scatty. 

!!!!! SPOILERS!!   Even more hysterical -In Cards On The Table adapt she refers to the murderer as "that skirt chaser" it turns out v differently!! I love the way she gets things wrong.

LL88

I like her very much, she is my favourite character in Chritie's books. And those apples she likes very much - everytime I think of her, I also want to eat an apple.

StathisZavitsanos

She is underestimated, indeed. Had she been in more stories she would have been more well-known. AC ought to have written a story with Oliver as the only detective.

Tommy_A_Jones

Really the Underestimated Detectives are the ones that Non-Christie Fans don't know, The ones who don't appear in questions on Quiz Shows or who appear in book that don't appear in quiz shows.

I watched Dead Man's Folly yesterday after reading the book, The Book is Brilliant and so is the Film, I wonder how Japp would have coped with Ariadne aswell as wondering how Hastings would have coped with her.

SeaSnap

I don't think Japp would be impressed. After all, Ariadne Oliver thinks that Scotland Yard should be run by a woman! Hastings would probably be annoyed at Poirot for getting another companion.

shifra.shomron

She's opinionated, and talks so much she can give you a headache! Whenever I come across her in a novel I wonder what it would be like to have a person like her for a friend. I think I would dread it whenever she telephoned but that bumping into her unexpectedly would be fun. She's to be taken in small doses. Poirot has such patience with her! Still, she's worth it, ultimately. While she has the knack of consistantly being wrong (and if right, it's by accident...) she'll manage to find clues and say the words that will put him on the right track. And she knows people, and goes places and stumbles across things.

Dean

I haven't read a Poirot book with her in but a watched Agatha Christie's Poirot and in it she is quite good and funny especially how she's played by Zoe Wanamaker.

Frank

Ariadne Oliver was great fun as a detective and served a range of literary purposes for Agatha Christie. She enabled Agatha Christie to discuss overtly the techniques of detective fiction as well as to contrast the more fanciful apparatuses employed by other mystery authors and to satirise Christie's own experiences as a writer. 

Griselda

I always think of Ariadne Oliver as Zoe Wannamaker. 

Agatha Christie washed the dishes in a papier mache washing up bowl, I think, because one of her characters - I think Miss Marple in The Mirror Cracked, said that these were better than plastic.

MarcWatson-Gray

I wonder if Agatha Christie used Ariadne as a means of  expressing some of her own views/feelings?

eg :Did Agatha feel as uncomfortable as Ariadne when being recognised ?

     Ariadne was unhappy when Sven (her fictional detective )was being dramatised (In Mrs McGinty's Dead)

     I think i read that Mrs Christie was not too happy with some earlier dramatisations ?

Griselda

I feel that Agatha Christie would have held more of the sentiments of the judge in And Then There Were None. I think AC had a brilliant, somewhat masculine mind, and I feel that Ariadne is more emotive and intuitive. AC put intuition in its, place, saying it was what the unconscious mind had remembered - well, that is what H Poirot says.

I bet AC would love Zoe Wanamaker. So intelligent under the exotic exterior. What a clever actress.

MarcWatson-Gray

Yes. I always cheer up when Ariadne (Zoe) appears in a scene....I believe that she is in book version of The Pale Horse ? A pity she didn't get to appear in the T.V. version...a wasted opportunity.

Griselda

What did you think of The Pale Horse, Marc? I found the notion of the SPOILER ALERT supernatural completely unbelievable, and the characters of an age Agatha Christie did not fully understand. The difference between this book and her earlier novels was like the difference between a convenience motel and a lived-in family mansion.

MarcWatson-Gray

It's the next one i am about to read.It's great to know that there's one that i haven't read yet......So much anticipation ahead...I'll let you know how it goes...

ChristieFanForLife

Yes. I always cheer up when Ariadne (Zoe) appears in a scene....I believe that she is in book version of The Pale Horse ? A pity she didn't get to appear in the T.V. version...a wasted opportunity.

I believe the adaptation of "The Pale Horse" could have been better BUT I do like the fact that the team stuck to the time period that Christie set the story in. I like reading her works around that time period for its interesting to hear some of her views/opinions of the era and how different it was in the past. As you read those books you can kind of see a disapproval of the protocols and attitudes in society.

MarcWatson-Gray

Yes I agree.Her writing spanned 5 decades (20's -60's) and it is easy to see that her descriptions of people and attitudes were reflected in her stories as times changed.

Miss Marple (i feel) embraced change far more easier than did Poirot.

ChristieFanForLife

Miss Marple (i feel) embraced change far more easier than did Poirot.

Another thing to about Poirot as time progresses was that the younger generation had no idea who Poirot is, therefore, it was hard for Poirot to embrace change. I think there was a case (I can't put my finger on it at the moment) in which a cilent or one of the suspects didn't know who Poirot is.

MarcWatson-Gray

He was suspected of being a Hairdresser at one point !!!!

Tommy_A_Jones

I have often thought someone should Create a Hair Dresser who solves Crimes.

MarcWatson-Gray

Ha !!! This might work as I'm told that people tell their Hairdressers things that they wouldn't tell their partners.

Also Hairdressers need to be good listeners....As do Taxi cab drivers......another possibility...

Luke

I have to confess I wasn't aware of Oliver until I saw adaptations, but reading Third Girl, I realise that Zoe Wannamaker had got her down to a T, an excellent portrayal. What if AC had written about her more, would Mrs O had become a detective in her own right alongside HP and MM? 

Griselda

Hi Luke, 

I don't think that Mrs O is really that good at solving crimes. She isn't detached and methodical, but she has great instincts to steer Poirot in the right direction. She does jump to the wrong conclusion about a killer, at times, and won't let go of an impression. The book I have read most recently is Mrs McGinty's Dead, and then there is Dead Man's Folly which I re-read a few weeks ago. I think that picking on the right person, and all the crime unravelling in both mysteries was done by Poirot.

Am I wrong? Have I forgotten a mystery which she did pretty much solve?

My suspicion is that Mrs O's knowledge of English 'Society's' cultural norms steer Poirot in the right direction of what people could have done, and would have done; in that respect her help is invaluable because she elucidates the context of events for him, and points the way to what he himself should do to be socially acceptable as he circles his prey. He sees things from a psychological point of view, and, must surely because he's so blunt, miss out sometimes by going in to hard with potential witnesses and getting their back's up and seeming like an ill-mannered imposter.

Tommy_A_Jones

I prefer Hastings, Miss Lemon and Japp to Ariadne but I suppose wether or not I like her depends on the book she is in, I like her more in Cards On The Table Mrs McGinty's Dead, and Elephants Can Remember which I love compared to the other 4 Books she is in which I am less Keen on even though I do like them.