DID THE ENORMOUS COINCIDENCE IN "SLEEPING MURDER" IMPAIRED YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE BOOK?

edubeltranedubeltran Catalonia, Spain
in General Agatha Christie discussions
In my view, one of the finest Miss Marple, written at Dame Agatha's peak, the '40's. Great story and superb characterization. The "coincidence" only annoyed me very very slightly. I mean, it didn't deter me from enjoying the book, although I know some people who said that this crucial coincidence did impair their experience because it was so incredible. So... what was your experience?

Comments

  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    What Coincidence do you mean?
  • edubeltranedubeltran Catalonia, Spain
    SLIGHT SPOILER
     Gwenda buying, without knowing it, exactly the same house where she had lived 20 years before as a toddler
  • GKCfanGKCfan Wisconsin, United States
    edited May 2015
    Miss Marple suggests that it wasn't purely a coincidence.  Gwenda vaguely remembered the house from her childhood, and pictured the house in her memories as a dream house.  Gwenda's subconscious recollections led her to her old house (she had the general location and description buried deep in her mind), so it was actually her psychological memories that brought her there.  The main coincidence is that the house was up for sale at that time.
  • tudestudes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    I agree with you, GKCfan. I don't think it was a coincidence, but Gwenda felt at home (because it was her home when she was a kid), but she didn't remember it. It was in her mind unconsciously.
    And, although it was a coincidence that her former house was up for sale, it is something very plausible. It can happen.
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    It was nice De ja Vue, without it we would not have this Great Book.
  • tudestudes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    Yes, Tommy, it was. It's vital!
  • Tommy_A_JonesTommy_A_Jones Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
    Just like The "Generosity of Raymond in Caribbean Mystery and At Bertrams Hotel or the Fact that Miss Marple had been to Bertram's years earlier.
  • tudestudes Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    edited May 2015
    Yes, certainly, Tommy_A_Jones. These things are not details, but very important. On the other hand, it would be another plot.
  • MatthewHawnMatthewHawn Iowa, United States
    I agree with the consensus, that it wasn't a coincidence that she bought that house.  It struck chords in her memory. 
  • GriseldaGriselda
    From reading Agatha Christie novels, I have enjoyed learning more about 20th century social history, and I have a feeling that there were fewer mansions, or what Christie's ilk would have called 'good' houses, wherever in the country, a buyer were looking. The Tatler type of house seeker would have had a small select list to choose from. It is not so surprising, I think, that Gwenda would have bought the very house she had been in before, because memory would have subconsciously drawn her to it, and there would not have been that many to choose from. The house would need to have gentry pedigree for her to be interested, would need to be old, and have land, and space for servant quarters. In Dead Man's Folly (published in 1956) one of the county ladies - I think Mrs Masterton, talks about such houses and how they served the county set when she explains how, in her young day, the good county families used to visit one another for balls in these houses. She bemoans the fact that many had been turned into schools and small hotels. If we were to look in non-city areas at the houses which today serve as small country hotels and wedding venues, we would get a feel for how many of this kind of order of property existed for Gwenda to buy.

    A similar coincidence exists in the the Tommy and Tuppence book about the disappearing child and Mrs Lancaster - is it 'Pricking of My Thumbs'? Tuppence sees a house from the train which looks familiar to her. I think the word 'house' then denoted a place of substance. Thinking from a 2015 perspective, and in our terms today, that would be ridiculous for Tuppence to see a house among so many and be sure that she could find it again. But I think a 'house' meant a substantial place. I don't think there were so many houses posh people would bother to look at - they were interested in those which would belong to someone from the gentry. In Three Act Tragedy, Lady Mary tells Poirot that Oliver Manders grandmother lives on the biggish house on the Plymouth Road. There is no description of what other landmark it is near, or which turning. These houses who the county set lived in stood out because they were few and far between and there were not lots of modern developments, or indeed lots of mansions.


    T

     
  • taliavishay-arbeltaliavishay-arbel
    I felt that the coincidence didn't spoil the book because it was central to the story - It wasn't just a "Deus ex machina" to tie up ends, but rather the "raison de etre" of the whole story. So that it felt "right". 
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