My Featured Novel

I. About the Novel: Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express is a featured mystery novel written by Agatha Christie.
It was announced in 1934.
It is cited as one of her masterpieces from that strange result.

This work is the 14th work as the author's long-length novel by Agatha Christie.
And it is the 8th work as a series of Belgian great detective, Hercule Poaro, the main character.

The great detective, Hercule Poiro has appeared in a featured novel of 33 works, a short story of 54 works, a drama of one work.

However, Christie said "I should abandon him in the first 3 or 4 pieces and start again with someone younger." in her autobiography.

※The U.S. title of Murder in the Calais Coach was used to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel Stamboul Train which had been published in the United States as Orient Express.　
And the first Japanese translation was published in 1935 with the title "Twelve Stings".
Author Vesten, this work is listened in fifth place by the vote of more than 80 Christi fans nationwide in Japan in 1971.
And, it was listed in the third place in the voting by Japanese Christian fans club members who tookplace in 1982. (By the way, in both cases, "1st place was"  And there was no one "and the second place was "Acroidic killing".)
In 1985 "Shukan " was ranked 34th in East-West Mystery Best 100 by questionnaire conducted about 500 people including detective writers and detective nobile enthusiasts, ranked 11th in East-West Mystery Best 100 in 2012.
It is ranked 41st in the comprehensive "100 best mystery novels ever" selected by the American Detective Writers Club in 1995.


 Works Cited （参考文献）

author Vesten, this work is listed in fifth place by the vote of more than 80 Christi fans nationwide in Japan in 1971.


 

II. Versions of the Novel in the Mass Media

Movie Versions

"Orient express murder case" was made as a British movie in 1974.
This movie is a mystery movie by director Sidney Rumet whose gorgeous cast has become a hot topic.
The film was released in North America in 1974 and recorded a hit.It raised about 35 million dollar box office revenues in the US.
At the 47th Academy Awards of the same year, it was nominated in 6 categories: leading actor award, supporting actress award, legwriting award, photography prize, composition prize, costume design award.
Among them, an actress from Sweden named Ingrid Bergman was awarded a supporting actress award.
Agatha Christie, the original author, disliked that his work was made into a movie, because all his works were made into movies, all finished with commercial works.
However, Sir John Brabhorn, persuaded by Sir John Brabhorn, a cousin of the Queen of Great Britain who served as producer in this work, made it possible to film as a convincing proverb.
In addition, with the success of this work Bravon won the trust from Christian who is the original author, and after that it will be handling numerous works of Christie's work.
The movie is slightly different from the original name of the characters.
By the way it was dramaized in Japan last year.

III. About the Author: Agatha Christie

Her real name is Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie.
She is a British reasoner born on September 15, 1890.
Many of the announced mystery novels became the world best seller, and she was called "Queen of Mystery".
By the way, she was at the fourth president of Detection Club, a British dedication writer 's club.

She was engaged in service as a pharmacist's assistant during the First World War, but after debating as a war, she made her debut as a reasoner in "Styles of the Styles".
From her debut in 1920 until her death at the age of 85, she has 66 long novels, 156 medium short stories, 15 dramatic works, 6 novels named Mary-Westmacott, 2 works named Agatha Christie Mallowan, and wrote three others.
Among them, the four works of "Acroidic killing" (1926), "Orient express murder" (1934), "ABC murder case" (1936), "and no more" (1939) were published in somewhere.
Guinness Book certifies her as "the best bestseller of all time".
In 1926, she caused a mysterious disappearance incident.
She was 36 years old at the time.
Eleven days after the day of disappearance, it was settled that she was staying under the name of a different person named Teresa Neil, a mistress of a hotel husband of a health resort, being protected on the basis of family confirmation.
It is the reason for her disappearance that her beloved mother died before the incident and her husband was hurt by the fact that she had a lover.
But in the career, she became a best-selling writer by "Acroidic killing" based on that case.

Works Cited （参考文献）

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AC%E3%82%B5%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3 

IV. My Reaction to Murder on the Orient Express

B. Reaction Point - appeal

•  Appeal is the reasons a story is liked or enjoyed.
• Where the result is unknown to the last place and the personality character are the good points of this novel.
• Among the novels is a lot of quotes from Hercule Poiro.　For example "The golden gold dresses a noblemis into a beauty”.

B. Reaction Point - protagonist

• Protagonist is main character.
• The main character Hercule Poirot is a very distinct person.
• Because hero Hercule Poirot is from the French-speaking world, it will accentuate when excited or mix French during the interval between English.

C. Reaction Point - denouement

• Denouement is the ending of a story or a plot.
• I do not know the murderer until the end, and it is fun to think who is the culprit.
• The murderer is 12 other than the hero riding the express.

D. My General Opinion

I liked this work from before.
However, I did not know much about the author, the year when this work was made, and detailed contents.
So I was very happy to know on what occasion Agatha Christie is, what kind of work I am writing, when "Orient express murder case" was created.
From now on I will know many things as a fan of her work and I want to read her works.