DEAD MAN'S FOLLY by Agatha Christie | Project Poirot Spoiler Free

[@puirYorick]

Zoe Wanamaker as Mrs. Oliver was the only fun performer in the Suchet TV adaptation. It's been many years. However, as I recall, the atomic scientist was possibly changed to a landscape architect or something similar. Every other role was a familiar cardboard cutout I'd seen elsewhere in some other AC mystery. Etienne de Sousa was given... a treatment. Still, it only made that aspect of the plot weird in a different way. I would not care to excuse her attitude about the servant class. Although I put forward the theory that her Jane Marple voice expressed an opinion that (rural) servants were in better living positions than any of the alternate jobs on offer -- industrial factory drudgery or moving to the cities to work as some form of shop assistant while rooming in a shared shoebox flat. In a sense, it was a prejudice against modern city life for the non-wealthy. (Removes Jane Marple hat.) A form of that attitude persists today among some middle-class people who think that even the modern quasi-slavery of American prisoner workers is justifiable and better for them than living free in a hovel in the nasty big cities. On the work details, they get some fresh air while learning useful job skills I was told. Seriously! Those antiquated attitudes toward "others" persist in 2024.

[@isabelalexander6381]

“buy a vowel because you are not putting this hangman together” is not a phrase i’ve heard before but i will now be integrating it into my speech

[@danecobain]

Oh dear haha, Dead Man's Folly is one of my favourites but I have a similar story to you in that I haven't read it for years and so perhaps I won't re-read it any time soon haha. I'm also fond of it because there was a game of it too that I used to like playing ^_^

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yeah, this really was a bummer because prior to this reread I would have considered it a fav! 😅 Alas, I guess that’s the risk we take in rereading

[@remyhocage9854]

Christie grew up in the Edwardian Age and her attitude towards class structure obviously had not evolved. She probable does a fair job of describing the book characters of her same level. I would argue that prior to WW1, British working people preferred to work (if they must to survive) in service rather than move from family & village to dirty cities to work in (the Devil's) factories. (Blake's poem is sung at the opening of every meeting of the Women's Institute which promotes women's Cottage industries .) As for self-made rich men, I agree with your point, they are characterized as shallow & too ambitious. However Christie was said to have loved her father, an ambitious American businessman, so I suppose she ran across many obnoxious millionaires later in life. Thanks.

[@adamhasideas6813]

Just finished reading "Dead Man's Folly". The story was very interesting. The ending was not very satisfying. There was little chance of guessing that ending correctly. I did enjoy the book, and especially the idea of family having a strong connection to their ancestral home. You make excellent videos, keep up the good work!!

[@IrmiRose]

LOL! Servants LOVED being servants, don't cha know? And slaves loved the opportunity to be slaves! Oh, the ability to rationalize when it self serves. You make me laugh and it's so appreciated. And Agatha on audio is comfort audio for me. I wonder if Agatha thought of herself as part of the "media" in the sense that she has her fingers in the changing of popular conscious around murder by deviants in our midsts. I enjoy All About Agatha because I'm an Agatha super fan and so will consume it all. I have a few frustrations with the show though, and some of it has to do with the lack of comprehensive research, especially with the earlier episodes. I do think they've gotten a bit better as the show has gone on. Grade A video, again, Mara! ***total aside....THE GOLDEN STATE KILLER! OMG!

[@bookslikewhoa]

Omg, it’s one thing to say this shit about the serving class but when people start on this line of thinking with slavery.... 🤦🏻‍♀️. Proof positive that we are surrounded by ignoramuses in every side! There’s so much shade thrown at newspapers & journalists in her work (iirc she hated them after the way they covered her disappearance) that I don’t think she had enough self awareness to see she had a lot in common with them 😂 And OMG YES THE GOLDEN STATE KILLER!! 😱😱😱 I legit got emotional thinking about how Michelle McNamara didn’t get to live to see him caught. I’ve been following that whole thing like a weirdo

[@eamongilligan3262]

This was one of the last of hers I read, and I always found it felt rather ‘slight’... and I think you put your finger on why: the characterisations. I don’t find the suspects that interesting or memorable. There is another reason it wasn’t wholly satisfactory to me but not sure of your policy on spoilers in the comments so won’t get into that just now. However. I have always really enjoyed this when adapted for television. I think it makes for a great visual story and I can see why it would work so well as an audio too. Even the dodgy 80s version was enjoyable in a way but especially the David Suchet one. Also Mrs Oliver is great in any story. The problems I have may be explained by it being expanded from a novella, and I’ve not read that novella yet so it’d be interesting to see if it holds up better in shorter form.

[@bookslikewhoa]

I’ve actually not seen this particular adaptation, so I’ll have to seek it out! I do this this is one that worked way better as a novella, but I tend to think that of much of her oeuvre 😅

[@iansmith4023]

You may enjoy the recently unearthed first draft : Hercule Poirot and the Greenshaw Folly. It's the original novella,which Christie then decided to expand (by adding extra characters, basically). The expanded version was what you just read;but I actually enjoyed the original novella more,as it's more economical.

[@iansmith4023]

Oh,and don't get me started on her views on the old class structure! She was damn lucky to have been born into a (reasonably) affluent background;and her attitude of "if you were born into the lower class,that is where you will stay!" was probably already an anachronism.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Haha, for real! I mean, she really did come from a different era re:class stuff, so I cut her some slack, but it definitely rubs against our modern sensibilities the wrong way often times 😬. And yes, I agree! This 100% worked better as a novella. So much of her work does haha 🙈

[@justice2beauty]

As a Christie newbie I am really enjoying this series. I'm going through them both in physical and audio form. Which books do you think are good on audio? I really enjoyed cards on the table and the murder of roger a, but there are others which I don't think were as good as audio books.

[@bookslikewhoa]

Ooo, that’s a toughie. There is luckily an embarrassment of riches for Christie audio. Some of the ones that come to mind are Crooked House, After the Funeral, Murder on the Orient Express, Sparkling Cyanide, & Evil Under the Sun. Hugh Fraser is my fav narrator for her stuff 😊

[@justice2beauty]

Thanks. Hugh Fraser and Dan Stevens are my favorite (although Dan Stevens only narrated and then there were none and murder on the orient express). I listened to Suchet's narration of a mysterious affair at styles and did not enjoy it. I'll try the one's you suggested, thanks!

[@jorisschelfhout2348]

My fourth agatha christie I read. Liked it.. So much more to go😁

[@Lobxx1]

Just finished it and it seems incredibly unlikely and far fetched (even more than she usually is)

[@alexisgrey3633]

Interesting yeah what she says about servants isn't great, although I've seen the BBC Poirot films with David Suchet and one thing my Dad points out that he likes and is probably just for the series is that he is nice to servants :)

[@bookslikewhoa]

Yeah, Christie has a weird relationship with the serving class in her books... she both glorifies them as salt of the earth/honest, but also is so classist about assuming that they love their lot in life & have no aspirations to rise above their situations. But Poirot himself is usually very nice (if patronizing) to the servants he encounters, so there's at least that

[@alexisgrey3633]

@@bookslikewhoa One wierd thing, at least three maids in Agatha Christie have been named 'Annie', no idea why (became a joke between me and my dad) and a typical Agatha Christie trope is the body being disocvered by the maid who screams.