Ordeal by Innocence
 Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition | |
| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Not known |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
Publication date | November 3 1958 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | 4.50 From Paddington |
| Followed by | Cat Among the Pigeons |
Ordeal by Innocence is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 3 1958[1] and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year[2][3]. The UK edition retailed at twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6)[1] and the US edition at $2.95[3]. It is regarded by critics as one of the best of her later works, and was also one of Christie's two favorites of her own novels, the other being Crooked House.
The novel is also noted for being one of Christie's darkest works, alongside such classics as And Then There Were None, with a strong focus on the psychology of innocence.
Plot summary
While serving a sentence for killing his foster mother - a crime he insisted he didn't commit - Jacko Argyle dies in prison. Two years later, the man who could have supported Jacko's alibi suddenly turns up, and the family must come to terms with the fact not only that suspicion falls upon each of them, but that one of them is the real murderer. Christie's focus in this novel is upon the psychology of innocence, as the family members struggle with their suspicions of one another.
While two outsiders attempt to find the murderer, it is an insider - Philip Durrant - whose clumsy efforts to uncover the truth force the killer to strike again. Ultimately it is revealed that the murderer was indeed acting under the influence of Jacko Argyle, and that the failure of his (carefully planned) alibi was, in hindsight, an ironic stroke of fate.
The witness, Arthur Calgary, believes that when he clears the name of their son the family would be grateful. He fails to realise the implications of his information. However, once he does so he is determined to help and to protect the innocent by finding the murderer. In order to do so he visits the retired local doctor, Dr MacMaster, to ask him about the cleared murderer, Jacko Argyle. Dr MacMaster states that he was surprised when Jacko killed his mother. Not because he thought that murder was outside Jacko's 'moral range' but because he thought Jacko would be too cowardly to kill somebody himself, that if he wanted to murder somebody he would egg on an accomplice to do his dirty work. Dr MacMaster says "the kind of murder I'd have expected Jacko to do, if he did one, was the type where a couple of boys go out on a raid; then, when the police come after them, the Jackos say 'Biff him on the head, Bud. Let him have it. Shoot him down.' They're willing for murder, ready to incite to murder, but they've not got the nerve to do murder themselves with their own hands". This description seems to be a reference to the Craig and Bentley case which had occurred in 1952.
Literary significance and reception
Sarah Russell of The Guardian gave a short review to the novel in the December 9, 1958 issue when she said, "In this solving of a two-year-old family murder sympathy is, unusually with Miss Christie, evoked for too many people to leave enough suspects; but the unravelling is sound and the story well told."[4]
Maurice Richardson of The Observer of November 2, 1958 said, "The veteran Norn has nodded over this one. There is ingenuity, of course, but it lacks a central focus. The characters are stodgy and there is little of that so readable, almost crunchable dialogue, like burnt sugar." He concluded, "The serious socio-psychological approach doesn't suit A.C. somehow. Only at the end with the big surprise do you feel home and dry."[5]
Robert Barnard: "One of the best of 'fifties Christies, and one of her own favourites (though she named different titles at different times). The Five Little Pigs pattern of murder-in-the-past, the convicted murderer having died in prison, innocent. Short on detection, but fairly dense in social observation. Understanding in treatment of adopted children, but not altogether tactful on the colour question: 'Tina's always the dark horse…Perhaps it's the half of her that isn't white.'"[6]
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Ordeal by Innocence (1984 film)
A close film adaptation was made in 1984, starring Donald Sutherland, Christopher Plummer and Sarah Miles. Its musical score (by Dave Brubeck) has in many quarters been heavily criticised as totally inappropriate for this style of mystery and has given the film a certain notoriety.
Agatha Christie's Marple
The novel was adapted for the third season of the ITV television series Marple featuring Geraldine McEwan first broadcast in 2007.
2007 stage adaptation
The novel was also adapted into a stage play by Mary Jane Hansen and performed for the first time by the New York State Theatre Institute in Troy, New York. The original run lasted from February 4th to February 17, 2007, and included 14 performances.
Graphic novel adaptation
Ordeal by Innocence was released by HarperCollins as a graphic novel adaptation on July 1, 2008, adapted and illustrated by "Chandre" (ISBN 0-00-727531-5). This was translated from the edition first published in France by Emmanuel Proust éditions in 2006 under the title of Témoin indésirable.
Publication history
- 1958, Collins Crime Club (London), November 3 1958, Hardcover, 256 pp
- 1959, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1959, Hardcover, 247 pp
- 1960, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 211 pp
- 1961, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
- 1964, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 256 pp
In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in two abridged instalments from September 20 (Volume 104, Number 2725) to September 27,1958 (Volume 104, Number 2726) with illustrations by “Fancett”[7].
In the US, the first publication was in the Chicago Tribune in thirty-six parts from Sunday, February 1 to Saturday, March 14, 1959 under the title of The Innocent.
An abridged version of the novel was also published in the February 21, 1959 issue of the Star Weekly Complete Novel, a Toronto newspaper supplement, with a cover illustration by Russell Maebus.
References
- ^ a b Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
- ^ John Cooper and B.A. Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide: Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8
- ^ a b American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ^ The Guardian. December 9, 1958 (Page 4).
- ^ The Observer November 2, 1958 (Page 22).
- ^ Barnard, Robert. A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation of Agatha Christie - Revised edition (Page 201). Fontana Books, 1990. ISBN 0006374743
- ^ Holdings at the British Library (Newspapers - Colindale). Shelfmark: NPL LON LD116.
External links
- Ordeal by Innocence at the official Agatha Christie website
- Ordeal by Innocence (1984) at IMDb
- Marple: Ordeal by Innocence (2007) at IMDb
- Review of New York State Theatre Institute production
