Talk:The Moving Finger

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the The Moving Finger article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1

Novels: Crime Mid‑importance

	Novels portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Novels, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the general Project discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.NovelsWikipedia:WikiProject NovelsTemplate:WikiProject Novelsnovel articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Crime task force.

Women writers Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women writers, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of women writers on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women writersWikipedia:WikiProject Women writersTemplate:WikiProject Women writersWomen writers articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Literary Reception quoted in the article

Of contemporary reviewers, the Times Lit makes some sound practical points.

I almost feel that the writer in The Observer ought to be answered within the article. He finds "an atmosphere of perpetual after-breakfast well-being". What I read is a carefully built-up sense of unease, a building feeling that the poison pen letters will lead to tragedy. Also, although as the above section in Talk brings out, the War and its societal traumas were ignored as in much wartime fiction, we notice the decay of previous certainties in this changing twentieth century world. There is incomprehension of the old norms between younger and older people, and - as my mother and her mother experienced in this period - between Londoners and country dwellers.

The Observer piece (uncaring of 'spoilers') also talks carelessly about adulterous solicitors. The solicitor is not adulterous - he is aiming at re-marriage. Two different things. Arguably, if the object of his feelings had been less respectable and conventional, none of the story would have happened!

My own problem with the plot is: by taking Megan back to stay with them, do the Burtons not make it impossible for (respectable) Elsie to stay in Symmington's home after the wife's death? I wonder if my mother's, or Dame Agatha's, generation might have answered this with "This wasn't 1900! Someone had to care for the boys." But it seems clumsy of Gerry and Joanna.

Rogersansom (talk) 10:24, 31 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The crash

Judging by recent edits, there seems to be some argument about whether Jerry was injured in a motorcycle crash or a plane crash. In my own copy (the Fontana books edition) Miss Emily Barton refers to "a flying accident" on the third page, which should be clear enough - unless this is one of those differences between the UK and US editions? I'm going to delete the word "motorcycle" from the main plot summary for now, but if anyone has a different version then they could perhaps add a clarification. Roundabout dog (talk) 16:11, 25 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hickson version

This was filmed in the village of Hoxne, Suffolk 2601:1C0:5E81:30C0:D030:3572:986C:E0BD (talk) 07:16, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]