Hercule Poirot in Literature

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This page details the books featuring the fictional character Hercule Poirot.

Contents

[edit] Hercule Poirot and fictional canon

The sets of rules involving "official" details of the "lives" and "works" of fictional characters vary from one fictional universe to the next according to the canon established by critics and/or enthusiasts. Some fans of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot have proposed that the novels are set on the date they were published, unless the novel itself gives a different date.[citation needed] It has further been proposed that only works written by her (including short stories, the novels and her play Black Coffee) are to be considered canon by most fans and biographers.[citation needed] This would render everything else (plays, movies, television adaptations, etc.) as an adaptation, or secondary material.[citation needed] A contradiction between the novels can be resolved, in most cases, by going with the novel that was published first.[citation needed]

An example of this would be the ongoing controversy over Poirot's age.[citation needed] Taken at face value it appears that Poirot was over 125 years old when he died.[citation needed] Though the majority of the Hercule Poirot novels are set between World War I and World War II, the later novels then set him in the 1960s (which is contemporary with the time Agatha Christie was writing even though it created minor discrepencies). Many people believe, from her later works, that Poirot retired from police work at around 50, but this is untrue, because as shown in the short story "The Chocolate Box", he retired at around 30.[citation needed] By accepting the date given in "The Chocolate Box" over later novels, which never gave precise ages anyway, it can be explain why Poirot is around for so long.[citation needed]

Also the debate over Poirot’s family is fuelled mainly by the fact that he mentions a sister in the original publication of "The Chocolate Box" but for some reason this reference was removed from the later editions.[citation needed] Poirot is still under copyright (with the exception of the first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in the USA). Christie's grandson, Matthew Prichard, now owns the royalties to his grandmother's works.

[edit] Publication order

Short story collections listed as "ss"

[edit] Books in chronological order

[edit] Poirot's police years

[edit] Career as a private detective and retirement

[edit] Shortly after Poirot flees to England (1916-1918)

[edit] The twenties (1920-1929)

Poirot settles down in London and opens a private detective agency. These are the short story years (27 stories and only 4 novels).

[edit] The thirties (1930-1939)

These are the novel years (14 novels,12 short stories and one theatre play). The 12 short stories form The Labours of Hercules, the other short stories listed here take place in this period but were published before/after. The theatre play is named Black Coffee and was written by Agatha Christie, who stated a frustration with other stage adaptations of her Poirot mysteries. In 1998, author Charles Osborne adapted the play into a novel.

[edit] Post war world

A new detective enters the stage Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot mysteries become rare. In 36 years Agatha Christie wrote only 13 novels and one short story.

[edit] Death

  • Curtain, Hercule Poirot's last case (published in 1975).
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