At Bertram's Hotel
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| At Bertram's Hotel | |
 Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition |
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Not known |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
| Publication date | November 15 1965 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Star Over Bethlehem and other stories |
| Followed by | Third Girl |
At Bertram's Hotel is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 15, 1965[1] and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year[2][3]. The UK edition retailed at sixteen shillings (16/-)[1] and the US edition at $4.50[3]. It features the detective Miss Marple.
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[edit] Plot summary
When Jane Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she's looking for at Bertram's Hotel: a restored London hotel on Pond Street with traditional decor, impeccable service and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer. But what she doesn't realize is that a number of the people in the entrance hall alone are hiding secrets, all of which are about to become part of a violent chain of events set in motion when an absent-minded guest, Canon Pennyfather, makes his way to the airport on the wrong day. He later returns to his hotel very late at night and upon his return to his room is knocked out. He then disappears for a time until he is located in a house, where he is being nursed back to health after supposedly suffering a car accident, quite a distance from Bertram's hotel. On the same night as that of his disappearance, someone looking like him is seen at a train robbery.
Later, in the dead of night, as Elvira Blake walks back to Bertram's hotel, someone attempts to shoot her. The person tries again, but this time Michael Gorman is shot accidentally. After the police become involved, Elvira says that she had similar brushes with death when she was in Italy.
Eventually, it transpires that Michael Gorman was shot with Ladislaus Malinowksi's gun by Elvira Blake, who stole the gun from Malinowski's car. She shot Gorman as she discovered that he was married to her mother and she thinks that this marriage voids her mother's union with Elvira's father, meaning that she will not receive anything from her father's will. Bess Sedgwick, however, claims responsibility for the shooting, just before she kills herself in an attempt to escape. But it is later revealed that Elvira Blake was the true villain behind the whole scheme, and that she had fallen so madly in love with Ladislaus Malinowski that she didn't care if he married her for her money (which is why she created the robberies).
[edit] Characters in "At Bertram's Hotel"
- Jane Marple - guest at the hotel, friend of Selina Hazy and Canon Pennyfather and amateur detective. She is very levelheaded and always seems to show up at the wrong place at the wrong time but lucky for her [and everyone else around her] she is very good at figuring out mysteries, and in their case, murders.
- Mr Humfries - the manager of Bertram's Hotel
- Miss Gorringe - Mr Humfries' assistant
- Rose Sheldon - a chambermaid employed at Bertram's Hotel
- Lady Selina Hazy - guest at the hotel
- The Honourable Elvira Blake - guest at the hotel
- Bess, Lady Sedgwick - Elvira's mother
- Colonel Derek Luscombe - Elvira's guardian
- Michael "Micky" Gorman - Lady Sedgwick's estranged husband and commissionarie at Bertram's Hotel
- Robert and Wilhelm Hoffman - the owners of Bertram's Hotel
- Chief-Inspector Fred "Father" Davy
- Inspector Campbell
- Sergeant Wadell
- Canon Pennyfather
- Mrs McCrae - Canon Pennyfather's housekeeper
- Archdeacon Simmons - Canon Pennyfather's friend and houseguest
[edit] References to actual history, geography and current science
Bertram's Hotel is inspired by Brown's Hotel, in London, where Agatha Christie often stayed when visiting London.
[edit] Literary significance and reception
In The Guardian of December 17, 1965, Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley Cox) said that, "At Bertram's Hotel can hardly be called a major Agatha Christie, for in spite of the presence of Miss Marples (sic) the denouement is really too far-fetched. But does the plot matter so much with Mrs Christie? What does matter is that one just can't put any book of hers down."[4]
Maurice Richardson in The Observer of December 12, 1965 said, "A.C. is seldom at her best when she goes thrillerish on you. This one is a bit wild and far-fetched, but it's got plenty of that phenomenal zest and makes a reasonably snug read."[5]
Robert Weaver in the Toronto Daily Star of January 8, 1966 said, "At Bertram's Hotel is vintage Agatha Christie: an ingenious mystery that triumphantly gets away with what in lesser hands would be the most outrageous coincidences."[6]
Robert Barnard: "The plot is rather creaky, as in most of the late ones, but the hotel atmosphere is very well conveyed and used. Elvira Blake is one of the best observed of the many young people in late Christie. Note the reflections in chapter 5 in the novel on the changed look of elderly people, showing that the sharp eye had not dimmed, even if the narrative grasp was becoming shaky."[7]
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A 1987 adaptation was made by the BBC. Another production was made in 2007 by ITV with Geraldine McEwan as part of the third series of Marple, and first broadcast 23 September that year.
[edit] Publication history
- 1965, Collins Crime Club (London), November 15, 1965, Hardcover, 256 pp
- 1966, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1966, Hardcover, 272 pp
- 1967, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 180 pp
- 1968, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
- 1968, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 256 pp
- 1972, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 253 pp
- 1973, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 253 pp
- 2006, Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1965 UK first edition), March 6, 2006, Hardcover, ISBN 0-00-720858-8
The novel was first serialised in the UK weekly magazine Woman's Own in five abridged instalments from November 20 - December 18, 1965 illustrated with specially posed photographic layouts by Abis Sida Stribley.
In the US the novel was serialised in Good Housekeeping magazine in two instalments from March (Volume 162, Number 3) to April 1966 (Volume 162, Number 4) with illustrations by Sanford Kossin and a photograph by James Viles.
[edit] 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 17, 1965 (Page 9).
- ^ The Observer December 12, 1965 (Page 31)
- ^ Toronto Daily Star January 8, 1966 (Page 42)
- ^ Barnard, Robert. A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation of Agatha Christie - Revised edition (Page 188). Fontana Books, 1990. ISBN 0006374743
[edit] External links
- At Bertram's Hotel at the official Agatha Christie website
- At Bertram's Hotel (1987) at the Internet Movie Database
- Marple: At Bertram's Hotel (2007) at the Internet Movie Database
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