The Moving Finger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "The Moving Finger" is also a short story by Stephen King.
- "The Moving Finger" is also a collection of short stories written by Edith Wharton
| The Moving Finger | |
 Dust-jacket illustration of the US (true first) edition. See Publication history (below) for UK first edition jacket image. |
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Not known |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Dodd, Mead and Company |
| Publication date | July 1942 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 229 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Five Little Pigs |
| Followed by | Towards Zero |
The Moving Finger is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in July 1942[1] and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1943[2]. The US edition retailed at $2.00[1] and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6)[2]. It features the elderly detective Miss Marple in a minor, deus ex machina-like role, appearing more than halfway through and in only a handful of scenes.
Contents |
[edit] Explanation of the novel's title
The book takes its name from verse 51 of Edward FitzGerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:
- The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
- Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
- Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
- Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
[edit] Plot summary
Jerry and Joanna Burton, disaffected siblings from London society, take a country house in idyllic Lymstock so that Jerry can rest from injuries received in a wartime plane crash. They are just getting to know the town's strange cast of characters when an anonymous letter arrives, rudely accusing the two of living in sin. They quickly discover that these letters have been recently circulating around town, indiscriminate and completely inaccurate. But when a suicide is committed over the content of one of them, things flare up.
Scotland Yard sends someone to investigate, but progress is slow until a townsperson calls up an expert of her own, who turns out to be Miss Marple. During the journey of the book, the Burtons end up not only finding the answers, but themselves.
The book's title, The Moving Finger, plays twice. The first is how the accusatory letters point blame from one town member to another, the second is from the addressing of the letter, which the Scotland Yard agent determines the envelopes were all "typed by someone using one finger" in order to avoid a recognizable 'touch.'
[edit] Literary significance and reception
Maurice Willson Disher in The Times Literary Supplement of June 19, 1943 was mostly positive, starting, "Beyond all doubt the puzzle in The Moving Finger is fit for experts" and continuing, "The author is generous with her clues. Anyone ought to be able to read her secret with half an eye – if the other one-and-a-half did not get in the way. There has rarely been a detective story so likely to create an epidemic of self indulgent kicks." However, some reservations were expressed: "Having expended so much energy on her riddle, the author cannot altogether be blamed for neglecting the other side of her story. It would grip more if Jerry Burton, who tells it, was more credible. He is an airman who has crashed and walks with the aid of two sticks. That he should make an lightning recovery is all to the good, but why, in between dashing downstairs two at a time and lugging a girl into a railway carriage by main force, should he complain that it hurts to drive a car? And why, since he is as masculine in sex as the sons of King Gama does he think in this style, "The tea was china and delicious and there were plates of sandwiches and thin bread and butter and a quantity of little cakes"? Nor does it help verisimilitude that a bawling young female gawk should become an elegant beauty in less than a day."[3]
Maurice Richardson in the June 13, 1943 issue of The Observer set the tone thus: "An atmosphere of perpetual, after-breakfast well-being; sherry parties in a country town where nobody is quite what he seems; difficult slouching daughters with carefully concealed coltish charm; crazy spinsters, of course; and adulterous solicitors. Agatha Christie is at it again, lifting the lid off delphiniums and weaving the scarlet warp all over the pastel pouffe." And he concluded, "Probably you will call Mrs. Christie's double bluff, but this will only increase your pleasure."[4]
An unnamed reviewer in the Toronto Daily Star of November 7, 1942 said, "The Moving Finger has for a jacket design a picture of a finger pointing out one suspect after another and that's the way it is with the reader as chapter after chapter of the mystery story unfolds. It is not one of [Christie's] stories about her famous French [sic] detective, Hercule Poirot, having instead Miss Marple, a little old lady sleuth who doesn't seem to do much but who sets the stage for the final exposure of the murderer."[5]
Robert Barnard: "Poison pen in Mayhem Parva, inevitably leading to murder. A good and varied cast list, some humour, and stronger than usual romantic interest of an ugly-duckling-into-swan type. One of the few times Christie gives short measure, and none the worse for that."[6]
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
- The Moving Finger was first adapted for television by the BBC with Joan Hickson in the series Miss Marple. It was transmitted in two parts from February 21 to 22, 1986.
- A second adaptation was made in 2006 with Geraldine McEwan as Marple in the TV series Marple. This episode transmitted on February 12.
[edit] Publication history
- 1942, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), July 1942, Hardcover, 229 pp
- 1943, Collins Crime Club (London), June 1943, Hardcover, 160 pp
- 1948, Avon Books, Paperback, 158 pp (Avon number 164)
- 1948, Pan Books, Paperback, 190 pp (Pan number 55)
- 1953, Penguin Books, Paperback, 189 pp (Penguin number 930)
- 1961, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 160 pp
- 1964, Dell Books, Paperback, 189 pp
- 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 255 pp
- 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 255 pp
- 1970, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 331 pp ISBN 0-85-456670-8
- 2005, Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1943 UK first edition), September 12, 2005, Hardcover ISBN 0-00-720845-6
The novel's first true publication was the US serialisation in Collier's Weekly in eight instalments from March 28 (Volume 109, Number 13) to May 16, 1942 (Volume 109, Number 20) with illustrations by Mario Cooper.
The UK serialisation was as an abridged version in six parts in Woman's Pictorial from October 17 (Volume 44, Number 1136) to November 21, 1942 (Volume 44, Number 1141) under the slightly shorter title of Moving Finger. All six instalments were illustrated by Alfred Sindall.
Christie admitted that this book was one of her favourites, stating, "I find that another one [book] I am really pleased with is The Moving Finger. It is a great test to re-read what one has written some seventeen or eighteen years before. One's view changes. Some do not stand the test of time, others do."[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ^ 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)
- ^ The Times Literary Supplement June 19, 1943 (Page 297)
- ^ The Observer June 13, 1943 (Page 3)
- ^ Toronto Daily Star November 7, 1942 (Page 9)
- ^ Barnard, Robert. A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation of Agatha Christie - Revised edition (Page 197). Fontana Books, 1990. ISBN 0-00-637474-3
- ^ Christie, Agatha. An Autobiography. (Page 520). Collins, 1977. ISBN 0-00-216012-9
[edit] External links
- The Moving Finger at the official Agatha Christie website
- The Moving Finger (1985) at the Internet Movie Database
- Marple: The Moving Finger (2006) at the Internet Movie Database
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