Кіріспе
1937 жылы Агата Кристидің «Пуаро» романы «Дүм Свидетель» – британ жазушысы Агата Кристидің детективтік романы. Алғаш рет Ұлыбританияда 1937 жылғы 5 шілдеде «Collins Crime Club» баспасында, ал АҚШ-та «Dodd, Mead and Company» баспасында сол жылдың соңында «Пуаро клиентті жоғалтады» деген атпен жарық көрді. Ұлыбританиялық басылымның бағасы 7 шиллинг пен 6 пенс (7/6), ал АҚШ басылымы – 2 доллар. «The New York Times Book Review» журналында (1937 жылғы 26 қыркүйекте) Кей Ирвин: «Агата Кристиге жақсы әңгіме айту үшін сенім артуға болады. Тіпті ол өзінің ең жарқын жұмысын жасамағанда да, ол оқырманның назарын өзіне аударады, оларды ізденістен ізденіске, қателіктен қателікке жетелейді, соңында күтпеген соққыға ұшыратады. Ол «Пуаро клиентті жоғалтады» романында өзінің ең жарқын жұмысын жасамаса да, орташа триллерден әлдеқайда жақсы туынды жасады. Сюжеті жаңалыққа ие, себебі оның құрылымы дұрыс, кейіпкерлері қызықты және тапқырлыққа толы» деп жазды. «The Observer» журналының 1937 жылғы 18 шілдедегі санында «Торкемада» (Эдвард Поуис Матерс) былай деді: «Көбінесе Пуаро туралы әңгіме оқығаннан кейін сыншы оны толыққанды талқылауға орын іздей бастайды. Бірақ «Дүм Свидетель» – Пуаро кітаптарының ең нашары, менің Агата Кристиге деген шынайы құрметім танымал болғанымен, маған әсер етпейді. Сюжеттің біршама шалалығы мен кейіпкерлердің қарапайымдылығы, автордың осыдан бірнеше жыл бұрын ескіргені сияқты, және оның өте жағымды итінің нақты кісі өлтіру әрекетіне қарсы куәлік беруге қабілетсіздігінен басқа, оның соңғы кітабы екі негізгі кемшілікті көрсетеді. Біріншіден, қайтыс болған қарт әйелден кешіккен хат келгенде Пуаро соқырлықпен шағын болжамға ілесіп кетеді. Екіншіден, Гастингс үшін айнадағы брошканың мәнін түсінбеуі жақсы, бірақ Пуаро үшін оны осы уақытқа дейін байқамауы – бұл табынушыларға қарсылық. Дегенмен, жақсы орташа туындыдан гөрі нашар Кристи жақсы. «The Scotsman» газетінің 1937 жылғы 5 шілдедегі саны: «Агата Кристи романында көтерілуі мүмкін құрылымдық мәселе бар» деген сөздермен басталды. Сыншы содан кейін Пуаро Эмили Арунделдің хатын алған жеріне дейін сюжеттің құрылымын сипаттайды, содан кейін: «Неге әңгіме осы жерден басталмауы керек? М. Пуаро оны осы жерден қайта жасайды және оқырман, егер ол жағдайды білмейтін болса, одан да көп ләззат алатын болар еді. Бірақ анықтау жақсы, және оқырман шағымдануға негіз жоқ, өйткені нақты ілмек оның алдында бірнеше рет көрсетілді, және ол уланудан гөрі басқа құбылыстың қалыпты белгісі сияқты көрінетіндіктен, оны елемеуге бейім. Осы үшін Агата Кристи толық баға алуға лайық». «The Guardian» газетінің Э. Р. Пуншон өзінің 1937 жылғы 13 шілдедегі шолу бағанын сол аптада талқыланған кітаптардың салыстырмалы шолуымен бастады (Милвард Кеннедидің «I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury», Майкл Иннестің «Hamlet, Revenge!», Марджери Аллингэмнің «Бейірімдегі бишілер» және К. Дейли Кингтің «Құқықсыз өлік» романдары). Ол: «Елбасы дәстүрге жақын Кристи ханым ғана, ал бұл жолы ол иттер туралы көп мәлімет пен терьерді қосады, тіпті Пуароның өзі де сахнаның ортасынан қашып кетеді» деді. Ол романның Петерге арналуы «бұл итке табынушы елде сәттілікке жету үшін жеткілікті» екенін айтты. Ол Пуароның «өзінің барлық әдеттегі ақыл-ойының барлығын көрсетеді; Капитан Гастингс Пуароның жанында тағы бір рет қуана-қуана өзінің әдеттегі ақымақтығынан көп, және сыншы үшін ештеңе қалмады, бірақ оның әдеттегі құрметін ұсынуға мүмкіндік берді. Ол, шынымен, осындай нәрселерді өте жақсы жасайды, сондықтан біреу ризашылықсыз түрде оның басқаша, тіпті жақсы болмаса да, жақсы нәрсе жасағанын қалайды». «Daily Mirror» газетінде (1937 жылғы 8 шілдеде) Мэри Делл былай деп жазды: «Мен кітап оқып бастағаннан кейін, мені қызықтыра беру үшін Бобқа немесе оның ақыл-ойына сүйенудің қажеті жоқ еді. Бұл – Агата Кристидің ең жақсы туындысы». Ол: «Бұл кітап триллер жанкүйерлерін бірінші беттен үш жүзден астам бетіне дейін қуантады» деп қорытындылады. Роберт Барнард: «Осы кезең үшін өте қызықты емес: өлген әйелдің туыстарының ешқайсысы ерекше қызықты емес, ал негізгі ілмек өте айқын. Иттің ісі өте ыңғайсыз, бірақ сүйіспеншілікпен және біліммен жасалады. Соңында ит Хастингске беріледі немесе керісінше».
1937 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Басқа еңбектерге сілтемелер:
11-тарау: «Пуароның Шығысқа жасаған саяхаттары, менің білетінімше, Сирияға дейінгі бір сапардан тұрады, ол Иракқа дейін созылады, және ол бірнеше аптаны алады». Досының өтінішімен Сириядағы істі шешкеннен кейін Пуаро Англияға қайтудан бұрын Иракқа баруды шешті және, Иракта болғанда, оған тағы бір істі шешу ұсынылды, ол оны шешті, және ол Агата Кристидің 1936 жылғы «Месопотамиядағы кісі өлтіру» романында баяндалған. Содан кейін Пуаро Сирияға қайтып, үйге қайту үшін «Ориент экспресіне» отырды және жолда «Ориент экспресіндегі кісі өлтіру» ісін шешті. 18-тарау: Пуаро өзінің бұрынғы істерінен кісі өлтірушілердің тізімін келтіреді, атап айтқанда «Бұлттағы өлім» (1935), «Стайлдегі құпия іс» (1920), «Роджер Акройдтың кісі өлтіруі» (1926) және «Көк пойыздың құпиясы» (1928).
1937 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Мүмкін қателер:
Белла және Яков Таниостың ұлы Эдвард деп айтылса, романда екі рет Джон деп айтылады. Баласы анасы тарапынан 2, 16, 17-тарауларда, әкесі тарапынан 2 және 17-тарауларда аталған. Басқа уақытта олар «балалар» деп аталады. 16-тараудың соңында, Белла, оның қызы Мэри және Пуаро Яков Таниос пен олардың ұлы қосылғанда, Пуаро Белладан сұрақ қояды және ол: «Сіз Смирнаға қашан ораласыз, ханым?» деп жауап береді. «Бірнеше аптадан кейін. Менің күйеуім – ах! Міне, күйеуім және Джон оның қасында». 17-тараудың басында Яков Таниос ұлын Джон деп шақырады: «Міне, біз келдік», – ол әйеліне күлімдеп айтты. «Джон түбіртекте алғашқы рет отырып қатты қуанды. Бүгінге дейін ол автобуста ғана отырған». Басқа басылымдарда Джон мен Эдвард арасында ауысу жиі болады (мысалы, 2-тарауда бірнеше сөйлемдер арасында). Алайда, Хью Фрейзер оқыған аудиокітапта, бала әрқашан Эдвард деп аталады, тіпті басылым нұсқасында дұрыс емес атау қолданылған жерлерде де. Осылайша, олар қателік деп есептеледі. Аудиокітап үшін қателіктер қашан түзетілгені белгісіз. Кітап Белла Таниостың қызметтік атының жазылуында тұрақсыз. 1-тарауда (8-бетте «Эмили Арунделдің қызы Белла Винтер грекке үйленген») Белла Винтер деп айтылған. Кейін ол профессор Биггстің қызы Белла Биггс деп аталды (10-тарау, 74-бетте «Эмилидің әлемде жалғыз туысы болды, және олар мен Белла Биггс оның жақын туыстары еді»). Алайда, Гастингс кітапты баяндағандықтан, бұл оның қателіктері болуы мүмкін. Сондай-ақ, аудиокітапта 18-тараудың атауы «Құбыршық ұясында» деп өзгертілді, ал ерте мәтіндерде «Ағаш ішіндегі негр» деп аталған. «Иттің добының оқиғасы» 2009 жылдың қыркүйегінде Джон Керранның «Агата Кристидің құпия дәптерлері: 50 жылдық құпиялар жасау» кітабында Ұлыбританияда жарияланды. Шағын әңгіме сондай-ақ 2009 жылы жаңартылған журналдың он жылдық санында «The Strand Magazine» журналында жарияланды.
1937 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Цитаталар:
Пуаро шындықты білу үшін қажет болған жағдайда жалған айту туралы, 26-тарауда Гастингспен әңгімелесуде:
H: «Тағы да жалған, екеніңізді білемін?»
P: «Кейде сіз өте жаман сөйлейсіз, Гастингс. Мен жалған айтуды ұнатамын деп ойлайсыз ба?»
H: «Мен солай ойлаймын. Шындығында, мен осыған сенімдімін».
P: «Мен кейде өзімнің тапқырлығымды мақтаймын», – Пуаро әдемі түрде мойындады.
1937 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Беделділіктер:
1937 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Телевизия:
1996 жылы роман Дэвид Сушеттің Пуаро рөлінде ойнаған «Агата Кристинің Пуаро» телесериясының бөлігі ретінде Дуглас Уоткинсонмен бейімделді. Адаптацияға бірнеше өзгерістер енгізілді, олар кірі...
1937 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. In The New York Times Book Review (26 September 1937), Kay Irvin wrote that "Agatha Christie can be depended upon to tell a good tale. Even when she is not doing her most brilliant work she holds her reader's attention, leads them on from clue to clue, and from error to error, until they come up with a smash against surprise in the end. She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much better than average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity. In The Observer'''s issue of 18 July 1937, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "usually after reading a Poirot story the reviewer begins to scheme for space in which to deal with it adequately; but Dumb Witness, the least of all the Poirot books, does not have this effect on me, though my sincere admiration for Agatha Christie is almost notorious. Apart from a certain baldness of plot and crudeness of characterisation on which this author seemed to have outgrown years ago, and apart from the fact that her quite pleasing dog has no testimony to give either way concerning the real as opposed to the attempted murder, her latest book betrays two main defects. In the first place, on receiving a delayed letter from a dead old lady Poirot blindly follows a little grey hunch. In the second place, it is all very well for Hastings not to see the significance of the brooch in the mirror, but for Poirot to miss it for so long is almost an affront to the would be worshipper. Still, better a bad Christie than a good average. "The Scotsman of 5 July 1937 started off with: "In Agatha Christie's novel there is a minor question of construction which might be raised." The reviewer then went on to outline the set up of the plot up to the point where Poirot receives Emily Arundell's letter and then said, "Why should the story not have begun at this point? M. Poirot reconstructs it from here and the reader would probably have got more enjoyment out of it if he had not had a hint of the position already. But the detection is good, and the reader has no ground for complaint, for the real clue is dangled before his eyes several times, and because it seems a normal feature of another phenomenon than poisoning that he tends to ignore it. For this Agatha Christie deserves full marks." E. R. Punshon of The Guardian began his review column of 13 July 1937 by an overview comparison of the books in question that week (in addition to Dumb Witness, I'll be Judge, I'll be Jury by Milward Kennedy, Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes, Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham and Careless Corpse by C. Daly King) when he said, "Only Mrs Christie keeps closer to the old tradition, and this time she adds much doggy lore and a terrier so fascinating that even Poirot himself is nearly driven from the centre of the stage." In the review proper, he went on to say that the dedication of the novel to Peter was, "a fact that in this dog worshipping country is enough of itself to ensure success." He observed that Poirot, "shows all of his usual acumen; Captain Hastings – happily once more at Poirot's side – more than all his usual stupidity, and there is nothing left for the critic but to offer his usual tribute of praise to another of Mrs Christie's successes. She does indeed this sort of thing so superlatively well that one is ungratefully tempted to wish she would do something just a little well different, even if less well." In the Daily Mirror (8 July 1937), Mary Dell wrote: "Once I had started reading, I did not have to rely on Bob or his cleverness to keep me interested. This is Agatha Christie at her best." She concluded, "Here's a book that will keep all thriller fans happy from page one to page three hundred and something." Robert Barnard: "Not quite vintage for the period: none of the relations of the dead woman is particularly interesting, and the major clue is very obvious. The doggy stuff is rather embarrassing, though done with affection and knowledge. At the end the dog is given to Hastings – or possibly vice versa." References to other works
Chapter 11: "Poirot's travellings in the East, as far as I knew, consisted of one journey to Syria extended to Iraq, and which occupied perhaps a few weeks". After solving a case in Syria by the request of his friend, Poirot decided to travel to Iraq before returning to England and, while in Iraq, was requested to solve a case, which he did and which is told in Christie's 1936 novel Murder in Mesopotamia, after which Poirot returned to Syria and boarded Orient Express to return home and en route solved Murder on the Orient Express. Chapter 18: Poirot gives a list of murderers from previous cases of his, more precisely Death in the Clouds (1935), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), and The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928). Possible errata
The son of Bella and Jacob Tanios is mentioned as Edward and, twice, as John in the novel. The boy is mentioned by name by his mother in Chapters 2, 16, 17 and by his father in Chapters 2 and 17 as well. At any other time, they are mentioned as "the children". At the very end of Chapter 16 in one print version, when Bella, her daughter Mary and Poirot are joined by Jacob Tanios and their son, Poirot asks Bella a question and she replies:"When do you return to Smyrna, madame?" "In a few weeks' time. My husband – ah! here is my husband and John with him. "At the start of Chapter 17, Jacob Tanios then calls his son John:"Here we are," he said, smiling to his wife. "John has been passionately thrilled by his first ride in the tube. He has always been in buses until today. "Other print versions have more switches between John and Edward (in Chapter 2 a few sentences apart, for example). However, in the audiobook edition read by Hugh Fraser, the boy is always called Edward, even in those two instances where the print version has the wrong name. Thus they are termed errata. It is not clear when the errata were corrected for the audiobook. The book is inconsistent in its references to Bella Tanios' maiden name. There is an early reference to her as Bella Winter (see Chapter 1, page 8 "For Bella Winter, Emily Arundell's niece, had married a Greek"). Later she is referred to as Bella Biggs, daughter of Professor Biggs (see Chapter 10, page 74 "Emily was alone in the world then, and they and Bella Biggs were the only kith and kin she had.") Although since Hastings is narrating the book, they can obviously be mistakes on his part. Also in the audio book, the title of Chapter 18 is A Cuckoo in the Nest, changed from A Nigger in the Woodpile, in early texts. "The Incident of the Dog's Ball" was published in Britain in September 2009 in John Curran's Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making. The short story was also published by The Strand Magazine in their tenth anniversary issue of the revived magazine in 2009. Quotes
Poirot on lying as needed to learn the facts, in conversation with Hastings in Chapter 26:
H: "More lies, I suppose?" P: "You are really very offensive sometimes, Hastings. Anybody would think I enjoyed telling lies." H: "I rather think you do. In fact, I'm sure of it." P: "It is true that I sometimes compliment myself upon my ingenuity," Poirot confessed naively. Adaptations
Television
In 1996 the novel was adapted by Douglas Watkinson as part of the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot. The adaptation made a number of changes to it, which included the following:
The setting was changed from Berkshire to England's Lake District. Poirot visits the Arundell home before Emily dies, and not after; he does not use the pretence of buying it to examine the house. In addition, after learning of her fall, he influences her to change her will to favour Miss Lawson, and later advises her companion to share out her inheritance to the Arundell family after the court case. Charles Arundell is a motor boat racer and a friend of Captain Hastings, who attempts to beat the water speed record, and uses his aunt to finance the attempts. His sister Theresa is changed from the vain, young, engaged woman in the novel to a single woman in her late thirties. Bella Tanios does not leave on her own with the children, but is helped by Poirot and Hastings to the home of Emily's friends the Tripp sisters. No arsenic is stolen in the adaptation. The role of the dog, Bob, the dumb witness who is suspected of causing Emily's fall, is slightly altered in the television adaptation – in the novel the dog often left the ball on the landing, and the people of the house put it away, but on the night of Emily's fall the dog had been outside all night with the ball in a drawer. In the adaptation, the dog always takes the ball with him to his basket, never leaving it anywhere else, proving that when it was found on the stairs, it could not have been the dog's doing but must involve someone else; Bob was not outside the house when Emily fell in this adaptation. An additional murder was added into the adaptation – that of Dr Grainger. Whilst talking to Miss Lawson about Emily's death, he had suddenly realised the significance of the mist coming out of Emily as a sign, realising how she was poisoned with elemental phosphorus, but foolishly alerted Bella to his suspicions. Thus, Bella went to his room while he slept, and opened up an unlit gas heater, flooding the room with coal gas, killing him as a result. When Poirot reveals his findings to all, Bella does not commit suicide; she is present with the others, and exposed as the murderer, rather than being given a summary of it by Poirot on her own. Bob the dog does not return to London with Poirot and Hastings but is taken in by the Tripp sisters. The cast includes:
Hugh Fraser as Hastings
Ann Morrish as Emily Arundel
Patrick Ryecart as Charles Arundel
Kate Buffery as Theresa Arundel
Paul Herzberg as Jacob Tanios
Julia St. John as Bella Tanios
Norma West as Wilhelmina Lawson
Jonathan Newth as Dr. Grainger
2013: It was adapted as a 2013 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie''.
Радио
BBC Radio 4 2006 жылы романның толық актерлік қойылымын эфирге берді, онда Джон Моффатт Геркуле Пуаро рөлінде, ал Саймон Уильямс капитан Артур Гастингс рөлінде ойнады. Музыка авторы – Том Смайл. Бұл қойылым аудиокітап ретінде кассетада немесе CD-де сатылымға шығарылды. Ұлыбритания және АҚШ нарықтарында осы BBC радиолық толық актерлік қойылымының үш нұсқасы жарық көрді, соңғысы 2010 жылдың қаңтарында АҚШ-та CD-де шықты. Кітап үздіксіз жарияланып тұрады және түрлі форматтарда қолжетімді. Екі Kindle нұсқасы шығарылды: біріншісі 2005 жылдың қаңтарында William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN B000FC2RRM) баспасынан, екіншісі 2010 жылдың қазанында HarperCollins (ISBN B0046RE5CW) баспасынан жарық көрді. Ұлыбритания және АҚШ нарықтары үшін төрт аудио нұсқасы тізімделген, 2002 жылдың тамызынан бастап, олардың барлығын Хью Фрейзер оқыды. Ұлыбританияда HarperCollins Audiobooks, ал АҚШ-та BBC Audiobooks America және Audio Partners, The Mystery Masters 2006 жылдың ақпанында шығарды.
BBC Radio 4 broadcast a full cast adaptation of the novel in 2006, featuring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot and Simon Williams as Captain Arthur Hastings. Music was composed by Tom Smail. The production was recorded for sale as an audio book on cassette or CD. Three editions of this BBC Radio Full Cast Drama were released in the UK and US markets, the latest being the January 2010 US edition on CD,
The book is in continuous publication, and in several forms. Two Kindle editions have been issued: one in January 2005 by William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN B000FC2RRM) and again in October 2010 by HarperCollins (ISBN B0046RE5CW). Four audio editions for the UK and US markets are listed, from August 2002, all read by Hugh Fraser by HarperCollins Audiobooks in the UK, and by BBC Audiobooks America and Audio Partners, The Mystery Masters February 2006 in the US.
The book is in continuous publication, and in several forms. Two Kindle editions have been issued: one in January 2005 by William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN B000FC2RRM) and again in October 2010 by HarperCollins (ISBN B0046RE5CW). Four audio editions for the UK and US markets are listed, from August 2002, all read by Hugh Fraser by HarperCollins Audiobooks in the UK, and by BBC Audiobooks America and Audio Partners, The Mystery Masters February 2006 in the US.