The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
Rating: 3.5/5This review can also be found on my blog Musings of a BibliophileA short story collection concocted by one of my favourite childhood authors Dame Agatha Christie seemed like the perfect book to curl up in bed with this Christmas holiday.Christie refers herself as 'the chef' of this book of Christmas fare which is described as 'The Chef's Collection' in her foreword. There are two main courses:The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and The Mystery of the Spanish Chest; a selection of Entrées: Greenshaw's Folly,The Dream, and The Under Dog; and a Sorbet: Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds, four of which features the little mustached Belgian detective Hercule Poirot while one is about the sweet grandmotherly sleuth Miss Marple.Interestingly though only the titular story is set around Christmas but this does not in any way diminish the appeal of the other stories in the collection. The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding: In order to find the mystery behind a missing ruby,Poirot finds himself celebrating the Christmas holiday in the countryside at Kings Lacey with the Laceys who always have a grand Christmas party the English way."DON'T EAT NONE OF THE PLUM PUDDING.ONE AS WISHES YOU WELL."With this ominous but cryptic note waiting for him in bed Poirot sets upon his task of solving the mystery of the missing jewel,and a murder along the way. The Mystery of the Spanish Chest: A newspaper article of a murdered man found in a Spanish Chest grabs the obsessive Poirot's attention and he takes it upon himself to solve this mystery with characters and plotline similar to Shakespeare's Othello. The mystery of the Spanish chest was dramatic and emotional,two qualities which Poirot often declared to Hastings could be much overrated- and indeed frequently were so by the latter.He had been severe with ce cher Hastings on this point,and now here he was,behaving much as his friend might have done,obsessed with beautiful women,crimes of passion,jealous,hatred,and all the romantic causes of murder! He wanted to know about it all. The Under Dog: Here Lily Margrave, the young and skeptical secretary to a Lady Astwell is sent to commission M.Hercule Poirot to investigate the murder of Lady Astwell's husband Sir Reuben Astwell.The comic,almost ridiculous,aspect that he presented disturbed her conception of him.Could this funny little man,with the egg-shaped head and the enormous mustaches,really do the wonderful things that were claimed of him? Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds: While dining with his friend Henry Bonnington at the Gallant Endeavour,Chelsea he learns about a regular customer and his eating habits who is then later found dead in his own apartment.Thought to be an accident,Poirot uses his little grey cells to prove that it was no accident but a well planned murder. 'Then you suspect somebody..?''No,no.It is not that at all.It's a case of the routine habits of the human animal.That is very important. And the dead M.Gascoigne does not fit in it.It is all wrong,you see.' The Dream: An eccentric millionaire,Benedict Farley is found dead in his dead near the window in his room with a revolver by his side a few days after he tells Poirot about his recurrent dream of killing himself with a gun in his room at twenty-eight minutes past three near the window."I wonder if you'll ever commit a crime,Poirot?" "I bet you could get away with it all right.As a matter of fact,it would be too easy for you - I mean the thing would be off as definitely as too unsporting.""That," said Poirot, "is a typically English idea."Poirot is proved to be true because he is eventually forced to become a murderer before he takes leave from the world in Curtain:Poirot's Last Case. This means that Christie had already planned to turn Poirot into a murderer someday.Though the short stories lack the sophistication and intricacies of plot development as in Christie's full length novels,they make an entertaining quick read where readers can experience the charm and intelligence of this eponymous detective.I along with Poirot missed Captain Arthur Hastings in these adventures though.I was however somewhat disappointed by the Miss Marple story, Greenshaw's Folly. Here the kind of omnipotent solution of a murder mystery of the owner of Greenshaw's Folly,a secluded piece of architectural beauty near the home of Jane Marple's nephew, did not charm me as her adventures in A Pocket Full of Rye or The Moving Finger. Considering there is only one Miss Marple story in the collection,it seems like an odd choice to be included in the bundle other than it being Christie's way of wanting her readers to enjoy Poirot and Miss Marple in the same book during Christmas.I have realized one thing ,that though I might not have the patience to slog through these cozy laid back mysteries on a regular day as I did during middle school when I used to devour one Agatha Christie book after another,Christie's books make a great read for a lazy day when one can sit back and enjoy the scenic locales of English countryside with the polite people welcoming the clever Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple to stay at their homes and to deliver their verdict.Nevertheless, I enjoyed this trip down the memory lane and had a good time with Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple this Christmas.How did you spend your Christmas?
I read this book in portuguese. This books are translated by RBA and I think that their translator is quite good. (Usually I am against reading translated books but I have this collection so...)First of all I have a theory... don't know if it's true or not but... three of these stories Agatha Christie complains or criticize the new age she was living. This book was written when she was 70 years old and since she had been born and live her adult life with a mentality I think the new age of the 40's 50's and 60's were taking her toll on her. This is also present in other books from Christie from this era. I think that Miss Marple, H Poirot and Agatha Christie are remnants from another era... Victorian era where Title, Honor and Family matter. This new age had no respect for their elders.Now back to the review...The main story, novella lenght, “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” Herculae Poirot was the first tale. Poirot is invited to attend Christmans at a house where, supposedly, is a stolen jewel. After meeting all the family and friends Poirot gets to work. There is a main plot and a sub-plot where a bunch of young kids want to see how good is Poirot. Of course, not only, Poirot solves the case but also teaches a lesson to the young kids."The Mystery of the Spanish Chest” gets it's attention to Poirot after reading the case in a newspaper. It seems that this story has a love Triangle. Mrs Clayton, a beautiful lady, asks Poirot for his help because she is convinced that Mr Rich is not the killer, even afterthe body was discovered at his house. Poirot talks to everyone and soon realizes the simalarities between this story and Othelo from Shakespeare. “The Under Dog” has Poirot investigation a family murder (What kind more there is with Agatha Christie?) and Lady Astwell knows who the killer was. She just can't proove it. Nice little story with a more active Poirot (even searching everybody rooms).In “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” was one of the funniest short stories I read from Agatha Christie. An elderly man eats the same things over ten years and one day he ordered something else... why? After being discovered killed Poirot tries to unveil the crime."The Dream" was a nice tale of a man who dreams everyday of suicide and after meeting Poirot he suddently kills himself. Was suicide or not? Poirot discovers...“Greenshaw’s Folly” is the only story featuring Miss Marple. Again the differences between Poirot and Marple are there but the only way she would have discover this tale would be if she used her little grey cells as Poirot puts it.
What do You think about The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding (2002)?
A feast of five Poirot mysteries, with a dollop of Miss Marple on the side!The title story, as befits a seasonal tale, is a pleasing winter warmer, which sees the brilliant Belgian ensconced in an English country home for a traditional christmas, on the trail of a missing ruby. Some playful children decide to have some fun at his expense, but Poirot's no turkey.Of the second story, 'The Mystery of the Spanish Chest', Christie offers the opinion in her foreword that Poirot believes it was 'a case in which he considers he was at his best'. Far be it from me to disagree with him, but disagree I must, and no amount of parallels to the plot of Othello can convince me of that.'The Under Dog' features the murder of a dislikable businessman and a bevy of suspects with bad tempers, but Poirot's little grey cells turn their attention towards the possibility of a 'good-tempered' murderer.The next two short stories are very short indeed, but not without interest, as another famous detective may well have labeled them. 'Four and Twenty Blackbirds' sees Poirot actively searching out a murder he intuits from the strange behaviour of a diner, and in 'The Dream' a reclusive millionaire dreams that he will commit suicide in a singular fashion, then apparently does just that. Lastly, apropos of nothing in a Poirot collection but welcome all the same, Miss Marple cracks an over elaborate (and frankly pretty unlikely) murder case involving an eccentric old woman in the garden of her bizarre house, known as 'Greenshaw's Folly'.I wouldn't say that there is anything essential here, but it's an interesting change to read a handful of Christie mysteries in the shorthand so to speak.
—Perry Whitford
Late in her career, Dame Agatha collected some Poirot short stories which hadn’t been published in book form, expanded them, and they became this release. As is her wont, Christie’s long-form short stories (if that phrase doesn’t sound ridiculous) often work well enough. No, they’re never going to have the complexity of her novels, but there’s a restrained strength to each of the Poirot stories here, all of which were subsequently made into very good episodes of the David Suchet television series. More to the point, most of the stories – notably the title story – are wonderfully atmospheric, and this elevates them a little.The final story, "Greenshaw’s Folly", is a rather weak Marple attempt. It’s an unusual choice to include in this volume, but it ensures that Poirot and Marple – at least nominally – share a book.[US readers can find these stories scattered in "The Under Dog", "Three Blind Mice" and "The Regatta Mystery", but these days it's probably just easier to buy the Complete Short Stories of Poirot and/or Marple, generally in quite lovely volumes from HarperCollins.]Poirot ranking: 26th of 38.
—Sammy
Hercule Poirot decides to take in a full Christmas in the country, with pudding and all, this Christmas when he's asked to investigate a stolen ruby. In the country house of Colonel and Mrs Lacey Poirot finds things not exactly right, especially when it looks like a murder could have happened and where is the ruby?Having already read Hercule Poirot's Christmas, I decided to read another Agatha Christie Christmas story - The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. In this adventure my love-hate relationship with Hercule Poirot is plotting along nicely. Poirot is egotistical, over-confident and is always certain that he can solve "every" mystery! The only problem is that he always does and this is why it's a love-hate relationship. I always want to see if I can solve it before Poirot and in this case I DID! *queue triumphant music*About mid-way through the story I had guessed who had stolen the ruby and where it was hidden. I liked the angle that there is "almost murder". Most of Agatha Christie's short stories don't involve murder but more a missing object or some other mystery and this one was a fun twist.Of all the Agatha Christie's I've listened to I don't have a single complaint about any of them. I've mostly listened to David Suchet and Hugh Fraser narrate and their narration is absolutely flawless. If you're looking to try a audiobook this season, perhaps on a drive to a Christmas party, I highly suggest picking up The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, or any of the other short stories available. They are fantastic listening.
—bella
