Agatha Christie—The Queen of Detective Novels

◎朱廣春

Track 4

她是吉尼斯世界紀錄中最暢銷的推理小說家，她是舉世公認的偵探小說女王，她被《紐約時報》稱為“神秘的第一夫人”，法國總統戴高樂、英國瑪麗王后、中國著名武俠小說家金庸等都是她的粉絲。她，正是國內偵探推理小說迷心中的“阿婆”——阿加莎·克里斯蒂。

Agatha Christie was born in Devon, England in 1890.When she was very young, her father died and she was raised by her mother.

After the outbreak of World War I, Agatha went to the hospital as a volunteer.Over several years, she became a qualified1)pharmacist and learnt a lot about poisons and drugs.In 1920, the great2)detective Hercule Poirot made his debut along with the novelThe Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Agatha Christie created over a hundred works, with more than 70 of them being detective novels.In her prolific writing career spanning half a century, she has never disappointed her readers.

The novelAnd Then There Were Noneis considered her masterpiece and also one of her most popular mysteries: Ten house guests on an isolated island are all3)accused of murder, and one by one they disappear, until the truth is revealed,but no one survives.

The novelEvil Under The Sunis thought one of her best mystery novels: A beautiful flirt, who makes as many enemies as she has suitors at a hotel resort in southern England, is found strangled to death on the beach.Detective Poirot gathers all the suspects to try to solve the4)case.

The novelA Murder Is Announcedis selected as a classic textbook of Criminal Psychology: The villagers who love to join in the fun came to Letty’s house at the set time stated in the murder notice published in the newspaper, thinking it was just a game, but it turned out to be a real murder.Miss Jane Marple, the rural female detective, was called upon to solve this mystery.

Murder on the Orient Expressis Christie’s most successful “the snowstorm villa model”mystery novel: On a train from Istanbul to Paris, Detective Poirot must sort through 13 suspects.They all had a5)motive to kill a hated millionaire.Later, this novel and another classicDeath on the Nilewere adapted into films, both of which became classic detective films.

Jin Yong once commented on Agatha’s works, “The writing skill is first-class.The content is realistic.The logic is smooth.And she is also good at using language to create amusement.Reading her novels, I will be involved in a battle of wits with the author until the solution is revealed, and this process is very enjoyable!The brilliance of her work lies in the clever arrangement that completely surprises people, and when the mystery is6)exposed, it is also very reasonable, making it impossible for people not to be convinced.”

In 1971, Agatha was made a Dame of the British Empire.In 1976, she passed away peacefully at the age of 86.

Reflecting on her life, Agatha said,“I like living.I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”

1) pharmacistn.藥劑師

2) detectiven.偵探

3) accusev.控告

4) casen.案件

5) motiven.動機

6) exposev.使暴露

1890 年，阿加莎·克里斯蒂出生于英國德文郡。在她很小的時候，父親便去世了，她是由母親撫養長大的。

第一次世界大戰爆發后，阿加莎前往醫院當志愿者。幾年的時間里，她成為一名有資質的藥劑師，學到大量有關毒物、藥物的知識。1920 年，大偵探赫爾克里·波洛就在此時與小說《斯泰爾斯莊園奇案》一起問世。

阿加莎·克里斯蒂一生創作了百余部作品，其中偵探小說70 余部。在歷時半個世紀的高產寫作生涯中，她從來沒有讓讀者失望過。

小說《無人生還》被認為是她的一部杰作，也是她最受歡迎的偵探小說之一：一座孤島上的十位住客全被指控為疑兇，隨后一個接一個地失蹤，最終，真相大白，但無人生還。

小說《陽光下的罪惡》被認為是她最好的懸疑小說之一：一位美麗的風情女子在英格蘭南部的一家度假酒店吸引了眾多的愛慕者，同時樹敵良多。其后，有人發現她被人掐死在海灘上。波洛偵探集中所有嫌疑人，試圖破解這個案子。

小說《謀殺啟事》，則被選作犯罪心理學的經典教材：愛湊熱鬧的村里人按照報紙上登載的一則“謀殺啟事”約定的時間來到利蒂家，原以為只是一場游戲，卻真的發生了謀殺案。鄉村女偵探簡·馬普爾小姐被找來解開這個疑案。

《東方快車謀殺案》是克里斯蒂最成功的“暴風雪山莊模式”推理小說：在一列由伊斯坦布爾開往巴黎的火車上，波洛偵探必須鑒別13 名嫌疑人，他們都有動機殺死一名遭人厭恨的百萬富翁。后來，這部小說與另一部經典小說《尼羅河上的慘案》分別被改編成電影，均成為偵探電影的經典之作。

金庸曾這么評價阿加莎的作品:“寫作功力一流，內容寫實、邏輯性順暢，也很會運用語言的趣味，閱讀她的小說，在謎底沒有揭露前，我會與作者斗智，這種過程令人非常享受！她作品的高明與精彩之處在于:布局的巧妙使人完全意想不到，而謎底揭穿時，又十分合理，讓人不得不信服?！?/p>

1971 年，阿加莎獲封為英帝國女爵士。1976，她平靜離世，享年86 歲。

回顧她的生活，阿加莎說：“我喜歡活著。我有時會痛苦難耐、會絕望無比、會飽受憂愁的折磨。可是當一切經歷過去之后，我仍然很清楚地認識到，好好活著就是最了不起的事情?！?/p>