September 15 – 135 years since the birth of Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

Agatha Miller kept the surname "Christie" after her divorce from her husband as a literary one. The theme of betrayal continued to resonate in her works for a long time, especially during the Second World War, when London was bombed, and the writer, a pharmacist at the university pharmacy, was in a hurry to clear herself of suspicion of preparing a murder.

 

The RUDN library has detective stories from those years with familiar characters: "The Moving Finger" (1942) with Miss Jane Marple and "Five Little Pigs" (1942), little known in Russia, with Hercule Poirot.

 

The image of the retired policeman Poirot was formed after the pharmacist Agatha Miller communicated with Belgian refugees in the hospital of her hometown during the First World War.

 

In the library you will find the most famous detective stories about the detective Poirot: the national bestseller "The Mystery of King's Abbot" ("The Murder of Roger Aykroyd", 1926) and the famous "Murder on the Orient Express" ("Murder on the Orient Express", 1933).

 

The Middle East entered the works of Agatha Christie thanks to her second husband, a British intelligence officer and archaeologist who worked on excavations in the Levant.

 

In addition to books from the mass Home-reading library series, the collection contains a unique American edition from 1976 of the very first detective story and the very last one featuring Miss Marple: "The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930) and "Sleeping Murder" (1940). The latter, written during the London Blitz, was published only in the year of the death of Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan.

 

The lady commander passed away with Miss Jane Marple to the requiem of "Sleeping Murder".