Poison and Perception: Agatha Christie’s Place in Modernism Anonymous College

Though Agatha Christie has been enjoyed by millions in the last century since she wrote her widely popular detective novels, little serious scholarship has been written on her works, despite their ingenious craft and subtlety. In fact, there is a largely absent space in literary criticism in the dynamic between Christie and other authors of the time, especially those of the literary modernism movement, though it is clear that Christie is participating heavily in this post-war movement. Agatha Christie draws on her postwar experiences to craft immersive, innovative mystery novels which, though popular fiction, also parallel the modernist literary movement.

Agatha Christie was born Agatha Miller on 15 September 1890 into an upper-middle-class family. She was schooled at home, and had a tremendous curiosity for reading, including mystery novels. Her father died when she was eleven, and in her teenage years she went abroad to Paris to study vocal arts (Christie, An Autobiography 39). Upon completion of her education she returned home to her mother, and after her mother’s health began to decline, they went together to Egypt for its warm climate. Eventually they returned to Britain 1909, where Christie began writing short stories and...