published 1924
[Heroine and narrator Anne Beddingfeld is alone in the world and hoping something both good AND exciting will happen to her. This is how she prepares:]
I wound a black garment tightly round me, leaving my arms and shoulders bare. Then I brushed back my hair and pulled it well down over my ears again. I put a lot of powder on my face, to that the skin seemed even whiter than usual. I fished about until I found some old lip-salve, and I put oceans of it on my lips. Then I did under my eyes with burnt cork. Finally I draped a red ribbon over my bare shoulder, stuck a scarlet feather in my hair, and placed a cigarette in one corner of my mouth. The whole effect pleased me very much.
“Anna the Adventuress,” I said aloud, nodding at my reflection. “Anna the Adventuress. Episode 1, ‘the House in Kensington’.
Girls are foolish things.
commentary: This follows on from Sunday’s entry about the E Phillips Oppenheim book called Anna the Adventuress. Surely Christie had seen the 1920 silent film, and maybe read the book too?
I love Anne: she is my favourite of the Christie women, and I will have no nonsense from my good blogging friends Kate at Cross-Examining Crime and Brad at Ah Sweet Mystery – Brad, let me tell you, the ‘mystery’ is how you and Kate can refuse to be seduced by the charms of this book.
Anne is a joyous flapper, and has interesting hats. She envies
Emily, our little servant, who ’walked out’ whenever occasion offered with a large sailor to whom she was affianced. In between times. ‘to keep her hand in’, as she expressed it, she walked out with the greengrocer’s young man, and the chemist’s assistant.Poor Anne has no-one to ‘keep my hand in’ with. But don’t worry! She will find romance and adventure.
There is a great plot, the book is very funny, and it has a very clever element to it which I can’t mention.
I have described before how my father offended the 13-year-old me by saying this book was ‘A bit Peg’s Paper’ (I am surrounded by disloyalty, it just prepared me for Brad and Kate). Someone asked me then what Peg’s Paper was, and I found this splendid picture
Which I think tells you all you need to know.
And I think it’s fair to say that nowadays I will gladly embrace the Peg’s Paper side of this book…
The b/w photograph is of Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, an intriguing character, was taken in 1920, is from the Wilson Centre for Photography, and can be found on Flickr.
Lady in strapless dress from Kristine’s website.
Agatha Christie all over the blog. Man in the Brown suit, multiple entries. Click on the labels below.
Well, all respect to Kate and Brad, whom I really do respect. But I'm with you on this one, Moira. It's a hugely enjoyable story, and Anne's an interesting character. She's funny, smart, and quick-thinking, and the story itself is just full of fun adventure. And I love the character of Suzanne Blair, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to hear you are on #TeamAnne with me Margot! In these difficult times it is good to have something enjoyable to argue over. Especially as you and I are right...
DeleteAnd yes, the book has many other great characters, Suzanne and Sir Eustace for starters.
haha I think we will have to agree to disagree on this book. The way Anne loses her independence, her 'mystery' and general spunkiness is probably never going to work for me. Personally I think Christie should have kept subverting the Peg's Paper conventions and tropes right through the book rather than letting them infect Anne so severely. Not come across PP before nor the Oppenheim title so it was interesting to see how much Christie was writing to and in that subgenre. Your father sounds like a very astute person when it comes to Christie novels!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see the forgotten books that Christie will have been reading at the time - rather like those Tommy and Tuppence short stories where they parody the style of other detectives of the time: most of the others are almost unknown now (or known only to mad keen fans like our group! - I have to say that or someone will come in saying 'Unknown! Unknown! Nonsense...')
DeleteI've had a shocking thought: Anne has probably been my favourite Christie heroine since before you were born Kate - so your chances of convincing me are pretty slim! My Dad couldn't change my mind all those years ago, so...
This is my favorite Christie and Anne is also my favorite Christie heroine. Thank you for featuring--off to read your other entries!!
ReplyDeleteGreat, so nice to meet another fan! Join us on #TeamAnne...
DeleteGeorge Orwell read the autobiography of a tramp who could talk "entrancingly" about his interesting life. "But... his prose style was modelled on Peg's Paper ('with a wild cry I sank in a stricken heap', etc)."
ReplyDeleteGreat connection Lucy! Peg's Paper turns up in Richard Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy too.
DeleteI'm so with you on this one, Moira. I've always been a fan of Anne's, and of her adventures. Don't you love how she whips the pistol out of the top of her stocking to confront the villain? Stocking! Many years ago I wrote an article about how this couldn't happen anymore (if it ever did) because pantyhose.
ReplyDeleteTime for another reread.
Another member for #TeamAnne! She is excellent, and yes a pistol in the stocking top is wonderful. I wrote about stockings in books for the Guardian once, how could I have failed to include that?
DeleteThis might be one of the few Christie's I have in the tubs - unread of course. Maybe this year....
ReplyDeleteIt's not typical of her works, but you might like it... (I am saying that rather doubtfully.)
DeleteI like all of the images, but especially the top one. I am a fan of Anne too, although not at your level. I have not thought of who my favorite Christie heroine might be.
ReplyDeleteI hope you will think about it and tell us Tracy! I loved all of these pictures, sometimes I just feel very self-satisfied with my choices. And that top one is lovely...
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