Agatha Christie was a great writer of murder mystery novels and is probably the best selling author of all time. Listen in this classic episode to learn her story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is Agatha Christie's impact on literature?
So grab a cup of tea, a nice little blanket, and enjoy this cozy little episode.
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
Chapter 2: How did Agatha Christie become a best-selling author?
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there. And this is Stuff You Should Know. I don't know if we're going to be able to get used to Jerry being around again. Is she fired? I don't think so. She may have fired herself, though. I don't think so. I have better things to do than hang out with you, cool cats and kittens.
Well, and it's kind of like, what's the point of just sitting there? And I can't imagine any more boring than listening to us on headphones. Oh, wait a minute. That's our show.
Yes. There are people doing that very thing right now, Chuck, and you have just mocked their existence.
Oh, I just meant for Jerry's sake, you know?
Yeah, I know. Jerry's not a fan.
No, she's not.
Or a listener. So I have a question for you, Chuck.
You ever read a book?
No. No, don't be ridiculous. Chuck, have you ever met Agatha Christie?
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Chapter 3: What are the characteristics of Agatha Christie's mysteries?
Oh, wow. That's got to be worth some money.
It's pretty neat.
Yeah. Do you still have that?
Nah. I did some spring cleaning here a couple weeks ago. I didn't even recycle or put it in a little free library. I just threw it in the trash.
Didn't you say once that your brother has like a copy of number one Superman or something nuts like that?
No.
I thought he has something, some valuable comic book. No. Huh.
No.
I must be confusing you with my other co-host Chuck.
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Chapter 4: Who are Agatha Christie's famous detective characters?
But when I came across it, I was like, yes, I love that kind of thing. And that's exactly what I love about Murder, She Wrote. Like the Murder, She Wrote's where she goes to like Broadway or Paris or something like that. I can take her leave. They're fine. But it's the ones that are set in tiny little Cabot Cove.
that's just isolated from the rest of the world and it's cozy and small and it's like a village and all that. Those are the murder she wrote that I love the most. And I think that's what I like about Agatha Christie mysteries too is they're very typically cozy mysteries.
I've never seen that show. What?
What?
We've had this conversation before.
No, that would be seared into my brain forever.
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Chapter 5: Why are Agatha Christie's works considered cozy mysteries?
No, we have because you said that the first time. Okay. Yeah, I've never seen it, but I'm a huge fan of murder mystery movies, especially cozy mysteries like Clue is one of my favorite films. And this year's or last year's Knives Out was one of my top like three or four films of the year.
I've not seen it yet. It's still like $7 on Amazon Prime, so I haven't rented it yet. I'm waiting for the price point to drop.
$399.
$399.
Wow.
Yeah, I'm taking a stand on this.
All right, well, film professionals out there, please do not take offense to all your hard work.
So I have a question for you. I have one more question. Have you seen the Agatha Christie film adaptation of Crooked House that came out in 2017? No. I think you'll like it. It was big budget, but it also looks like British made for television big budget. That's great. Gillian Anderson, Dana Scully is in it.
Okay, love her.
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Chapter 6: How did Agatha Christie influence the murder mystery genre?
Yeah, that is a ton of books. I don't think our Stuff You Should Know book will approach those numbers.
No, you never say never, though.
It's a lofty goal.
Never say never. I also saw that she's the most widely translated author of all time, too. I buy that. I saw 45 languages. I was like, this thing's a little low. So then somewhere else I saw 103. So let's go with that.
So let's talk about this cozy mystery or just mystery novels in general. They are very much formulaic, which Ed helped us put this together. Ed points out that's why people like them, because the familiarity and it's sort of a comfort food thing, like a good beach book. You know what you're going to get.
Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's surprises and everything woven in. I mean, the whole thing is meant to be a surprise. It's a mystery. And part of the mystery, the allure of the mystery is that Agatha Christie not only wrote, but actually the whole genre she helped to develop. is that you are ostensibly able to figure out who the culprit is in the murder. It's almost always a murder.
And so there is like, there is surprise involved. That's the point. But there's also a tremendous amount of familiarity. And that's that formula you were talking about. And that's what really has sucked generations of people into this whole genre and her 66 plus books.
Yeah, so you've got that murder. You usually don't see this murder occur. She doesn't usually, and in general in murder mysteries, you don't see the murder. That's kind of not the point of how grisly or gruesome the act is. It's sort of all about finding that body. And, uh, I won't, I had a bunch of knives out things to say, but I won't say any of them now.
Thank you.
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