The dog of death
The Dog of Death is a collection of twelve short stories by Agatha Christie that first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1933. It is unusual that this collection was not published by Agatha Christie's regular publisher, William Collins & Sons , but by Odhams Press . Nor could they simply be bought, only exchanged for coupons (see publication of the collection in the UK ).
It is also the first time a collection published in the UK has not appeared in the US.
In Germany, the collection did not appear until 2010 as the 41st volume of the publication The Official Collection Agatha Christie published by the French publisher Hachette Collections . The individual stories had already appeared in German beforehand (see German first publications of the stories ).
Furthermore, it is unusual that these are stories that deal with the supernatural and fate and only little with the work of detectives.
This collection has become popular anyway, as it is the first book to contain Agatha Christie's most famous short story, Witness for the Prosecution . On the basis of this short story, the author wrote the play of the same name, which was awarded a prize. The play was filmed with Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich for the cinema and two more for television.
The short stories
- The dog of death
- The red signal
- The fourth man
- The gypsy
- The lamp
- On the wrong wire
- Witness for the prosecution
- The secret of the blue jug
- The strange case of Sir Arthur Carmichael
- Escalator to the grave
- The last session
- SOS
References to other works
The poem that Mr Winburn quotes in the short story The Lamp is from the Rubaiyats by Omar Khayyām , translated by Edward FitzGerald :
- What Lamp has Destiny to guide
- Her little Children stumbling in the Dark? "
- "A Blind Understanding,"
- Heaven replied.
In her novel Die Schattenhand the author uses another poem from this poem, which gives the novel its title. The quatrains were very popular and well known in the English-speaking world.
Major expenses
- 1933, Odhams Press, October 1933, hardcover, 252 pp
- 1936, Collins Crime Club (London), February 1936
- 2010 first complete German edition The Official Collection Agatha Christie , Volume 41, Hachette Collections, Paris
First publications of the stories
Her first publications in magazines are known of only a few stories:
- The Red Signal: Issue 232 of The Grand Magazine, June 1924
- The Fourth Man: Issue 250 of The Grand Magazine, December 1925.
- Wireless: Sunday Chronicle Annual, December 1926.
- The Mystery of the Blue Jar: Issue 233 of The Grand Magazine, July 1924.
- The Last Seance: under the different title The Stolen Ghost, issue 87 of The Sovereign Magazine, March 1927
- SOS: Issue 252 of The Grand Magazine, February 1926.
In the United States, The Witness for the Prosecution appeared on January 31, 1925 in Flynn's Weekly (Volume IV, No 2) under the title Traitor Hands.
Publication of the collection in the UK
The book could not simply be bought in the store, but only exchanged for coupons from the weekly newspaper The Passing Show .
The coupons were printed in issues 81 to 83 (October 7-21, 1933) as part of an advertising campaign. In exchange for the coupons and an additional payment of 7 shillings, the customer received six books. The other five books were: Jungle Girl by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Sun Will Shine by May Edginton, The Veil'd Delight by Marjorie Bowen, The Venner Crime by John Rhode, and Q33 by George Goodchild.
An in-store issue was published by Christie's regular publisher at the Collins Crime Club in 1936 .
German first publications of the stories
The stories in the collection appeared in German as follows:
- 1959 Prosecution witness and five other stories ; Only legitimate translation from English by Maria Meinert
With:
- The gypsy
- Witness for the prosecution
- The strange case of Sir Arthur Carmichael
- 1964 The Accident and Other Cases ; only authorized translation from English by Maria Meinert and Renate Weigl Scherz Verlag (Bern / Munich / Vienna)
With:
- The secret of the blue jug
- 1966 The Mousetrap and Other Traps ; only justified translation from English by Maria Meinert u. a. Scherz Verlag (Bern / Munich / Vienna)
With:
- The last session
- 1967 A diplomatic incident ; only authorized transmission from English by Marfa Berger Scherz Verlag (Bern / Munich / Vienna)
With:
- The lamp,
- Escalator to the grave,
- The fourth man
- The red signal,
- On the wrong wire.
- 1983 Killer Flowers ; only justified translation from English by Edith Walter u. a. Scherz Verlag (Bern / Munich / Vienna)
With:
- The dog of death
- SOS
Web links
- The Hound of Death on the official Agatha Christie website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volume 41 The official collection of Agatha Christie on pressekatalog.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ John Rhode in Book and Magazine Collector . Issue 264 January 2006
- ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
- ^ Witness for the prosecution in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ The accident and other cases in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ The mouse trap and other traps in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ A diplomatic incident in the catalog of the German National Library
- ↑ Murder flowers in the catalog of the German National Library
