The kleptomaniac
The Kleptomaniac (original title Hickory Dickory Dock ) is the 47th detective novel by Agatha Christie . He first appeared on October 31, 1955 in the United Kingdom in the Collins Crime Club and in the United States Dodd, Mead and Company in November of the same year under the differing title Hickory Dickory Death . The Scherz Verlag published the German edition in 1958 in a translation by Dorothea Gotfurt . The new translation by Jürgen Ehlers, which is still used today, was also published there.
It determines Hercule Poirot in his 26th novel. The novel is remarkable in that it features Poirot's able secretary, Miss Felicity Lemon, a person the reader has only known from short stories.
introduction
The appearance of what appears to be kleptomania in a college dorm is usually not the type of crime that piques Poirot's interest. But when he sees the bizarre list of items that have either been stolen or destroyed - a stethoscope, a couple of lightbulbs, old flannel pants, a box of chocolates, a cut rucksack, some boric acid, and a diamond ring that is later found - he congratulates him Home Manager, Mrs. Hubbard, on a unique and beautiful problem. But before long, these thefts are one of Poirot's minor problems.
Explanation of the title of the novel
Like other novels, the title is taken from a nursery rhyme. The rhyme does not play a major role in the novel, but only describes the street in which the student residence is located, in which large parts of the novel are set. One of the most famous versions of the rhyme is:
Hickory, dickory, dock, the
mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock.
action
Poirot's explanation of the thefts is relatively unimaginative. After threatening to call the police on over dinner, Celia Austin confesses to the thefts but denies several other incidents.
She'd committed the petty thefts to get the attention of Colin McNabb, a psychology student she'd fallen in love with after working together. She wants to make amends for her crimes, but is found dead the next morning - died of an overdose of morphine. An attempt was made to make death look like a suicide, but the investigators do not fall for it.
One of the incidents that was not cleared up by Celia's confession was the theft of the stethoscope. Here it turns out that Nigel Chapman had stolen it to gain access to the poison cabinet in the hospital. He had wagered to get three highly toxic substances.
Then Poirot turns to stealing the diamond ring. He quickly recognizes that the diamond has been replaced by a zirconia . Valerie confesses to the theft because she wanted to use the money to pay off gambling debts.
Mrs. Nicoletis is also acting very conspicuously and nervously, she seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown. One night she is made drunk and murdered.
Poirot now turns to the cut rucksack. When examining a comparative piece, he discovers that it has a false bottom and could have been used for an international smuggling operation. It was used by innocent students who smuggled drugs and jewels into it. The organizer of all the smuggling was Mrs. Nicoletis, but she was not the head of the gang.
Poirot suspects Valerie and asks for a raid on her beauty salon. Large amounts of drugs are found in the process. Nigel Chapman turns out to be the killer. He killed Celia because she found out about his criminal activities and Mrs. Nicoletis because he believed that she could no longer withstand the pressure of Poirot and the police.
After it finally turns out that Mrs. Nicoletis was Valerie's mother, Valerie is ready to testify against Nigel.
people
- Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective
- Inspector Sharpe, the investigating officer
- Miss Felicity Lemon, Poirot's secretary
- Mrs. Christina Nicoletis, the owner of a dormitory on Hickory Road
- Mrs. Hubbard, Miss Lemons sister and head of the home
- George, Poirot's valet
- Celia Austin, PTA at St. Catherines Hospital Pharmacy
- Colin McNabb, a psychology student
- Nigel Chapman, a history student, resident of the home
- Valerie Hobhouse, a resident of the home and partner in a beauty salon
- Sally Finch, Elizabeth Johnston, Patricia Lane, Genevieve, Jean Tomlinson, Leonard Bateson, Mr. Chandra Lal, and Mr. Akibombo are students and residents of the home
- Maria the cook
- Geronimo, Maria's husband
References to other works
Before Poirot arrives, one of the students tells that he knows Poirot from Four Women and One Murder . When Poirot visits, he tells the story of the Nemean lion from the anthology The Labor of Hercules . In chapter five, Poirot remembers Vera Rossakoff , the beautiful countess from The Big Four . He knows Mr. Entwhistle, a lawyer whom Poirot questions, from The Wax Bouquet .
Trivia
Opposite Miss Lemon Poirot quotes in the first chapter from "The Six Napoleons", a Sherlock Holmes tale (1904) by Arthur Conan Doyle , and in a conversation with Mrs. Hubbard Poirot mentions the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck in the fifth chapter and explains, In his youth, couples in love talked (for example) about his play "The Blue Bird" (1908).
filming
The novel was filmed for the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot with David Suchet as Poirot and Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon and aired as the second episode of the sixth season on February 1, 1995 for the first time. In line with the rest of the series, the action was adapted into the 1930s.
Major expenses
- 1955, Collins Crime Club (London), October 31st 1955
- 1955, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), November 1955
- 1958 German first edition by Scherz Verlag in the translation by Dorothea Gotfurt
- 2002 New translation by Jürgen Ehlers
Audio books
- 2005 Die Kleptomanin (sound carrier): audio book; only unabridged reading. Speaker: Martin Maria Schwarz . Director: Hans Eckardt. Translated from the English by Jürgen Ehlers: Publishing house and studio for audio book productions (Marburg / Lahn)
Web links
- Hickory Dickory Dock on the official Agatha Christie website
- Hickory Dickory Dock (1995) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
- ↑ John Cooper and BA Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide : Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8
- ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library
- ↑ a b New translation in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 185-6.
- ↑ Audiobook (complete) in the catalog of the German National Library