A dangerous opponent

A dangerous opponent (original title The Secret Adversary ) is the second detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the UK in January 1922 with The Bodley Head and later that year in the US with Dodd, Mead and Company . The German first edition was published in 1932 under the title Die Abenteurer-G. mb H. in the translation by Irene Kafka published by Goldmann Verlag Leipzig.

This novel introduces Tommy and Tuppence Beresford , who star in three other novels and a collection of short stories. Tommy and Tuppence are the only main characters in Agatha Christie's novels who have their own biography with marriage, birth of child, career and age.

action

The story takes place in 1919 in both London and some remote locations in Britain. The two young people Tommy Beresford and Prudence called "Tuppence" Cowley, after the First World War without work and money, plan to found the Abenteurer GmbH , a kind of detective agency.

They meet for tea, and on entering the restaurant they happen to hear the name Jane Finn in a conversation . Tuppence is later approached by Mr. Whittington, who offers her a well paid position. He asks what her name is and Tuppence uses the name Jane Finn , which he had just picked up . She is invited to a meeting by Mr. Whittington.

At this meeting in his office, Tuppence continues to pretend she is Jane Finn and pressures Whittington with her lack of knowledge. The meeting ends abruptly and Tuppence receives the requested money. Hoping to get more money out of Mr. Whittington, the two decide to tail him. However, they soon find his office locked and he has disappeared without a trace. This behavior shows that there must be another background to this story. To find out, they place an ad in the newspaper asking for information about Jane Finn.

One of the answers comes from a Mr. Carter, a senior member of the British Secret Service . He explains to both the facts about Jane Finn, which the reader already knows from the prologue of the book. Jane Finn was a passenger on the RMS Lusitania when it sank four years earlier. Shortly before boarding the lifeboat, she had been asked by an American to take important contract documents with her because he knew that, true to the motto “women and children first!” He would not be saved. In case she was rescued and survived, she should take the documents to the American embassy in London. Since then, there has been no trace of Jane Finn or the documents. Mr. Carter believes that the contents of the documents would expose the current British government and lead to a Bolshevik coup. Tommy and Tuppence agree to work unofficially for Carter, with the task of finding the treaty and uncovering the Bolshevik conspiracy and exposing their leader, Mr. Brown. Carter promises to cover all of her expenses and to pay a substantial additional sum.

The second answer comes from an American, Julius Hersheimer, who declares he is a cousin of Jane Finn and the sole heir to his father's millions. He has been looking for his cousin for a long time and has asked various European police organizations such as Scotland Yard for help. He gave his only photo of Jane to a supposed inspector. However, when another Scotland Yard inspector - Inspector Japp - shows up and asks for a picture, he realizes that the first "Inspector" Brown must be the mysterious Mr. Brown. At this point, Tommy and Tuppence take Julius into their confidence, and the three of them decide to work together.

The only lead they have at this point is the name Rita , used by Whittington during his meeting with Tuppence in his now closed office. Tommy and Tuppence decide to look for a Rita among the surviving passengers on the Lusitania and discover a woman named Margaret Vandemeyer, who Rita used as a nickname . Fortunately, they see the suddenly reappearing Whittington and a second person (later identified as Boris Ivanovitch, Count Stepanov) leave Rita's apartment. The plot is now divided into three threads: Tommy follows Boris through London to a house in Soho , Julius follows Whittington on the train to Bournemouth and Tuppence takes the chance to work as a housemaid for Rita. Boris unintentionally leads Tommy directly into a meeting of Bolshevik conspirators, who discover and arrest him. Because they assume he has knowledge of Jane Finn, they postpone his murder.

In the meantime, after Tommy's departure, Tuppence has made contact with Albert, the lift boy in the house of Rita Vandemeyer's apartment, and appointed him a “junior agent” in the fictional “American Detective Forces”. He proves to be a loyal helper. When she overhears a conversation between Rita and Boris, it is clear that she has stung a wasp's nest: There is a relationship with Mr. Brown. The next visitor is Sir James Peel Edgerton, a respected Crown Attorney who often accompanied Rita into town and whom Boris warned Rita about. When Sir James leaves the apartment, he makes a strange remark about Tuppence's new job.

After work, Tuppence and Julius meet at Hotel Ritz , where everyone has now rented a room, after the latter's return from Bournemouth. Julius tells Tuppence the following: He had followed Whittington to a private nursing home, where Whittington met with a nurse. Julius watched them from a tree he'd climbed. Just as Whittington and the nurse were leaving the nursing home with a female patient, the branch broke off and Julius fell down. He was led by Dr. Hall, the owner of the nursing home, takes care of it, but can then return to London. As the two of them review their experiences, it occurs to them that they have not heard from Tommy or his whereabouts. Desperate, Tuppence asks Carter for help. To get through his adventure better, Julius buys a brand new Rolls-Royce and pays the owner two and a half times the value.

After a few uneventful days, Tuppence convinces Julius to seek support from James Edgerton. She cites his remark in Rita's apartment. She tells Sir James of Tommy's disappearance, and he promises to use his relationships with Rita to find out something. To do this, he wants to visit Rita later that evening. Tuppence returns to her work place and sees that Rita wants to go into hiding and overwhelms her. In the following conversation, Tuppence succeeds in obtaining important information about Jane Finn, Tommy and the mysterious Mr. Brown in exchange for a considerable amount of money from Julius' wallet. The moment Julius and Sir James arrive, Rita faints, is revived with some brandies , and dies shortly after of poisoning.

After this fatal end, the three get in touch with Dr. Hall up, the only person who can know where Mr. Whittington is. It turns out that Jane Finn came to his nursing home under the name Janet Vandemeyer to heal her total memory loss after the sinking of the Lusitania . On the evening of Mr. Whittington's visit, she was taken to an undisclosed location in London.

With the intention of now disengaging from the investigation, Sir James announces that he will start his planned vacation. But he wants to continue investigating behind the scenes. Julius is frustrated by the fruitless search and ready to give up. He suggests Tuppence marry him. However, she leaves the Ritz in a rush after receiving a telegram from Tommy, leaving a note in which she declines his offer. Tommy is meanwhile being held captive in the house of the conspirators. He gets his food from a young woman named Annette. It is now clear that he knows nothing about Jane Finn and the conspirators are preparing to assassinate him. One of the conspirators goes to the Ritz to extort money there with the knowledge of Tommy's whereabouts. Tommy's situation improves when Annette allows him to escape, but refuses to come. Returning to the Ritz, Tommy and Julius realize that the telegram to Tuppence was only there to lure them away. But there is no trace of her at the address given.

Sir James has now discovered Jane Finn, who has found her memory again after an accident. Tommy, Julius and James make their way to the hiding place for the papers from the Lusitania . The hiding place is empty except for a message from Mr. Brown. When he realizes that the conspirators are now in possession of the documents, Tommy rushes to London to inform Mr. Carter. Once there, he learns more bad news: Parts of Tuppence's clothes were found on the coast.

Completely dejected, Tommy returns to the Ritz, intending to finally find out about Tuppence's fate. He and Julius suspect each other, clash and Julius leaves the hotel. Tommy decides to accept an offer from Sir James to work for him on one of his farms in Argentina . While looking for a sheet of writing paper, he found a photo of Annette in one of Julius' drawers. This accidental find opens up new avenues: Tommy concludes that the Jane Finn they found had been smuggled in by the conspirators to show them that it was game over. As a result, he believes he is closer to the solution than they previously thought, and tells Mr. Carter that the traces of Tuppence's clothing are wrong. He believes the conspirators will release the real Jane Finn if she leads them to the hidden documents.

Tommy then receives a copy of the telegram to Tuppence from Mr. Carter and notices that changes were made to it after Tuppence read it to mislead him. But Albert saw the first telegram and both of them set off to Tuppence. Tommy leaves a fake message for Julius saying he is on his way to Argentina. Julius finally wants to find his cousin and decides to use force. He kidnaps Mr. Kramenin, a well-known Bolshevik sympathizer and suspected conspirator. With the pistol on his head, Kramenin leads Julius to the hiding place of Tuppence and Jane Finn. They can escape in Julius' car but are followed. But it becomes clear that Annette and Jane Finn are the same person. Annette suffered from amnesia the whole time. Tommy manages to jump on the fleeing car. He obtains Julius' weapon and can free the women. He sends her by train to Sir James in London and stays with Julius.

On the way to London, the women realize that they are being followed. But with a few tricks they can shake off the pursuers and reach Sir James' house. Here's Jane's story: After receiving the package, Mrs. Vandemeyer looked suspicious. Overcoming her fear, she replaced the contract in the package with blank sheets of paper, and hid the real contract in a magazine. She was ambushed on the train ride to London and woke up in an unknown location. When her captors discovered the blank sheets of paper, they began to torture her . She decided to fake the amnesia and only speak French. That night she hid the contract on the back of a picture in her room. She was then guarded by Rita Vandemeyer and later she had to serve Tommy in his captivity.

With this information, Sir James suggests getting the contract immediately. He is certain that the women are being followed by Mr. Brown. Tuppence also shares her suspicions that Julius is Mr. Brown, who killed the real Julius and Mrs. Vandemeyer. Sir James shares the suspicion and they make their way to the hideout. The documents are ultimately discovered in the house. Sir James confronts Jane and Tuppence that he is the head of the conspirators who will now kill them. Tommy and Julius rush into the room. In the meantime they have spoken aloud and guessed the hiding place. Sir James commits suicide. Julius throws a party for everyone involved to recapitulate everything. The novel concludes with the engagement of both Julius and Jane and Tommy and Tuppence.

Reviews

For publication of the first edition, the book was discussed in The Times Literary Supplement on January 26, 1922 and referred to as "a whirlwind of exciting adventures". It is stated that the characters of Tommy and Tuppence are "refreshingly original," and vowed that Mr. Brown's identity remains hidden until the end.

The New York Times Book Review of June 11, 1922 was also impressed, stating, “It is certain, unless the reader looks into the final chapter, that they will not guess who the dangerous adversary is until the author is ready to reveal it ". The review gave an ironic compliment that Christie explains plausibly the most incredible situations and developments. Nonetheless, she admits that Agatha Christie has a clever, yet light style with amusing dialogue that carries the reader away on the long way Tommys and Tuppence to the mysterious Mr. Brown. Some of the situations have often been used by other writers, but Miss Christie used them with a new sense of individuality.

Important English and German language editions

• 1922 UK first edition John Lane (The Bodley Head) January 1922, Hardback
• 1922 First edition USA Dodd Mead and Company (New York) 1922, Hardback
• 1932 German first edition under the title: Die Abenteurer-G. mb H .: Translation by Irene Kafka: Goldmann Leipzig
• 1959 German revision: A dangerous enemy: Translation by Werner von Grünau: Desch Munich; Vienna; Basel
• 2017 new translation by Giovanni Bandini, Atlantik Verlag, Hamburg

Audio books

• 2008 A dangerous opponent 6 CDs: only unabridged reading. Speaker: Manfred Fenner. Director: Ann-Sophie Weiß. From the English by Werner von Grünau: Marburg: Publishing house and studio for audio book productions
• 2009 A dangerous opponent 3 CDs: abridged reading. Translated from the English by Sven Koch. Read by Johannes Steck. Director: Angela Kuhn: Munich: Der Hörverlag

Film adaptations

The Adventurer GmbH (1929)

A dangerous opponent was the second work by Agatha Christie, which was turned into a film. Produced in the German studios of Orplid Film , it was released in German cinemas on February 15, 1929 under the title Die Abenteurer GmbH , a silent film with a length of 76 minutes. Directed by Fred Sauer . In the United States and the United Kingdom it ran under the title Adventures Inc. The names of the main characters were changed for the film.

The Secret Adversary (1983)

The book served as the basis for the pilot season of the ten-part English television series Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime , which was produced by London Weekend Television and broadcast on October 9, 1983. The German version of the pilot is called A Dangerous Opponent and has a total length of approx. 110 minutes. The series was broadcast on German television in 1986 under the title Detektei Blunt .

Agatha Christie - Partners in Crime (2015)

It is a remake of A Dangerous Adversary as three episodes of a six-part BBC British TV series beginning July 26, 2015. The screenplay was written by Zinnie Harris and directed by Edward Hall. The action was moved to England in the 1950s. The first three episodes were broadcast as The Order / Das Haus in Soho / Anassa in early January 2019 with a total length of around 160 minutes on German television.

dedication

The dedication of the book reads:

"For those who live a monotonous life in the hope that they will experience the joys and dangers of adventure secondhand."

This rather bizarre dedication is one of two in which Agatha Christie addresses her readers directly. The other is in the penultimate novel with Tommy and Tuppence, Lots of Lovely Old Ladies , from 1968.

Web links

• The Secret Adversary in the Gutenberg Project. (This novel is next to The Mysterious Affair at Styles (dt. The missing link in the chain ) one of the two works of Agatha Christie, who in the US public domain available. In most Western European countries the copyright will not expire before 2047 from. )
• The Secret Adversary on the official Agatha Christie website
• The Abenteurer GmbH (1929) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The Secret Adversary (1983) in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The English Catalog of Books . Vol XI (AL: January 1921 - December 1925). Kraus Reprint Corporation, Millwood, New York, 1979 (page 310)
2. ↑ John Cooper and BA Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide : Second Edition (Pages 82 and 86) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8
3. ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
4. ↑ ^{a b} German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library
5. ^ The Times Literary Supplement , Jan. 22, 1922, p. 61.
6. ^ The New York Times Book Review , June 11, 1922, p. 15.
7. ^ Translation by Werner von Grünau in the catalog of the German National Library
8. ↑ Audiobook (complete) in the catalog of the German National Library
9. ^ Audiobook (licensed) in the catalog of the German National Library
10. ^ BBC: Partners in Crime
11. ↑ BBC: David Walliams on playing 'damsel in distress' in Agatha Christie drama
12. ^ ARD: Agatha Christie - Partners in Crime - The Secret Adversary