With open cards (novel)
With open cards (original title Cards on the Table ) is the 20th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It appeared on November 2, 1936 in the United Kingdom at the Collins Crime Club and in 1937 in the USA with Dodd, Mead and Company . The German first edition was published in 1938 under the title Karten auf den Tisch in a translation by Marie Rieger in Talverlag (Leipzig, Vienna). In 1954 Scherz Verlag published a new translation by Hedwig von Wurzian. The novel was translated again in 2016. This translation by Michael Mundhenk was published by Atlantik Verlag Hamburg.
Hercule Poirot determined it in his 13th novel together with Ariadne Oliver , Colonel Race and Superintendent Battle .
action
Poirot meets Mr. Shaitana at an exhibition of snuff boxes . He not only collects tobacco cans , but also undiscovered murderers. He would like to show this collection to Poirot and invites him, along with three other investigators, to his apartment.
The company is completed by the four "collector's items". After dinner, you sit at two tables in two rooms for the bridge , the suspects at the first table and the investigators at the other. Shaitana sits down in an armchair in the first room.
After a few hours, Poirot and the other players at his table want to get up after the game has ended while the other table is still in the middle of a game. They want to say goodbye to Shaitana, but they find him stabbed in his chair. Since no one has entered or left the room, the murderer must be among the four "collectibles".
In the investigation that follows, it turns out that all four people were actually involved in mysterious deaths. In the absence of material evidence, Poirot analyzes the bridge accounts and succeeds in deriving the solution to the case on this basis alone: Dr. Roberts murdered Shaitana while he was dummy (idle partner of the declarer) because he knew about his murder of Mrs. and Mr. Craddock.
people
The victim
- Shaitana-san, a collector of rare things including murderers, very rich and mysterious
The four investigators
- Superintendent Battle, a solid officer from Scotland Yard
- Colonel Race, a stylish intelligence agent
- Ariadne Oliver, a popular crime novelist
- Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian private investigator
The four suspects
- Dr. Roberts, a successful doctor
- Mrs. Lorrimer, an excellent bridge player
- Major Despard, a daring explorer
- Anne Meredith, a pretty and destitute young woman
More people
- Rhoda Dawes, Anne's rich friend and roommate
- Mrs. Luxmore, whose husband died under suspicious circumstances
- Miss Burgess, the faithful secretary of Dr. Roberts
- Elsie Batt, former housemaid of Mrs. Craddock, a patient of Dr. Roberts
- Sergeant O'Connor, a handsome, tall cop
Reviews
The Times Literary Supplement of November 14, 1936, in its criticism of Caldwell Harpur, affirmed the author's opinion that “Poirot scores again and that in a double sense, since it is the author's twentieth novel. A supporting role is played by an author of thirty-two detective novels, who amusingly describes the difficulties of her craft. Mrs. Christie in particular should know this well, but she overcomes it so well that we can hope for more novels. "
In The New York Times Book Review of February 28, 1937, Isaac Anderson concludes, “The story is awesome, but it has a loose end or two after the explanation is over. 'Cards on the Table' is not one of Agatha Christie's best works. "
References to other works
- Superintendent Battle (at the beginning of his career Inspector Battle) determined in a total of five novels. He made his first appearance in The Count's Memoirs . Ariadne Oliver bears clear autobiographical traces and has her first appearance in this work in a novel by Agatha Christie, after she had already starred in a crime story with Parker Pyne in 1932 . Six more novels follow. The character of the Colonel Race also appears in three other novels: The Man in the Brown Suit , Death on the Nile and Prussic Acid .
- In Chapter 2, when Anne Meredith Poirot is introduced, she says that she already knew him from the case The Murders of Mr ABC .
- In the 23rd chapter Poirot shows Rhoda a knife with which twelve people stabbed someone and which was given to him by a sleeping car company - a reference to murder on the Orient Express .
- Anne Meredith knows Ariadne Oliver from her book The Dead in the Library , the title of a novel that Agatha Christie published in 1942, i.e. later.
- In The Murders of Lord ABC , Poirot explains to Hastings his idea of an ideal case and indeed sets the plot of that novel.
- Major Despard and Rhoda, now his wife, reappear in the 1961 novel The Pale Horse , in which Ariadne Oliver and Maude and Caleb Dane Calthrop (known from The Shadow Hand ) also play - the only time that Christie Recurring suspects.
Important German and English language editions
- 1936 Collins Crime Club (London), November 2, 1936
- 1937 Dodd Mead and Company (New York) 1937
- 1938 German first edition in the translation by Marie Rieger in Talverlag, Leipzig, Vienna
- 1954 New translation by Hedwig von Wurzian at Scherzverlag Bern
- 2016 New translation by Michael Mundhenk for Atlantik Verlag Hamburg
Audio books
- 2003 With open cards (sound carrier). Abridged version by Michelene Wandor . Translated from the English by Renate Weitbrecht . Read by Klaus Dittmann . Director: Sven Stricker . The Hörverlag (Munich)
Adaptations for the stage and the film
Play (1981)
The novel was adapted for the stage by Leslie Darbon in 1981, without Poirot. This followed Christie's trend to write the detective in her own adaptations of Poirot novels, because she was of the opinion that no actor could play him successfully.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
The London television station "ITV" adapted the novel for its television series Agatha Christie's Poirot with David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and Zoë Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver. The episode contains significant but interesting deviations from the novel. It aired in the US in December 2005 and in the UK in March 2006.
Web links
- Cards on the table on the official Agatha Christie website
- With open cards (2005) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Observer November 1, 1936 (Page 6)
- ↑ 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
- ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ A b New translation in 1954 in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ A b New translation in 2006 in the catalog of the German National Library
- ↑ The Times Literary Supplement November 14, 1936 (Page 927)
- ↑ The New York Times Book Review February 28, 1937 (Page 23)
- ^ Audiobook (licensed) in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ Play in the catalog of the German National Library