The Man in the Brown Suit
Encyclopedia
The Man in the Brown Suit is a work of detective fiction
by Agatha Christie
and was first published in the UK by The Bodley Head
on August 22 1924
and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence
(7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
, the novel concentrates less on pure detection, and is more a thriller of the period. It follows the adventures of Anne Beddingfeld as she gets involved in a world of diamond thieves, murderers and political intrigue in this tale set in exotic Southern Africa. Colonel Race
makes his first appearance in the novel; he later appears in Cards on the Table
, Sparkling Cyanide
, and Death on the Nile
.
and criminal. After many years, 'the Colonel' is retiring, leaving his agents high and dry. Nadina has double-crossed the Colonel, however, keeping some De Beers diamonds from a crime years before. She now plans to blackmail the Colonel with the diamonds.
Anne Beddingfeld, a young English
woman recently orphaned, longs for adventure and jumps at the chance when her father's solicitor suggests she lives with him and his wife in London
. Returning from an unsuccessful job interview, Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station
when a man falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A doctor examines the man, pronounces him dead and leaves, dropping a note on his way. Anne picks up the note which reads "17.1 22 Kilmorden Castle".
The inquest on the dead man, 'L. B. Carton', brings a verdict of suicide. In his pocket was a house agent's order to view a house for let – The Mill House in Marlow – and the next day the newspapers report that a dead woman has been found there – strangled. The house is owned by Sir Eustace Pedler MP
. A young man in a brown suit is identified as a suspect, having entered the house soon after the dead woman.
Anne realizes the 'doctor' did not examine the dead man in an appropriate manner and gets suspicious. After fruitless investigations at Mill House where she finds an undeveloped canister of film, Anne finds out that Kilmorden Castle is the name of a boat sailing on 17 January 1922 from Southampton
to Cape Town
. She books a passage on it.
On board ship, Anne meets Suzanne Blair, Colonel Race, and Sir Eustace Pedler himself. In addition to his normal secretary, Guy Pagett, he has employed a man who goes by the name of Harry Rayburn.
At 1.00am on the morning of the 22nd, a young man staggers into Anne's cabin having been stabbed. Anne is able to dress the man's slight wound but the man is not in the least bit grateful and leaves after an altercation with her.
One evening on the ship, Colonel Race recounts a story of the theft of a hundred thousand pounds' worth of diamonds some years before, supposedly by the son of the South African gold magnate, John Eardsley and his friend Lucas. John and his friend were arrested but John's father, Sir Laurence, disowned his son. John Eardsley was killed in the War and his father's huge fortune passed to a next of kin. Lucas was posted as "missing in action". Harry Rayburn walks into the cabin as the story is being told, overhears it, looks sickly and leaves. Race reveals he himself is the fortunate next of kin.
Anne confides in Suzanne and they examine the piece of paper Anne obtained in the Underground station. They realize that the paper could refer to cabin 71 – Suzanne's cabin, originally booked by a Mrs Grey, a pseudonym for Nadina. Anne and Suzanne speculate that Nadina was the dead woman in the Mill House. Anne suddenly connects finding the film roll in Mill House with a canister of returned film that was dropped into Suzanne's cabin on night of the 22nd. They look in the canister and find uncut diamonds. They speculate that Harry Rayburn is the "Man in the Brown Suit".
Anne is attacked as she walks the deck of the ship. Harry Rayburn saves her. Anne amazes Harry with her knowledge of events in Marlow and at Hyde Park Corner station and suggests that Harry may be Lucas and the "Man in the Brown Suit". They again part on bad terms.
Once they arrive in Cape Town Anne is lured to a house at Muizenberg
, where she is imprisoned in the attic by a bearded Dutchman. Anne overhears the Rev. Chichester speaking with the Dutchman about "the Colonel" wanting to question her tomorrow. The next day she escapes and makes her way back to Cape Town.
There she finds that Harry is wanted as the "Man in the Brown Suit" but has gone missing. Pedler offers Anne the role of his secretary on the train trip to Rhodesia, which she accepts at the last second, and is reunited with Race, Suzanne and Pedler who has a new secretary named Miss Pettigrew.
In Bulawayo
, Anne receives a note from Harry which lures her out to a ravine near their hotel. There she is chased and falls into the ravine.
Almost a month later, Anne awakens in a hut on an island in the Zambezi
with Harry Rayburn, who rescued her. He reveals that someone deliberately caused her to fall.
Anne and Harry fall in love. Harry tells her of the diamond discovery he and John Eardsley made years earlier. They were duped by a young woman called Anita Grünberg, who substituted their diamonds for ones stolen from De Beers. After being listed as missing in action
, Harry disappeared, coming to Africa under the name of Harry Parker.
Some time later he came across a man – Carton - and recognised him from the incident with Anita Grünberg. Carton is revealed to be the man who fell in the Tube station and dropped the note Anne found. Harry followed Carton to London and Nadina to the Mill House, but insists Nadina was already dead. He realised that the diamonds were probably still on the Kilmorden Castle. Anne confirms they were, and were handed to Suzanne in her cabin on the night of the 22nd.
Harry's island is attacked that night by a party led by the red-bearded Dutchman, but the two manage to escape, and Anne plans to return to Pedler's party where she can keep an eye on developments. They exchange codes to be used in order that neither can be duped again.
Reunited with Suzanne, Anne is told that the diamonds are with luggage sent on with Sir Eustace. She also receives a telegram from Harry telling her to meet him.
Anne goes to the meeting with Harry and again bumps into Chichester, alias Miss Pettigrew. She is led to Sir Eustace, alias "the Colonel". Pedler forces Anne to write a note to Harry to lure him to the curio shop, which she does but she does not include their code in it. Harry turns up and Pedler is exultant – until Anne pulls out a pistol and they capture Pedler. Race turns up with reinforcements and Pedler tries to bluff matters out, but is unsuccessful.
Sir Eustace manages to escape. Anne is somewhat pleased, having developed a fondness for him. Race tells her that Harry is in fact John Eardsley, not Lucas, and therefore the heir to the fortune. Harry however has found his happiness with Anne, and they marry and live on the island in the Zambezi.
reviewed the novel in its issue of September 25, 1924. The review appreciated the "thriller-cum-adventure" style of the book and concluded "The author sets so many questions to the reader in her story, questions which will almost certainly be answered wrongly, that no one is likely to nod over it, and even the most experienced reader of romances will fail to steer an unerring course and reach the harbour of solution through the quicksands and shoals of blood, diamonds, secret service, impersonation, kidnapping, and violence with which the mystery is guarded."
The unnamed reviewer in The Observer
of September 7, 1924 said that, "Miss Christie has done one bold and one regrettable thing in this book. She has dispensed with Hercule Poirot
, her own particular Sherlock Holmes
, to whose presence and bonhomie and infallibility the success of her previous books has been mainly due." After comparing Poirot with Harry Rayburn, the reviewer continued by saying that the book, "will be something of a disappointment to those who remember The Mysterious Affair at Styles
. It is an excellent and ingenious complexity, in its way, but it might have been written by quite a number of the busy climbers of who now throng this particular slope of Parnassus
. One almost suspects that Miss Christie contemplates exchanging the mantle of Conan Doyle
for that of Miss Dell
; a hazardous manoeuvre, for the two authoresses are very different in tastes and sympathies." The reviewer went on to say that, "The plan of the book is rather confused. There is a prologue which does not link itself up with the rest of the story for quite a long time; and the idea of giving alternate passages from the diaries of the heroine and of Sir Eustace Pedler is not altogether justified by the glimpses it gives of that entertaining but disreputable character. One of the points on which some readers will have doubts is as to the plausibility of the villain: assuredly he is a novel type in that role. The book, like all Miss Christie's work is written with spirit and humour."
Robert Barnard
: "Written during and about a trip to Southern Africa, this opens attractively with the heroine and her archeologist father (Agatha's interest in the subject was obviously pre-Max), and has some pleasant interludes with the diary of the baddie. But it degenerates into the usual stuff of her thrillers, and the plot would probably not bear close examination, if anyone were to take the trouble."
Some additional blurb
s regarding the book, and used by The Bodley Head for advertising subsequent print runs, are as follows:
Adapator: Carla Jean Wagner
Director: Alan Grint
Cast:
Stephanie Zimbalist
played Anne Beddingfeld
Rue McClanahan
played Suzy Blair
Tony Randall
played Rev. Edward Chichester
Edward Woodward
played Sir Eustace Pedler
Ken Howard
played Gordon Race
Nickolas Grace
played Guy Underhill
Simon Dutton
played Harry Lucas
María Casal played Anita
Federico Luciano played Leo Carton
Rose McVeigh played Valerie
Jorge Bosso played Businessman
José Canalejas played First Arab
Tibi Costa played Second Arab(as Tiby Costa)
Robert Case played Ship's Captain
James Duggan played Steward
Gabriel Edu played Shop Clerk
Bill Holden played John Eardsley
Charly Mahdy played First Taxi driver
Aldo Sambrell
played Second Taxi driver
Alito Rodgers played Third Taxi driver
Antonio Ross played a Concierge
Elias Mayali played a Policeman
Jack Taylor played s Police inspector
Claudio Vicente played a Pianist
as a graphic novel
adaptation on July 16, 2007, December 3, 2007, adapted by "Hughot" and illustrated by "Bairi" (ISBN 0-00-725062-2). This was translated from the edition first published in France by Emmanuel Proust éditions in 2005 under the title of L'Homme au complet marron.
Following completion in late 1923 The Man in the Brown Suit was first serialised in the London Evening News
under the title Anne the Adventurous. It ran in fifty instalments from Thursday, November 29, 1923 to Monday, January 28, 1924. There were slight amendments to the text, either to make sense of the openings of an instalment (e.g. changing "She then..." to "Anne then..."), or omitting small sentences or words. The main change was in the chapter division. The published book has thirty-six chapters whereas the serialisation has only twenty-eight.
In her 1977
Autobiography
Christie makes a slight mistake with the name of the serialisation and refers to it as Anna the Adventuress (possibly confusing it with the 1904
book of the same name by E. Phillips Oppenheim
). Irrespective of this mistake, the change from her preferred title was not of her choosing and the newspaper's choice was one that she considered to be "as silly a title as I have ever heard". She raised no objections however as the Evening News were paying her £
500 (£ in current terms) for the serial rights which she and her family considered an enormous sum. At Archie's suggestion, she used the money to purchase a grey, bottle-nosed Morris Cowley
. She later stated that acquiring her own car ranked with dining at Buckingham Palace
as one of the two most exciting incidents in her life.
Christie was less pleased with the dustjacket of the book, complaining to the Bodley Head that the illustration by the un-named artist looked as if the incident at the Tube Station
depicted was set in "mediaeval times" when she wanted something "more clear, definite and modern". The Bodley Head were anxious to sign a new contract with Christie, now recognising her potential, but she wanted to move on, feeling that "they had not treated a young author fairly".
The US serialisation was in the Blue Book
magazine in three instalments from September (Volume 39, Issue 5) to November 1924 (Volume 40, Issue 1) with each issue containing an uncredited illustration.
"To E.A.B. In memory of a journey, some Lion stories and a request that I should some day write the Mystery of the Mill House".
E.A.B. is Major E. A. Belcher (see References to actual history, geography and current science above).
. Instead both the front and back flap carried adverts for other Bodley Head novels.
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
and was first published in the UK by The Bodley Head
The Bodley Head
The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name has been used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books since 1987...
on August 22 1924
1924 in literature
The year 1924 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Ford Madox Ford publishes the first book of a four-volume work titled Parade's End published between 1924 and 1928.-New books:*Michael Arlen - The Green Hat...
and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...
later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence
British sixpence coin
The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....
(7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
Plot introduction
Like The Secret AdversaryThe Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head in January 1922 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company later in that same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition...
, the novel concentrates less on pure detection, and is more a thriller of the period. It follows the adventures of Anne Beddingfeld as she gets involved in a world of diamond thieves, murderers and political intrigue in this tale set in exotic Southern Africa. Colonel Race
Colonel Race
Colonel Race is a fictional character created by British mystery novelist Agatha Christie.Race is a highly intelligent ex-Army Colonel who had a stint as a leader of the counter intelligence division of the British spy agency MI5. He is immensely rich, having inherited the fortune of "Sir Lawrence...
makes his first appearance in the novel; he later appears in Cards on the Table
Cards on the Table
Cards on the Table is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 2 1936 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year...
, Sparkling Cyanide
Sparkling Cyanide
Sparkling Cyanide is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1945 under the title of Remembered Death and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in the December of the same year under Christie's original title...
, and Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 1, 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at $2.00.The book...
.
Plot summary
Nadina, a "Russian" dancer receives a visit in her dressing room from Count Sergius Paulovitch. Both are in the service of a man they call "the Colonel", an international agent provocateurAgent provocateur
Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act...
and criminal. After many years, 'the Colonel' is retiring, leaving his agents high and dry. Nadina has double-crossed the Colonel, however, keeping some De Beers diamonds from a crime years before. She now plans to blackmail the Colonel with the diamonds.
Anne Beddingfeld, a young English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
woman recently orphaned, longs for adventure and jumps at the chance when her father's solicitor suggests she lives with him and his wife in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Returning from an unsuccessful job interview, Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station
Hyde Park Corner tube station
Hyde Park Corner is a London Underground station near Hyde Park Corner in Hyde Park. It is in Travelcard Zone 1, between Knightsbridge and Green Park on the Piccadilly Line.-History:...
when a man falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A doctor examines the man, pronounces him dead and leaves, dropping a note on his way. Anne picks up the note which reads "17.1 22 Kilmorden Castle".
The inquest on the dead man, 'L. B. Carton', brings a verdict of suicide. In his pocket was a house agent's order to view a house for let – The Mill House in Marlow – and the next day the newspapers report that a dead woman has been found there – strangled. The house is owned by Sir Eustace Pedler MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
. A young man in a brown suit is identified as a suspect, having entered the house soon after the dead woman.
Anne realizes the 'doctor' did not examine the dead man in an appropriate manner and gets suspicious. After fruitless investigations at Mill House where she finds an undeveloped canister of film, Anne finds out that Kilmorden Castle is the name of a boat sailing on 17 January 1922 from Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
to Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. She books a passage on it.
On board ship, Anne meets Suzanne Blair, Colonel Race, and Sir Eustace Pedler himself. In addition to his normal secretary, Guy Pagett, he has employed a man who goes by the name of Harry Rayburn.
At 1.00am on the morning of the 22nd, a young man staggers into Anne's cabin having been stabbed. Anne is able to dress the man's slight wound but the man is not in the least bit grateful and leaves after an altercation with her.
One evening on the ship, Colonel Race recounts a story of the theft of a hundred thousand pounds' worth of diamonds some years before, supposedly by the son of the South African gold magnate, John Eardsley and his friend Lucas. John and his friend were arrested but John's father, Sir Laurence, disowned his son. John Eardsley was killed in the War and his father's huge fortune passed to a next of kin. Lucas was posted as "missing in action". Harry Rayburn walks into the cabin as the story is being told, overhears it, looks sickly and leaves. Race reveals he himself is the fortunate next of kin.
Anne confides in Suzanne and they examine the piece of paper Anne obtained in the Underground station. They realize that the paper could refer to cabin 71 – Suzanne's cabin, originally booked by a Mrs Grey, a pseudonym for Nadina. Anne and Suzanne speculate that Nadina was the dead woman in the Mill House. Anne suddenly connects finding the film roll in Mill House with a canister of returned film that was dropped into Suzanne's cabin on night of the 22nd. They look in the canister and find uncut diamonds. They speculate that Harry Rayburn is the "Man in the Brown Suit".
Anne is attacked as she walks the deck of the ship. Harry Rayburn saves her. Anne amazes Harry with her knowledge of events in Marlow and at Hyde Park Corner station and suggests that Harry may be Lucas and the "Man in the Brown Suit". They again part on bad terms.
Once they arrive in Cape Town Anne is lured to a house at Muizenberg
Muizenberg
Muizenberg is a beach-side suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated where the shore of the Cape Peninsula curves round to the east on the False Bay coast...
, where she is imprisoned in the attic by a bearded Dutchman. Anne overhears the Rev. Chichester speaking with the Dutchman about "the Colonel" wanting to question her tomorrow. The next day she escapes and makes her way back to Cape Town.
There she finds that Harry is wanted as the "Man in the Brown Suit" but has gone missing. Pedler offers Anne the role of his secretary on the train trip to Rhodesia, which she accepts at the last second, and is reunited with Race, Suzanne and Pedler who has a new secretary named Miss Pettigrew.
In Bulawayo
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
, Anne receives a note from Harry which lures her out to a ravine near their hotel. There she is chased and falls into the ravine.
Almost a month later, Anne awakens in a hut on an island in the Zambezi
Zambezi
The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
with Harry Rayburn, who rescued her. He reveals that someone deliberately caused her to fall.
Anne and Harry fall in love. Harry tells her of the diamond discovery he and John Eardsley made years earlier. They were duped by a young woman called Anita Grünberg, who substituted their diamonds for ones stolen from De Beers. After being listed as missing in action
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
, Harry disappeared, coming to Africa under the name of Harry Parker.
Some time later he came across a man – Carton - and recognised him from the incident with Anita Grünberg. Carton is revealed to be the man who fell in the Tube station and dropped the note Anne found. Harry followed Carton to London and Nadina to the Mill House, but insists Nadina was already dead. He realised that the diamonds were probably still on the Kilmorden Castle. Anne confirms they were, and were handed to Suzanne in her cabin on the night of the 22nd.
Harry's island is attacked that night by a party led by the red-bearded Dutchman, but the two manage to escape, and Anne plans to return to Pedler's party where she can keep an eye on developments. They exchange codes to be used in order that neither can be duped again.
Reunited with Suzanne, Anne is told that the diamonds are with luggage sent on with Sir Eustace. She also receives a telegram from Harry telling her to meet him.
Anne goes to the meeting with Harry and again bumps into Chichester, alias Miss Pettigrew. She is led to Sir Eustace, alias "the Colonel". Pedler forces Anne to write a note to Harry to lure him to the curio shop, which she does but she does not include their code in it. Harry turns up and Pedler is exultant – until Anne pulls out a pistol and they capture Pedler. Race turns up with reinforcements and Pedler tries to bluff matters out, but is unsuccessful.
Sir Eustace manages to escape. Anne is somewhat pleased, having developed a fondness for him. Race tells her that Harry is in fact John Eardsley, not Lucas, and therefore the heir to the fortune. Harry however has found his happiness with Anne, and they marry and live on the island in the Zambezi.
Characters in "The Man in the Brown Suit"
- Anne Beddingfield, orphaned daughter of Professor Beddingfeld, famous archaeologist
- John Eardsley, son of Sir Laurence Eardsley, the South African mining magnate, alias Harry Rayburn
- Colonel Race, a distant cousin of Sir Laurence Eardsley
- The Hon. Mrs Suzanne Blair, a society lady
- Sir Eustace Pedler, MP, alias 'The Colonel', a criminal mastermind.
- Guy Pagett, Sir Eustace Pedler's secretary
- Anita Grünberg, alias Nadina, alias Mrs de Castina – one-time agent of 'The Colonel'
- Arthur Minks, alias the Rev. Edward Chichester alias Miss Pettigrew, alias Count Sergius Paulovitch - an agent of 'The Colonel'
- Harry Lucas, friend of John Eardsley, killed in the First World War.
- Mr Flemming, solicitor, and his wife: Anne's landlords after her father's death
- L. B. Carton, husband of Anita Grünberg and victim at Hyde Park Tube Station.
- Inspector Meadows of Scotland Yard
- Lord Nasby, Owner of the Daily Budget and Anne's employer
- A red-bearded Dutchman, an agent of 'The Colonel'
- Mrs Caroline James, wife of the gardener at The Mill House.
Literary significance and reception
The Times Literary SupplementThe Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
reviewed the novel in its issue of September 25, 1924. The review appreciated the "thriller-cum-adventure" style of the book and concluded "The author sets so many questions to the reader in her story, questions which will almost certainly be answered wrongly, that no one is likely to nod over it, and even the most experienced reader of romances will fail to steer an unerring course and reach the harbour of solution through the quicksands and shoals of blood, diamonds, secret service, impersonation, kidnapping, and violence with which the mystery is guarded."
The unnamed reviewer in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
of September 7, 1924 said that, "Miss Christie has done one bold and one regrettable thing in this book. She has dispensed with Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
, her own particular Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, to whose presence and bonhomie and infallibility the success of her previous books has been mainly due." After comparing Poirot with Harry Rayburn, the reviewer continued by saying that the book, "will be something of a disappointment to those who remember The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by Agatha Christie. It was written in 1916 and was first published by John Lane in the United States in October 1920 and in the United Kingdom by The Bodley Head on January 21, 1921. The U.S...
. It is an excellent and ingenious complexity, in its way, but it might have been written by quite a number of the busy climbers of who now throng this particular slope of Parnassus
Mount Parnassus
Mount Parnassus, also Parnassos , is a mountain of limestone in central Greece that towers above Delphi, north of the Gulf of Corinth, and offers scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside. According to Greek mythology, this mountain was sacred to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs,...
. One almost suspects that Miss Christie contemplates exchanging the mantle of Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
for that of Miss Dell
Ethel M. Dell
Ethel May Dell or Ethel Mary Dell was an English writer of popular romance novels.-Overview:Ethel Dell's married name is recorded as Ethel Mary Savage. She was born in Streatham, a suburb of London. Her father was a clerk in the City of London and she had an older sister and brother. Her family...
; a hazardous manoeuvre, for the two authoresses are very different in tastes and sympathies." The reviewer went on to say that, "The plan of the book is rather confused. There is a prologue which does not link itself up with the rest of the story for quite a long time; and the idea of giving alternate passages from the diaries of the heroine and of Sir Eustace Pedler is not altogether justified by the glimpses it gives of that entertaining but disreputable character. One of the points on which some readers will have doubts is as to the plausibility of the villain: assuredly he is a novel type in that role. The book, like all Miss Christie's work is written with spirit and humour."
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
: "Written during and about a trip to Southern Africa, this opens attractively with the heroine and her archeologist father (Agatha's interest in the subject was obviously pre-Max), and has some pleasant interludes with the diary of the baddie. But it degenerates into the usual stuff of her thrillers, and the plot would probably not bear close examination, if anyone were to take the trouble."
Some additional blurb
Blurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
s regarding the book, and used by The Bodley Head for advertising subsequent print runs, are as follows:
- "A capital tale — mystery piled on mystery, incident on incident. — Referee.
- "Agatha Christie has written a most entertaining story, excellently conceived and executed." — Morning PostMorning PostThe Morning Post, as the paper was named on its masthead, was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph.- History :...
.
- "I give ‘The Man in the Brown Suit’ my most ringing applause." — StarThe Star (London)The Star was a London evening newspaper founded in 1788.The first edition was printed on 3 May 1788 under the editorship of Peter Stuart. Founding sponsors of the new paper included publisher John Murray and William Lane of the Minerva Press...
.
The Man in the Brown Suit (1988)
The book was adapted by Alan Shayne Productions in association with Warner Brothers Television as TV movie in 1988. The adaptation is set in a more contemporary era than the 1920s and many details are changed as a result.Adapator: Carla Jean Wagner
Director: Alan Grint
Cast:
Stephanie Zimbalist
Stephanie Zimbalist
Stephanie Zimbalist is an American actress best known for her role as Laura Holt on the NBC detective series Remington Steele.-Background:...
played Anne Beddingfeld
Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan
Rue McClanahan was an American actress, best known for her roles on television as Vivian Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family, and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in 1987.-Early life:McClanahan was born Eddie Rue...
played Suzy Blair
Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
played Rev. Edward Chichester
Edward Woodward
Edward Woodward
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English stage and screen actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , Woodward began his career on stage, and throughout his career he appeared in productions in both the West End in London and on Broadway in New York...
played Sir Eustace Pedler
Ken Howard
Ken Howard
Kenneth Joseph "Ken" Howard, Jr. is an American actor, best known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in 1776 and as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show The White Shadow...
played Gordon Race
Nickolas Grace
Nickolas Grace
Nickolas Grace is a British actor known for his roles on television, including Anthony Blanche in the acclaimed ITV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood...
played Guy Underhill
Simon Dutton
Simon Dutton
Simon Dutton is a British actor, best known for playing the title role of Simon Templar in a series of Australian-produced television films in 1989. In 2007, he joined the cast of British sitcom Not Going Out as recurring character Guy, but was written out at the end of season 2.Dutton was...
played Harry Lucas
María Casal played Anita
Federico Luciano played Leo Carton
Rose McVeigh played Valerie
Jorge Bosso played Businessman
José Canalejas played First Arab
Tibi Costa played Second Arab(as Tiby Costa)
Robert Case played Ship's Captain
James Duggan played Steward
Gabriel Edu played Shop Clerk
Bill Holden played John Eardsley
Charly Mahdy played First Taxi driver
Aldo Sambrell
Aldo Sambrell
Alfredo Sanchez Brell , known as Aldo Sambrell, was a Spanish film actor, director and producer who made over 150 appearances in film between 1961 and 1996....
played Second Taxi driver
Alito Rodgers played Third Taxi driver
Antonio Ross played a Concierge
Elias Mayali played a Policeman
Jack Taylor played s Police inspector
Claudio Vicente played a Pianist
Graphic novel adaptation
The Man in the Brown Suit was released by HarperCollinsHarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
as a graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
adaptation on July 16, 2007, December 3, 2007, adapted by "Hughot" and illustrated by "Bairi" (ISBN 0-00-725062-2). This was translated from the edition first published in France by Emmanuel Proust éditions in 2005 under the title of L'Homme au complet marron.
Publication history
- 1924, John Lane (The Bodley Head), August 22, 1924, Hardcover, 312 pp
- 1924, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1924, Hardcover, 275 pp
- 1949, Dell BooksDell PublishingDell Publishing, an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte, Jr.During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included 1000 Jokes, launched in...
(New York), 1949, Paperback, (Dell number 319 [mapback]), 223 pp - 1953, Pan BooksPan BooksPan Books is an imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
, 1953, Paperback, (Pan number 250), 190 pp - 1958, Pan Books, 1958, Paperback, (Great Pan G176)
- 1978, Panther Books (London), 1978, 192 pp, ISBN 0-58-604516-3
- 1984, Ulverscroft Large Print Edition, Hardcover, ISBN 0-70-891125-0
- 1988, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
), 1988, Paperback, 240 pp, ISBN 0-00-617475-2 - 2007, Facsimile of 1924 UK first edition (HarperCollins), November 5, 2007, Hardcover, 312 pp, ISBN 0-00-726518-2
Following completion in late 1923 The Man in the Brown Suit was first serialised in the London Evening News
Evening News (London)
Evening News, formerly known as The Evening News, was an evening newspaper published in London from 1881 to 1980, reappearing briefly in 1987. It became highly popular under the control of the Harmsworth brothers. For a long time it maintained the largest daily sale of any evening newspaper in London...
under the title Anne the Adventurous. It ran in fifty instalments from Thursday, November 29, 1923 to Monday, January 28, 1924. There were slight amendments to the text, either to make sense of the openings of an instalment (e.g. changing "She then..." to "Anne then..."), or omitting small sentences or words. The main change was in the chapter division. The published book has thirty-six chapters whereas the serialisation has only twenty-eight.
In her 1977
1977 in literature
The year 1977 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Douglas Adams begins writing for BBC radio.*V. S. Naipaul declines the offer of a CBE....
Autobiography
Agatha Christie: An Autobiography
An Autobiography is the title of the recollections of crime writer Agatha Christie published posthumously by Collins in the UK and by Dodd, Mead & Company in the US in November 1977, almost two years after the writer’s death in January 1976. The UK edition retailed at £7.95 and the US edition at...
Christie makes a slight mistake with the name of the serialisation and refers to it as Anna the Adventuress (possibly confusing it with the 1904
1904 in literature
The year 1904 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* January - Mark Twain begins dictating his autobiography.* 16 June - "Bloomsday": the day on which the action of James Joyce's novel Ulysses takes place in Dublin....
book of the same name by E. Phillips Oppenheim
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Edward Phillips Oppenheim , was an English novelist, in his lifetime a major and successful writer of genre fiction including thrillers.-Life:...
). Irrespective of this mistake, the change from her preferred title was not of her choosing and the newspaper's choice was one that she considered to be "as silly a title as I have ever heard". She raised no objections however as the Evening News were paying her £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
500 (£ in current terms) for the serial rights which she and her family considered an enormous sum. At Archie's suggestion, she used the money to purchase a grey, bottle-nosed Morris Cowley
Morris Cowley
Morris Cowley was a name given to various cars produced by the Morris Motor Company from 1915 to 1958.-Morris Cowley :The original Cowley, introduced in 1915, was a cheaper version of the first Morris Oxford and featured the same "Bullnose" radiator. To reduce the price many components were bought...
. She later stated that acquiring her own car ranked with dining at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
as one of the two most exciting incidents in her life.
Christie was less pleased with the dustjacket of the book, complaining to the Bodley Head that the illustration by the un-named artist looked as if the incident at the Tube Station
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
depicted was set in "mediaeval times" when she wanted something "more clear, definite and modern". The Bodley Head were anxious to sign a new contract with Christie, now recognising her potential, but she wanted to move on, feeling that "they had not treated a young author fairly".
The US serialisation was in the Blue Book
Blue Book (magazine)
Blue Book was a popular 20th-century American magazine with a lengthy 70-year run under various titles from 1905 to 1975.Launched as The Monthly Story Magazine, it was published under that title from May 1905 to August 1906 with a change to The Monthly Story Blue Book Magazine for issues from...
magazine in three instalments from September (Volume 39, Issue 5) to November 1924 (Volume 40, Issue 1) with each issue containing an uncredited illustration.
Book dedication
Christie's dedication in the book reads:"To E.A.B. In memory of a journey, some Lion stories and a request that I should some day write the Mystery of the Mill House".
E.A.B. is Major E. A. Belcher (see References to actual history, geography and current science above).
Dustjacket blurb
The dustjacket front flap of the first edition carried no specially written blurbBlurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
. Instead both the front and back flap carried adverts for other Bodley Head novels.
External links
- Man in the Brown Suit at the official Agatha Christie website