Three Act Tragedy
Encyclopedia
Three Act Tragedy is a work of detective fiction
by Agatha Christie
first published in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company
in 1934
under the title Murder in Three Acts and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club
in January 1935
under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence
(7/6).
The book features Hercule Poirot
, supported by his friend Satterthwaite, and is the one book in which Satterthwaite collaborates with Poirot. He previously appeared in the stories featuring Harley Quin, in particular those collected in The Mysterious Mr. Quin
(1930).
Sir Charles Cartwright, it is thought by nearly everyone (Poirot included) to be an accidental death. Shortly afterwards, however, a second death in suspiciously similar circumstances and with many of the same people present puts both Poirot and a team of sleuths on the trail of a poisoner whose motive is not clear.
and relies on a plot device
which has been widely imitated. Poirot reveals that the first murder - in which the murderer could not have predicted who would get the poisoned glass and had no motive to kill the eventual victim - had only been a "dress rehearsal" for the second murder.
Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review
of October 7, 1934, said that the motive was "most unusual, if not positively unique in the annals of crime. Since this is an Agatha Christie novel featuring Hercule Poirot as its leading character, it is quite unnecessary to say that it makes uncommonly good reading".
In The Observer
s issue of January 6, 1935, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers
) said, "Her gift is pure genius, of leading the reader by the nose in a zigzag course up the garden and dropping the lead just when she wishes him to scamper to the kill. Three Act Tragedy is not among this author's best detective stories; but to say that it heads her second best is praise enough. The technique of misleadership is, as usual, superb; but, when all comes out, some of the minor threads of motive do not quite convince. Mrs. Christie has, quite apart from her special gift, steadily improved and matured as a writer, from the-strange-affair-of-style to this charming and sophisticated piece of prose".
Milward Kennedy
in The Guardian
of 29 January 1935, opened his review with, “The year has opened most satisfactorily. Mrs. Christie’s Three Act Tragedy is up to her best level.” He summarised the set-up of the plot but then admitted, “A weak (but perhaps inevitable point) is the disappearance of a butler; the reader, that is to say, is given rather too broad a hint. But the mechanics of the story are ingenious and plausible, the characters (as always with Mrs. Christie) are life-like and lively. Poirot does not take the stage very often, but when he does he is in great form.”
Robert Barnard
commented much later "The strategy of deception here is one that by this date ought to have been familiar to Christie's readers. This is perhaps not one of the best examples of the trick, because few of the characters other than the murderer are well individualised. The social mix here is more artistic and sophisticated than is usual in Christie."
, starring Peter Ustinov
and Tony Curtis
, which relocated the action to Acapulco and replaced the character of Satterthwaite by Hastings
.
A radio production was made for the BBC
in 2003, starring John Moffatt as Poirot, Beth Chalmers as Egg Lytton Gore, the heroine, and Clive Merrison
as Sir Bartholomew.
An adaptation starring David Suchet
for the series Agatha Christie's Poirot
was released as the first episode of Season 12, with Martin Shaw
as Sir Charles Cartwright, Art Malik
as Sir Bartholomew Strange, Kimberley Nixon
as Egg Lytton Gore, and Tom Wisdom
as Oliver Manders. Ashley Pearce, who has previously directed Appointment with Death
and Mrs McGinty's Dead
for the ITV series, also directed this. The adaptation omitted the character of Satterthwaite and changes a number of details but is generally faithful to the plot of the novel.
The novel's first true publication was the serialisation in the Saturday Evening Post in six instalments from June 9 (Volume 206, Number 50) to July 14, 1934 (Volume 207, Number 2) under the title Murder in Three Acts with illustrations by John La Gatta.
This novel is one of two to differ significantly in American editions (the other being The Moving Finger
), both hardcover and paperback. The American edition of Three Act Tragedy changes the motive of the killer, but not so significantly as to require adjustment in other chapters of the novel. It is helpful to keep this difference in mind when reading the reviews quoted in the section Literary significance and reception.
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...
first published in the United States 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...
in 1934
1934 in literature
The year 1934 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The first Flash Gordon comic strip is published.*Boris Pasternak and Korney Chukovsky are among those present at the first Congress of the Soviet Union of Writers....
under the title Murder in Three Acts and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club
Collins Crime Club
The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...
in January 1935
1935 in literature
The year 1935 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* June 15 - W. H. Auden enters a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann.* July 30 - Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain....
under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition 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).
The book features 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...
, supported by his friend Satterthwaite, and is the one book in which Satterthwaite collaborates with Poirot. He previously appeared in the stories featuring Harley Quin, in particular those collected in The Mysterious Mr. Quin
The Mysterious Mr. Quin
The Mysterious Mr. Quin is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on April 14 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
(1930).
Plot summary
When a clergyman dies at a dinner party thrown by stage actorTheatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
Sir Charles Cartwright, it is thought by nearly everyone (Poirot included) to be an accidental death. Shortly afterwards, however, a second death in suspiciously similar circumstances and with many of the same people present puts both Poirot and a team of sleuths on the trail of a poisoner whose motive is not clear.
Solution
The solution to this mystery is one of Christie's classic pieces of misdirectionMisdirection
Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another....
and relies on a plot device
Plot device
A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
which has been widely imitated. Poirot reveals that the first murder - in which the murderer could not have predicted who would get the poisoned glass and had no motive to kill the eventual victim - had only been a "dress rehearsal" for the second murder.
Literary significance and reception
The Times Literary Supplement of 31 January 1935 admitted that "Very few readers will guess the murderer before Hercule Poirot reveals the secret", but complained that the motive of the murderer "injures an otherwise very good story". (Note: The killer's motive differs depending on the edition, as detailed in Publication history.)Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
of October 7, 1934, said that the motive was "most unusual, if not positively unique in the annals of crime. Since this is an Agatha Christie novel featuring Hercule Poirot as its leading character, it is quite unnecessary to say that it makes uncommonly good reading".
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,...
s issue of January 6, 1935, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers
Edward Powys Mathers
Edward Powys Mathers was an English translator and poet, and also a pioneer of compiling advanced cryptic crosswords....
) said, "Her gift is pure genius, of leading the reader by the nose in a zigzag course up the garden and dropping the lead just when she wishes him to scamper to the kill. Three Act Tragedy is not among this author's best detective stories; but to say that it heads her second best is praise enough. The technique of misleadership is, as usual, superb; but, when all comes out, some of the minor threads of motive do not quite convince. Mrs. Christie has, quite apart from her special gift, steadily improved and matured as a writer, from the-strange-affair-of-style to this charming and sophisticated piece of prose".
Milward Kennedy
Milward Kennedy
Milward Rodon Kennedy Burge was an English civil servant, journalist, crime writer and literary critic. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He served with British Military Intelligence in World War I and then worked for the International Labor Office and the Egyptian...
in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
of 29 January 1935, opened his review with, “The year has opened most satisfactorily. Mrs. Christie’s Three Act Tragedy is up to her best level.” He summarised the set-up of the plot but then admitted, “A weak (but perhaps inevitable point) is the disappearance of a butler; the reader, that is to say, is given rather too broad a hint. But the mechanics of the story are ingenious and plausible, the characters (as always with Mrs. Christie) are life-like and lively. Poirot does not take the stage very often, but when he does he is in great form.”
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....
commented much later "The strategy of deception here is one that by this date ought to have been familiar to Christie's readers. This is perhaps not one of the best examples of the trick, because few of the characters other than the murderer are well individualised. The social mix here is more artistic and sophisticated than is usual in Christie."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A 1986 television film was made under the title Murder in Three ActsMurder in Three Acts
Murder in Three Acts is a 1986 British-American television film produced by Warner Bros. Television, featuring Peter Ustinov as Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot...
, starring Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
and Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
, which relocated the action to Acapulco and replaced the character of Satterthwaite by Hastings
Arthur Hastings
Captain Arthur Hastings, OBE, is a fictional character, the amateur sleuthing partner and best friend of Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot...
.
A radio production was made for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 2003, starring John Moffatt as Poirot, Beth Chalmers as Egg Lytton Gore, the heroine, and Clive Merrison
Clive Merrison
Clive Merrison is a Welsh actor of film, television, stage and radio. He trained at Rose Bruford College.- Television :...
as Sir Bartholomew.
An adaptation starring David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
for the series Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
was released as the first episode of Season 12, with Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in shows such as The Professionals, The Chief, Judge John Deed and Inspector George Gently.-Theatrical background:...
as Sir Charles Cartwright, Art Malik
Art Malik
Art Malik is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant-Ivory television serials and films...
as Sir Bartholomew Strange, Kimberley Nixon
Kimberley Nixon
Kimberley Nixon is a Welsh actress.-Early and personal life:Born in Bristol, Nixon and her six brothers were brought up in Pontypridd, Wales, where she attended Coedylan Comprehensive School, now known as Pontypridd High School.In October 2011 Nixon was announced by Wales Online as number one in...
as Egg Lytton Gore, and Tom Wisdom
Tom Wisdom
Tom Wisdom is an English actor of theatre, film and television. His film roles includes the downtrodden hero of Danny Patrick's Hey Mr DJ and Astinos in 300 , based on Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae.-Personal life:Wisdom was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, England...
as Oliver Manders. Ashley Pearce, who has previously directed Appointment with Death
Appointment with Death
Appointment with Death is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on May 2, 1938 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year...
and Mrs McGinty's Dead
Mrs McGinty's Dead
Mrs. McGinty's Dead is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1952 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on March 3 of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.50 and the UK edition nine shillings and sixpence...
for the ITV series, also directed this. The adaptation omitted the character of Satterthwaite and changes a number of details but is generally faithful to the plot of the novel.
Publication history
- 1934, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), Hardback, 279 pp
- 1935, Collins Crime Club (London), January 1935, Hardback, 256 pp
- 1945, Avon Books (New York), Paperback, (Avon number 61), 230 pp
- 1957, 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...
), Paperback, 192 pp - 1961, Popular LibraryPopular LibraryPopular Library was a New York paperback book company established in 1942 by Leo Margulies and Ned Pines, who at the time was a major pulp magazine, newspapers and magazine publishers...
(New York), Paperback, 175 pp - 1964, Pan Books, Paperback (Pan number X275), 203 pp
- 1972, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 253 pp, ISBN 0-00-231816-4
- 1973, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 253 pp
- 1975, Ulverscroft Large Print Edition, Hardcover, 351 pp, ISBN 0-85-456326-1
- 2006, Poirot Facsimile Edition (Facsimile of 1935 UK First Edition), HarperCollins, November 6, 2006, Hardback ISBN 0-00-723441-4
The novel's first true publication was the serialisation in the Saturday Evening Post in six instalments from June 9 (Volume 206, Number 50) to July 14, 1934 (Volume 207, Number 2) under the title Murder in Three Acts with illustrations by John La Gatta.
This novel is one of two to differ significantly in American editions (the other being The Moving Finger
The Moving Finger
The Moving Finger is detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in July 1942 and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1943. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence...
), both hardcover and paperback. The American edition of Three Act Tragedy changes the motive of the killer, but not so significantly as to require adjustment in other chapters of the novel. It is helpful to keep this difference in mind when reading the reviews quoted in the section Literary significance and reception.
International titles
- Dutch: Drama in drie bedrijven (Tragedy in Three Acts)
- French: Drame en trois actes (Tragedy in Three Acts)
- German: Nikotin (Nicotine)
- Hungarian: Hercule Poirot téved? (Is Hercule Poirot wrong?), Tragédia három felvonásban (Tragedy in Three Acts)
- Italian: Tragedia in tre atti (Tragedy in Three Acts)
- Russian: Драма в трёх актах (=Drama v tryokh aktakh, Drama in Three Acts), Трагедия в трёх актах (=Tragediya v tryokh aktakh, Tragedy in Three Acts)
- German: Nikotin
- Spanish: Tragedia en tres Actos (Three act Tragedy or Tragedy in Three Acts)
- Swedish: Tragedi i tre akter (Tragedy in Three Acts)
External links
- Act Tragedy at the official Agatha Christie website