Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. She wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap.[1] Born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, Christie served in a hospital during the First World War, before marrying and starting a family in London. She was initially unsuccessful at getting her work published; but in 1920 The Bodley Head press published her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Hercule Poirot. This launched her literary career. Life and career[edit] Death[edit]
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer who is most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste.[1] He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. Life and career[edit] Early life[edit] Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh, Scotland.[2][3] His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was born in England of Irish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary (née Foley), was Irish Catholic. Doyle's father died in 1893, in the Crichton Royal, Dumfries, after many years of psychiatric illness.[13][14] Name[edit] Writing career[edit]
Hercule Poirot
Overview[edit] Influences[edit] Poirot's name was derived from two other fictional detectives of the time: Marie Belloc Lowndes' Hercule Popeau and Frank Howel Evans' Monsieur Poirot, a retired Belgian police officer living in London.[1] A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle. Poirot was a francophone. Popularity[edit] By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot "insufferable", and by 1960 she felt that he was a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep". Appearance and propinquities[edit] Captain Arthur Hastings' first description of Poirot: He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Agatha Christie's initial description of Poirot in The Murder on the Orient Express: In the later books, his limp is not mentioned, suggesting it may have been a temporary wartime injury.
Oscar Wilde
Irish poet and playwright (1854–1900) Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde[a] (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. Early life Oscar Wilde was born[5] at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College), the second of three children born to an Anglo-Irish couple: Jane, née Elgee, and Sir William Wilde. Jane Wilde was a niece (by marriage) of the novelist, playwright and clergyman Charles Maturin, who may have influenced her own literary career. Sir William Wilde was Ireland's leading oto-ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland.[9] He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore. University education: 1870s Salomé
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in 12 of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in 20 short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. Alongside Hercule Poirot, she is one of the most loved and famous of Christie's characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Sketch magazine in 1926, "The Tuesday Night Club",[1] which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. Origins[edit] There is no definitive source for the derivation of the name 'Marple'.[4] The most common explanation is that the name was taken from Marple railway station in Stockport, through which Christie passed. Character[edit] Miss Marple solves difficult crimes because of her shrewd intelligence, and St. Films[edit]
Dictionnaire de littérature à l'usage des snobs : Et surtout de
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was widely disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story. Within the crime case files as well as journalistic accounts the killer was known as "the Whitechapel Murderer" as well as "Leather Apron". Attacks ascribed to the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper. Background Murders Smith was robbed and sexually assaulted on Osborn Street, Whitechapel, on 3 April 1888. Canonical five
Fritz Zorn
Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. Fritz Zorn est le nom de plume de Fritz Angst, né le à Meilen dans le canton de Zurich et mort le à Zurich, un écrivain suisse de langue allemande. Biographie[modifier | modifier le code] Fils d’une famille patricienne très austère, il a passé son enfance et jeunesse sur la « Rive dorée » de Zurich. Après le lycée, il a étudié la philologie allemande et les langues romanes. Son vrai nom de famille, Angst, signifie en français « peur », « angoisse », et son pseudonyme « colère ». Œuvre[modifier | modifier le code] En français Gallimard (ISBN 2070287459) et (ISBN 9782070373680) En allemand Fischer Taschenbuch (ISBN 3-596-22202-8) Notes[modifier | modifier le code] ↑ strictement parlant, sa maladie était un lymphome malin, sans doute une maladie de Hodgkin, forme de cancer envahissant les ganglions lymphatiques
