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Encyclopedia > Ordeal by Innocence
Ordeal by Innocence
Image:Ordeal by Innocence First Edition Cover 1958.jpg
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
Author Agatha Christie
Cover artist Not known
Country England
Language English
Genre(s) Crime novel
Publisher Collins Crime Club
Publication date Flag of the United Kingdom November 3 1958
Flag of the United States 1959
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages Flag of the United Kingdom 256 (First Edition)
ISBN None issued for First Edition (Reissue ISBN 0-007-15491-7)
Preceded by 4.50 From Paddington
Followed by Cat Among the Pigeons

Ordeal by Innocence is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on November 3 1958 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. It is regarded by critics as one of the best of her later works, and was also one of Christie's two favorites of her own novels, the other being Crooked House. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), mainly known as Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Sherlock Holmes, pipe-puffing hero of crime fiction, confers with his colleague Dr. Watson; together these characters popularized the genre. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 1930 to April 1994. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... ). Categories: Stub ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... See also: 1958 in literature, other events of 1959, 1960 in literature, list of years in literature. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... “ISBN” redirects here. ... 4. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: Editing experiments If you disagree with its speedy deletion, please explain why on its talk page or at Wikipedia:Speedy deletions. ... Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction that centers upon the investigation of a crime, usually murder, by a detective, either professional or amateur. ... Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), mainly known as Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. ... The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 1930 to April 1994. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... ). Categories: Stub ... Frank Howard Dodd, (1844-1916), was the leading publisher at Dodd, Mead and Company of New York City from 1870 until his death, January 16, 1916. ... Crooked House is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1949 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. ...


Plot summary

While serving a sentence for killing his mother - a crime he insisted he didn't commit - Jacko Argyle dies in prison. Two years later, the man who could have supported Jacko's alibi suddenly turns up, and the family must come to terms with the fact not only that suspicion falls upon each of them, but that one of them is the real murderer. Christie's focus in this novel is upon the psychology of innocence, as the family members struggle with their suspicions of one another.


While two outsiders attempt to find the murderer, it is an insider - Philip Durrant - whose clumsy efforts to uncover the truth force the killer to strike again. Ultimately it is revealed that the murderer was indeed acting under the influence of Jacko Argyle, and that the failure of his (carefully planned) alibi was, in hindsight, an ironic stroke of Fate.


The witness, Arthur Calgary, had believed that when he cleared the name of their son the family would be grateful. He failed to realise the implications of his information. However, once he did so he was determined to help and to protect the innocent by finding the murderer. In order to do so he visited the retired local doctor, Dr MacMaster, to ask him about the cleared murderer, Jacko Argyle. Dr MacMaster states that he was surprised when Jacko killed his mother. Not because he thought that murder was outside Jacko's 'moral range' but because he thought Jacko would be too cowardly to kill somebody himself, that if he wanted to murder somebody he would egg on an accomplice to do his dirty work. Dr MacMaster said "the kind of murder I'd have expected Jacko to do, if he did one, was the type where a couple of boys go out on a raid; then, when the police come after them, the Jackos say 'Biff him on the head, Bud. Let him have it. Shoot him down.' They're willing for murder, ready to incite to murder, but they've not got the nerve to do murder themselves with their own hands" (italics added). This description seems to be a reference to the Craig and Bentley case which had occurred in 1952. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...


Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

A close film adaptation was made in 1984, starring Donald Sutherland, Christopher Plummer and Sarah Miles. Its musical score (by Dave Brubeck) has in many quarters been heavily criticised as totally inappropriate for this style of mystery and has given the film a certain notoriety. // Events The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Sarah Miles (b. ... David Warren Brubeck (born December 6, 1920 in Concord, California[1]), better known as Dave Brubeck, is a U.S. jazz pianist. ...


The novel will be adapted for the third season of Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple canon. Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple Geraldine McEwan (born Geraldine McKeown on May 9, 1932, in Old Windsor, Berkshire, England), is a British actress (of Irish extraction) with a diverse and successful history in film, theatre and television spanning 55 years. ... Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple Marple is a British television series based on the Miss Marple murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie. ...


The novel was also adapted into a stage play by Mary Jane Hansen and performed for the first time by the New York State Theatre Institute in Troy, New York. The original run lasted from February 4th to February 17th, 2007, and included 14 performances. Looking west down Broadway at downtown Troy. ...


External links

  • http://www.all-about-agatha-christie.com/ordeal-by-innocence.html
v • d • e
Works by Agatha Christie
Detectives: Hercule Poirot • Miss Marple • Tommy and Tuppence • Ariadne Oliver • Arthur Hastings • Superintendent Battle • Chief Inspector Japp • Parker Pyne
Novels: The Mysterious Affair at Styles • The Secret Adversary • The Murder on the Links • The Man in the Brown Suit • The Secret of Chimneys • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd • The Big Four • The Mystery of the Blue Train • The Seven Dials Mystery • The Murder at the Vicarage • The Sittaford Mystery • Peril at End House • Lord Edgware Dies • Murder on the Orient Express • Three Act Tragedy • Why Didn't They Ask Evans? • Death in the Clouds • The A.B.C. Murders • Murder in Mesopotamia • Cards on the Table • Dumb Witness • Death on the Nile • Appointment with Death • Hercule Poirot's Christmas • Murder is Easy • And Then There Were None • Sad Cypress • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe • Evil Under the Sun • N or M? • The Body in the Library • Five Little Pigs • The Moving Finger • Towards Zero • Death Comes as the End • Sparkling Cyanide • The Hollow • Taken at the Flood • Crooked House • A Murder is Announced • They Came to Baghdad • Mrs McGinty's Dead • They Do It with Mirrors • After the Funeral • A Pocket Full of Rye • Destination Unknown • Hickory Dickory Dock • Dead Man's Folly • 4.50 From Paddington • Ordeal by Innocence • Cat Among the Pigeons • The Pale Horse • The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side • The Clocks • A Caribbean Mystery • At Bertram's Hotel • Third Girl • Endless Night • By the Pricking of My Thumbs • Hallowe'en Party • Passenger to Frankfurt • Nemesis • Elephants Can Remember • Postern of Fate • Curtain • Sleeping Murder
As Mary Westmacott: Giant's Bread • Unfinished Portrait • Absent in the Spring • The Rose and the Yew Tree • A Daughter's a Daughter • The Burden
Short story collections: Poirot Investigates • Partners in Crime • The Mysterious Mr. Quin • The Thirteen Problems • The Hound of Death • The Listerdale Mystery • Parker Pyne Investigates • Murder in the Mews • The Regatta Mystery • The Labours of Hercules • The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories • Three Blind Mice and Other Stories • The Under Dog and Other Stories • The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding • Double Sin and Other Stories • The Golden Ball and Other Stories • Poirot's Early Cases • Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories • Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories • The Harlequin Tea Set • While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
Plays: Black Coffee • And Then There Were None • Appointment with Death • Murder on the Nile/Hidden Horizon • The Hollow • The Mousetrap • Witness for the Prosecution • Verdict • Rule of Three • Fiddlers Three • Akhnaton
Radio (and Television) Plays: Three Blind Mice • Butter In a Lordly Dish
Other Published Works: The Road of Dreams • Star Over Bethlehem and other stories

  Results from FactBites:
 
Ordeal by Innocence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (309 words)
Ordeal by Innocence (published in 1958) is a detective novel by Agatha Christie, which is regarded by critics as one of her best works, and was also one of her two favorites of her own novels, the other being Crooked House.
Two years later, the man who could have supported Jacko's alibi suddenly turns up, and the family must come to terms with the fact not only that suspicion falls upon each of them, but that one of them is the real murderer.
Christie's focus in this novel is upon the psychology of innocence, as the family members struggle with their suspicions of one another.
ordeal. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05 (507 words)
By an ordeal, appeal was made to divine authority to decide the guilt or innocence of one accused of a crime or to choose between disputants.
The ordeal by fire—walking through fire or putting the hand into a flame—was common, and there were other fiery ordeals, such as walking on hot plowshares or plunging the hand into molten metal.
One form of ordeal, the trial by water, was that used to determine whether or not an accused woman was a witch.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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