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Encyclopedia > Three Act Tragedy
Three Act Tragedy
Author Agatha Christie
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Crime novel
Publisher Dodd, Mead and Company
Publication date 1934
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 279 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN NA
Preceded by Parker Pyne Investigates
Followed by Death in the Clouds

Three Act Tragedy is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1934 under the title of Murder in Three Acts and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1935 under Christie's original title. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence. 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). ... 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. ... 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. ... See also: 1933 in literature, other events of 1934, 1935 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. ... “ISBN” redirects here. ... Parker Pyne Investigates (published in 1934), also known as Mr. ... Death in the Clouds is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1935 under the title of Death in the Air and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in the July of the same year under... 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. ... 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. ... See also: 1933 in literature, other events of 1934, 1935 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 1930 to April 1994. ... See also: 1934 in literature, other events of 1935, 1936 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The shilling was a British coin first issued in 1548 for Henry VIII, although arguably the testoon issued about 1487 for Henry VII was the first shilling. ... Obverses of the 1787 and 1818 sixpence depicting George III. The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth, as the name indicates, six pence. ...


The book features Hercule Poirot and Mr. Satterthwaite. David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in The Dream Hercule Poirot (pronounced in english ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. ...

Contents

Plot summary

When a clergyman dies at a dinner party thrown by theatre actor, 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. Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ...


The solution to this mystery is one of Christie's classic pieces of misdirection and is a plot device that 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. 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. ... A plot device is a person or an object introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot. ...


Trivia

  • This is the one book where Satterthwaite collaborates with Poirot. He plays the detective, in a couple of other books with the help of Mr Harley Quin, with the stories bordering on the supernatural at times.
  • The novel is also notable for having the first clear statement by Poirot of two aspects of his character: first, that he can speak idiomatic English but chooses not to; and secondly that he plays up his apparent vanity. In both cases he says that he does this because it encourages the suspects to underestimate him.
  • The very last remark made by Poirot, at the end of the book, is very characteristic of him. When Mr. Satterthwaite exclaims that he might have been the one who got poisoned during the first round, Poirot says "It could have been worse.... It could have been me."
  • Colonel Johnson alludes to the murder in part 3, section V of Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

Hercule Poirots Christmas (published in 1938), also known as Murder for Christmas and A Holiday for Murder, is an Agatha Christie mystery novel featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. ...

Literary significance and reception

The Times Literary Supplement of January 31, 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". The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. ...


Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

A 1986 television film was made under the title Murder in Three Acts, starring Peter Ustinov and Tony Curtis, which relocated the action to Acapulco. Mr Satterthwaite was replaced by Hastings. Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE (IPA: ; April 16, 1921 – March 28, 2004), born Peter Alexander Baron von Ustinov, was an Academy Award-winning English actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur of French, Italian, Swiss, Russian, German and Ethiopian ancestry. ... Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz, June 3, 1925) is an American film actor. ...


A radio production was made for the BBC in 2003, starring John Moffatt (Poirot), Beth Chalmers (Egg Lytten Gore, the heroine) and Clive Merrison (Sir Bartholomew). For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ... Clive Merrison (born 15 September 1945) is an English actor of film, television, stage, and radio. ...


Publication history

Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (Book was first published in the US)
Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (Book was first published in the US)
  • 1934, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1934, Hardback, 279 pp
  • 1935, Collins Crime Club (London), January 1935, Hardback, 256 pp
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: Wasp's Nest • Three Blind Mice • Butter In a Lordly Dish
Other Published Works: The Road of Dreams • Star Over Bethlehem and other stories

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