Agatha Christie: Power and Illusion

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • R. A. York

   Pages 1-8

3. The Spectacle of Death

   • R. A. York

   Pages 9-21

4. The Wrong Angle

   • R. A. York

   Pages 22-34

5. Actors and Imposters

   • R. A. York

   Pages 35-47

6. Human Nature

   • R. A. York

   Pages 48-59

7. The Self and the Other

   • R. A. York

   Pages 60-73

8. Change and Decay

   • R. A. York

   Pages 74-86

9. The War of Good and Evil

   • R. A. York

   Pages 87-99

10. Clues

    • R. A. York

    Pages 100-113

11. The Myth of Crime

    • R. A. York

    Pages 114-127

12. The Real and the Unreal

    • R. A. York

    Pages 128-140

13. The Culture

    • R. A. York

    Pages 141-154

14. Curtain: A Conclusion

    • R. A. York

    Pages 155-165

15. Back Matter

    Pages 166-175

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This study shows how she sought to reconcile her attachment to the Victorian past with her recognition of a new society that undermined established order and in doing so gave more opportunities to women, confused class-boundaries, extended tolerance, allowed the cult of pleasure and self-assertion and revealed the ambiguities of respectability.

• Agatha Christie
• bibliography
• culture
• death
• myth
• nature
• society
• tolerance
• Victorian era
• women
• British and Irish Literature

R.A YORK was educated at Emmanuel College Cambridge, UK and University College London. In 1969 he joined the University of Ulster, UK, eventually becoming Emeritus Professor of European Literature. He has published on European, British and American literature, with a special interest in literary form and language.

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