Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie by Anne Martinetti, Guillaume Lebeau, Alexandre Franc
Review by Lauren
source: copy for review; all opinions are my own
Official Summary: The life of Agatha Christie was as mysterious and eventful as her fiction. This beautifully illustrated graphic novel traces the life of the Queen of Whodunnit from her childhood in Torquay, England, through a career filled with success, mischief, and adventure, to her later years as Dame Agatha. Revealing a side to Christie that will surprise and delight many readers, Agatha introduces us to a free-spirited and thoroughly modern woman who, among other things, enjoyed flying, travel, and surfing. Centering around an episode in 1926 when Christie staged her own disappearance, Agatha is an intriguing, entertaining, and funny exploration of the 20th century’s best-loved crime novelist.
Review: This is a graphic novel biography of Agatha Christie, except it’s not really a biography. I know, a bit confusing. But look at this way – it follows the true life of novelist Agatha Christie, but the authors obviously had to take license in order to create a graphic novel, where the whole story is told through dialogue and illustrations. One of the things that the authors included was the presence of some of Christie’s greatest creations, particularly Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective in many of her novels. Poirot is like a voice in Christie’s head, except he’s physically present in the illustrations.
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| page from the book – source |
One aspect of Christie’s life is when she went missing, after finding out her husband had been cheating on her. Nobody knew where she was until she randomly showed up again. This is a part of Christie’s history that she never divulged, and while it’s featured in the book, the authors don’t give concrete reasons. I liked this though, because it kept the book following a biographical narrative – trying to show these real life moments in Christie’s life. I love Christie’s novels but I didn’t know a lot about her personal life, so it was interesting to hear about her traveling the world, being a nurse, marrying two times, having a child, and more.
If you’re at all interested in getting inside the life of Agatha Christie, I would suggest this graphic novel. It’s a great place to start your learning!
it could be fun to have somthing like that, it reminds me the one I read about Einstein
Yesyesyes! I totally want to read this – I love the fact that it's presented as a graphic novel; such a fun idea!
xx
Not something I'm interested in but I do have a few friends I could recommend it to.
Karen @For What It's Worth
I think it would be fun to read a biography in graphic novel form. Glad this was a good one, liberties and all. 😉
Sounds fun! I've wanted to learn more about Agatha Christie since watching Doctor Who 🙂
Cool idea to do a biography in a more visual way!
Eeep, this sounds cool! The art reminds me of Tintin comics for some reason SO YAY FOR THAT. 😀 I know nothing about Agatha Christie, so these would be fun to try someday. 😀
Thanks for stopping by @ Paper Fury!
What an interesting way to do this kind of story!! I really like Agatha Christie so this might need me to look further into. Great review!!
I have to admit that I don't know much about Agatha Christie's personal life (or that she went missing for awhile, or that her husband would be stupid enough to cheat on a woman who writes about murder for a living!), but I really want to read this now!
Well that's different! I was reading up on her last week after watching a Dr Who episode she was in and it had her missing days. I'd never heard that before so went off to research. So weird!
What an interesting concept for a book! I love Agatha Christie and I want to read this now! Thanks for again sharing another of your great finds!
I'm not a graphic novel reader, but this sounds interesting! And to see they added something unique into the timeline.
In my latest college semester done, I took an English Lit class of Mystery Fiction and we read one of Agatha's books, And Then There Were None, and I loved it! As part of the class, we searched for info on her and she was so interesting as a person as with her stories. I love how in this particular biography they take a graphic way of presenting it, and with Poirot, no less. Super intrigued now to find out more. Great review! 🙂