Agatha Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage

Amy Lee (The Open University)
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In

The Murder at the Vicarage

, Miss Jane Marple and the quiet village of St. Mary Mead make their first appearance. While many people see Miss Marple as a rival or replacement for Hercule Poirot (and while Agatha Christie herself had mentioned how much Poirot had irritated her), Christie does not admit to setting this old lady up as a rival for the little Belgian. The next time we see Miss Marple is twelve years later in the 1942 book

The Body in the Library

.

At the beginning of the novel, the narrator Reverend Leonard Clement wonders how to tell the story, as it is difficult to demarcate where the origin of an event is. Clement admits that one evening, during a dinner gathering, he himself remarked in a light hearted manner that “anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the

1177 words

Citation: Lee, Amy. "The Murder at the Vicarage". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3409, accessed 19 March 2024.]

3409 The Murder at the Vicarage 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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