Miss Jane Marple, created by Agatha Christie, is a beloved elderly detective who solves murder mysteries using her shrewd observations and Victorian mind. She has a sensitive side and views murder as an unsavory weed. There have been numerous adaptations of her novels for film and TV, with Joan Hickson being the most faithful representation.
Miss Jane Marple is the legendary spinster detective created by author Agatha Christie. Like Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, the elderly and rather frail resident of St. Mary Mead, soon became a fan favorite of mystery novels. Her shrewd observations of her world, mostly drawn from her experiences of village life, and “Victorian mind like a sink,” have helped her solve thirteen book-length and several intriguing murder mysteries. riddles in her stories.
Miss Marple as a detective is quite effective and often delves into the human experience to draw parallels between people she has met before and those involved in a murder. Though she is full of murder, she always manages to keep her manners and her head. According to Miss Marple, murder is evil and unsavory, but must be dealt with professionally.
Like Poirot, Miss Marple sometimes encounters cases while away from home, and at other times, shocking murders shake the foundations of St. Mary Mead. From his early murder cases, Marple gains a reputation with local police and Scotland Yard detectives. While an investigator might not know her at the beginning of a novel, by the end he’s usually delighted with Marple’s fine mind. She often says that her advantage in solving crimes is that people don’t expect it to matter. As an old maid she might appear messy or unimportant, allowing her to move on suspected murderers with little danger to herself.
Little is said about why Miss Marple never chose to marry. She takes pride in being an old maid, but she seems to have a superhuman view of relationships between men and women. It is clear that she lives on a slightly reduced income, although she is occasionally given gifts by her talented mystery writer nephew, Raymond West. She seems to like her nieces, nephews and more distant relatives, and is also an avid gardener.
A first glance at Miss Marple would reveal a passionate, rather gossipy, particular “spinster”. Yet when readers encounter her in her thirteen novels, she shows a more sensitive side. She definitely has sympathy for the victims of crime and sees murder as the unsavory weed destroying an otherwise beautiful garden of human existence. Like her gardening of hers, she can’t help but follow these “weeds” with great vigor.
Christie wrote Marple stories from 1930 to 1971. The novel Sleeping Murder was written in 1940, but not published until 1976, evoking some confusion among readers as to where it fits chronologically with the rest of Marple’s books. Many Christie fans cite Murder is perhaps the best of her novels, but all books have their merits for mystery lovers.
There have been numerous adaptations of Miss Marple’s novels for both film and television. Actresses such as Angela Lansbury, Helen Hayes and Margaret Rutherford have all attempted to play Marple. It’s generally accepted that the late Joan Hickson captured the best and truest character representation of her. From 1984 to 1992, Hickson played Miss Marple in eleven BBC adaptations of the Marple mysteries, which have remained faithful to the books.
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