Abcde BLOG

Wow, I've finished my first challenge.

The Marple-Poirot-Holmes Challenge was hosted by the lovely Kals from At Pemberly.  The stated goal was to read two novels involving Miss Marple, two involving Hercule Poirot, and two involving Sherlock Holmes.  I'm pretty sure that in the fine print, Kals said movies were acceptable, but I've joined this to increase the number of (particularly Agatha Christie) novels I've read, so I didn't count the films.

I did, however, watch several of the new (2000s) Marple films.  By and large I enjoyed them because I adore Geraldine McEwan, I love the 'visual signature' of the films' supersaturated colours, and what's not to love about Agatha Christie?  Still, I was disappointed in the way some of the films were obviously "modernizing" issues but keeping the setting the same.  In The Moving Finger, for example, I didn't think that Colonel Appleton being gay added anything to the plot.  Overall, though, I'd give them a recommend.


(image from agatha-christie.net)
The reading for this challenge was super fun and super quick for me.  Agatha Christie novels are my version of brain candy and this was just the excuse I needed for a binge XD

I was vaguely disappointed in the Sherlock Holmes novels, but I'm very glad I read them.  I just find that Arthur Conan Doyle was definitely at his strongest when exploiting the short story genre.  The novels just feel like a long short story was broken into two parts and another long short story was inserted in the middle.  This assessment, I should hasten to add, only applies to the two novels I read for this particular challenge:  A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four.  Hound of the Baskervilles is much better handled.


(image from tnrdlibrary.wordpress.com)
Incidentally, if you enjoy radio programs, there are a number of sites at which you can download (for free) the old Sherlock Holmes radio shows as they were adapted from the short stories.  The best of these sites, in my opinion, is a site called Stories Now, which has mp3s of most of the radio programs, some starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, others with Carlton Hobbes and Norman Shelley, but all very fun.  The quality is somewhat variable, since the original sources are so old, but I highly recommend these programs.