After the Funeral
Encyclopedia
After the Funeral is a work of detective fiction
by Agatha Christie
and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
in March 1953
under the title of Funerals are Fatal and in UK by the Collins Crime Club
on May 18 of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $
2.50 and the UK edition at ten shillings and sixpence
(10/6).
A 1963 UK paperback issued by Fontana Books changed the title to Murder at the Gallop to tie in with the film version. It features her Belgian
detective
Hercule Poirot
.
After returning home from her brother's funeral, Cora Lansquenet is murdered in her sleep by repeated blows with a hatchet. The motive for the murder does not appear to be theft, and the estate that she leaves to her relative, Susan Banks, is comparatively meager, since the Abernethie bequest is folded back into the estate of her brother, Richard. The suspected motive is therefore to suppress anything that Richard might have told Cora about his suspicions that he was being poisoned. These had been overheard by her companion, Miss Gilchrist.
Entwhistle calls in Poirot, who employs an old friend, Mr. Goby, to investigate the family. Mr. Goby turns up a number of reasons within the family for members of it to be desperate for the money in Richard Abernethie’s estate. Poirot warns Entwhistle that Miss Gilchrist may herself be a target for the murderer.
Cora has been a keen artist and collector of paintings from local sales. While Susan Banks, a suspect, is visiting to clear up Cora’s things, she sees Cora’s paintings and privately notes that Cora has been copying postcards: one of her paintings, which Miss Gilchrist claims were painted from life, features a pier that was destroyed in the war
; however the painting is dated quite recently. While she is visiting, an art critic called Alexander Guthrie arrives to look through Cora’s recent purchases, but there is nothing of any value there. Immediately afterwards, Miss Gilchrist is nearly killed by arsenic
poison in a slice of wedding cake that has been apparently sent to her through the post. The only reason that she is not killed is that, following a superstition, she has saved the greater part of the slice of cake under her pillow.
Poirot focuses on the Abernethie family, and a number of red herrings come to light. Rosamund Shane, one of the heiresses, is an inflexible and determined woman who seems to have something to hide (which turns out to be her husband’s infidelity and her own pregnancy). Susan’s husband, Gregory, is a dispensing chemist who had apparently been responsible for deliberately administering an overdose to an awkward customer. He even confesses to the murder of Richard Abenerthie near the close of the novel, but is discovered to have a pathological compulsion to be punished for crimes of which he is innocent. Timothy Abernethie, an unpleasant invalid who seems to be feigning illness in order to gain attention, might have been able to commit the murder of Cora, as might his suspiciously strong-armed wife, Maude. Perhaps identifying the murderer may depend on finding a nun whom Miss Gilchrist claims to have noticed ? But what can all this have to do with a bouquet of wax flowers to which Poirot pays attention?
After playing games in mirrors, Helen Abernethie telephones Entwhistle with the news that she has realized something about the murderer. Before she can say what it is she is savagely struck on the head.
Poirot’s explanation in the denouement
is a startling one. Cora had never come to the funeral at all; it was Miss Gilchrist, who disguised herself as Cora in order to plant the idea that Richard’s death had been murder. Therefore when Cora herself was murdered, it would seem that the alleged murderer had struck again. Since no one had seen Cora for many years, and Miss Gilchrist had been able to copy many of her mannerisms, it was unlikely that the ruse would be spotted, except for the fact that she had rehearsed a characteristic turn of the head in a mirror, where the reflection is reversed. When she came to do it at the funeral, she turned her head to the wrong side. Helen had had the feeling that something was wrong when Cora had made her statement, but not realized at the time that it was this incorrectly reproduced gesture. Miss Gilchrist had further given herself away by referring to the wax flowers; these were present on the day of the reading of the will but had been put away by the time Miss Gilchrist (as herself) met the family. She had deliberately poisoned herself with the arsenic-laced wedding cake to avoid suspicion; ironically this only aroused Poirot's misgivings.
The “murder” of Richard needed to be established so that Miss Gilchrist’s own motive for killing Cora would be obfuscated when she killed her. Miss Gilchrist desperately wanted a painting that Cora had bought at a sale and which she had recognized as a Vermeer, but Cora had no idea just how valuable the artwork was. Miss Gilchrist loathed Cora and was plotting to sell the Vermeer in order to escape her dreary life and rebuild her beloved teashop, which she had lost during the war. Miss Gilchrist had subsequently hidden the Vermeer behind her own painting depicting the destroyed pier copied from the postcard in order to disguise the painting amongst others left to her in Cora’s will.
At the end of the novel, Miss Gilchrist is understandably found to be completely insane. She was arrested and later put in a sanitarium.
, in which there is a strong sense of post-war English society reforming along the lines of the status quo ante, After the Funeral is deeply pessimistic about the social impact of war. The village post office no longer handles the local post. Mr. Goby blames the government for the poor standard of investigators that he is able to employ. The family house is sold, and the butler Lanscombe, who had expected to be able to retire to the North Lodge, is forced to leave the estate. A pier from a postcard view has been bombed and the view consequently spoiled. Richard Abernethie finds it impossible to find a single heir worthy of succeeding to his estate and ends up dividing his fortune among family members who seem likely to waste it on gambling and theatre ventures.
Miss Gilchrist describes her idyllic tea shop (in Chapter 4, iii) as a "war casualty." Instead of committing a murder in order to inherit the vast wealth of the Abernethies, she does so for a much smaller sum of money, and one that she can only visualise in terms of recreating her own vision of English life: another tea shop.
Food rationing in England
came to an end in the year of publication, but its effect is still felt in the egg shortages that are mentioned in the novel. Throughout, there is a strong sense of the post-war period, including comments on the increased burden of taxation associated with the government of Clement Attlee
. Taking all of these elements into account, it is not difficult or fanciful to see in these plot details Christie's disquiet with post-war Britain.
Robert Barnard
: "A subject of perennial appeal – unhappy families: lots of scattered siblings, lots of Victorian money (made from corn plasters). Be sure you are investigating the right murder, and watch for mirrors (always interesting in Christie). Contains Christie's last major butler: the 'fifties and 'sixties were not good times for butlers."
, played by Margaret Rutherford
.
with David Suchet
as Poirot in the series Agatha Christie's Poirot
. There were a couple of changes, Cora was married to an Italian husband whose surname is Galachio and is still alive, instead of being married to a French husband whose surname is Lansquenet and has recently died. The painting at the end is a Rembrandt, not a Vermeer and Timothy's ability to walk is only shown at the end, but in the book it is well known from the start that he is not an invalid. George is Helen's son. Susannah does not have a husband, but on the day after the funeral she and George, who are in love with each other, were in Litchet St. Mary and were having a secret affair.
The novel was first serialised in the US in the Chicago Tribune
in forty-seven parts from Tuesday, January 20 to Saturday, March 14, 1953.
In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull
in seven abridged instalments from March 21 (Volume 93, Number 2438) to May 2, 1953 (Volume 93, Number 2444) with illustrations by William Little.
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...
in March 1953
1953 in literature
The year 1953 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* January 22 - The Crucible, a drama by Arthur Miller, opens on Broadway....
under the title of Funerals are Fatal and in UK by the Collins Crime Club
Collins Crime Club
The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...
on May 18 of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $
Dollar sign
The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various peso and dollar units of currency around the world.- Origin :...
2.50 and the UK edition at ten shillings and sixpence
British sixpence coin
The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....
(10/6).
A 1963 UK paperback issued by Fontana Books changed the title to Murder at the Gallop to tie in with the film version. It features her Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
.
Plot summary
After the funeral of the wealthy Richard Abernethie, his remaining family assembles for the reading of the will. The death, though sudden, was not unexpected and natural causes have been given as the cause on his death certificate. Nevertheless, after the tactless Cora says, "It was hushed up very nicely ... but he was murdered, wasn't he?" the family lawyer, Mr. Entwhistle, begins to investigate. Before long there is no question that a murderer is at large.After returning home from her brother's funeral, Cora Lansquenet is murdered in her sleep by repeated blows with a hatchet. The motive for the murder does not appear to be theft, and the estate that she leaves to her relative, Susan Banks, is comparatively meager, since the Abernethie bequest is folded back into the estate of her brother, Richard. The suspected motive is therefore to suppress anything that Richard might have told Cora about his suspicions that he was being poisoned. These had been overheard by her companion, Miss Gilchrist.
Entwhistle calls in Poirot, who employs an old friend, Mr. Goby, to investigate the family. Mr. Goby turns up a number of reasons within the family for members of it to be desperate for the money in Richard Abernethie’s estate. Poirot warns Entwhistle that Miss Gilchrist may herself be a target for the murderer.
Cora has been a keen artist and collector of paintings from local sales. While Susan Banks, a suspect, is visiting to clear up Cora’s things, she sees Cora’s paintings and privately notes that Cora has been copying postcards: one of her paintings, which Miss Gilchrist claims were painted from life, features a pier that was destroyed in the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
; however the painting is dated quite recently. While she is visiting, an art critic called Alexander Guthrie arrives to look through Cora’s recent purchases, but there is nothing of any value there. Immediately afterwards, Miss Gilchrist is nearly killed by arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
poison in a slice of wedding cake that has been apparently sent to her through the post. The only reason that she is not killed is that, following a superstition, she has saved the greater part of the slice of cake under her pillow.
Poirot focuses on the Abernethie family, and a number of red herrings come to light. Rosamund Shane, one of the heiresses, is an inflexible and determined woman who seems to have something to hide (which turns out to be her husband’s infidelity and her own pregnancy). Susan’s husband, Gregory, is a dispensing chemist who had apparently been responsible for deliberately administering an overdose to an awkward customer. He even confesses to the murder of Richard Abenerthie near the close of the novel, but is discovered to have a pathological compulsion to be punished for crimes of which he is innocent. Timothy Abernethie, an unpleasant invalid who seems to be feigning illness in order to gain attention, might have been able to commit the murder of Cora, as might his suspiciously strong-armed wife, Maude. Perhaps identifying the murderer may depend on finding a nun whom Miss Gilchrist claims to have noticed ? But what can all this have to do with a bouquet of wax flowers to which Poirot pays attention?
After playing games in mirrors, Helen Abernethie telephones Entwhistle with the news that she has realized something about the murderer. Before she can say what it is she is savagely struck on the head.
Poirot’s explanation in the denouement
Detective denouement
The detective dénouement is a variant on the literary dénouement common to mystery stories. It was first popularised by the Sherlock Holmes novels, but is present in many stories, such as the works of Agatha Christie or in Ellen Raskin's young adult novel The Westing Game.In detective stories, the...
is a startling one. Cora had never come to the funeral at all; it was Miss Gilchrist, who disguised herself as Cora in order to plant the idea that Richard’s death had been murder. Therefore when Cora herself was murdered, it would seem that the alleged murderer had struck again. Since no one had seen Cora for many years, and Miss Gilchrist had been able to copy many of her mannerisms, it was unlikely that the ruse would be spotted, except for the fact that she had rehearsed a characteristic turn of the head in a mirror, where the reflection is reversed. When she came to do it at the funeral, she turned her head to the wrong side. Helen had had the feeling that something was wrong when Cora had made her statement, but not realized at the time that it was this incorrectly reproduced gesture. Miss Gilchrist had further given herself away by referring to the wax flowers; these were present on the day of the reading of the will but had been put away by the time Miss Gilchrist (as herself) met the family. She had deliberately poisoned herself with the arsenic-laced wedding cake to avoid suspicion; ironically this only aroused Poirot's misgivings.
The “murder” of Richard needed to be established so that Miss Gilchrist’s own motive for killing Cora would be obfuscated when she killed her. Miss Gilchrist desperately wanted a painting that Cora had bought at a sale and which she had recognized as a Vermeer, but Cora had no idea just how valuable the artwork was. Miss Gilchrist loathed Cora and was plotting to sell the Vermeer in order to escape her dreary life and rebuild her beloved teashop, which she had lost during the war. Miss Gilchrist had subsequently hidden the Vermeer behind her own painting depicting the destroyed pier copied from the postcard in order to disguise the painting amongst others left to her in Cora’s will.
At the end of the novel, Miss Gilchrist is understandably found to be completely insane. She was arrested and later put in a sanitarium.
Characters
- Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective
- Mr. Entwhistle, the Abernethie family solicitor
- Inspector Morton, the investigating officer
- Mr. Goby, a private investigator
- Richard Abernethie, an Abernethie heir
- Cora Lansquenet, an amateur painter and Abernethie heiress
- Miss Gilchrist, Cora’s companion
- George Crossfield, an Abernethie heir
- Michael Shane, an aspiring actor
- Rosamund Shane, an actress and Abernethie heiress
- Helen Abernethie, an Abernethie heiress
- Timothy Abernethie, an invalid and Abernethie heir
- Maude Abernethie, Timothy’s wife
- Susan Banks, an Abernethie heiress
- Gregory Banks, a chemist and Susan’s husband
Themes
Unlike Taken at the FloodTaken at the Flood
Taken at the Flood is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1948 under the title of There is a Tide... and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in the November of the same year under Christie's original title...
, in which there is a strong sense of post-war English society reforming along the lines of the status quo ante, After the Funeral is deeply pessimistic about the social impact of war. The village post office no longer handles the local post. Mr. Goby blames the government for the poor standard of investigators that he is able to employ. The family house is sold, and the butler Lanscombe, who had expected to be able to retire to the North Lodge, is forced to leave the estate. A pier from a postcard view has been bombed and the view consequently spoiled. Richard Abernethie finds it impossible to find a single heir worthy of succeeding to his estate and ends up dividing his fortune among family members who seem likely to waste it on gambling and theatre ventures.
Miss Gilchrist describes her idyllic tea shop (in Chapter 4, iii) as a "war casualty." Instead of committing a murder in order to inherit the vast wealth of the Abernethies, she does so for a much smaller sum of money, and one that she can only visualise in terms of recreating her own vision of English life: another tea shop.
Food rationing in England
Rationing in the United Kingdom during and after World War II
Rationing in the United Kingdom refers to rationing introduced by the government of the United Kingdom several times during the 20th century, mostly during and immediately after war....
came to an end in the year of publication, but its effect is still felt in the egg shortages that are mentioned in the novel. Throughout, there is a strong sense of the post-war period, including comments on the increased burden of taxation associated with the government of Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
. Taking all of these elements into account, it is not difficult or fanciful to see in these plot details Christie's disquiet with post-war Britain.
Literary significance and reception
No review of this book appeared in the Times Literary Supplement.Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
: "A subject of perennial appeal – unhappy families: lots of scattered siblings, lots of Victorian money (made from corn plasters). Be sure you are investigating the right murder, and watch for mirrors (always interesting in Christie). Contains Christie's last major butler: the 'fifties and 'sixties were not good times for butlers."
Murder at the Gallop
In 1963, a film adaptation entitled Murder at the Gallop was released by MGM however this version replaced Poirot with the character of Miss MarpleMiss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...
, played by Margaret Rutherford
Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...
.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
On 26 March 2006, an adaptation of the novel was broadcast on ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
with David Suchet
David Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
as Poirot in the series Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
. There were a couple of changes, Cora was married to an Italian husband whose surname is Galachio and is still alive, instead of being married to a French husband whose surname is Lansquenet and has recently died. The painting at the end is a Rembrandt, not a Vermeer and Timothy's ability to walk is only shown at the end, but in the book it is well known from the start that he is not an invalid. George is Helen's son. Susannah does not have a husband, but on the day after the funeral she and George, who are in love with each other, were in Litchet St. Mary and were having a secret affair.
Publication history
- 1953, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), March 1953, Hardback, 243 pp
- 1953, Collins Crime Club (London), May 18, 1953, Hardback, 192 pp
- 1954, Pocket BooksPocket BooksPocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
(New York), Paperback, 224 pp - 1956, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
), Paperback, 191 pp - 1968, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 237 pp
- 1978, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 422 pp ISBN 0-7089-0186-7
The novel was first serialised in the US in the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
in forty-seven parts from Tuesday, January 20 to Saturday, March 14, 1953.
In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull
John Bull (magazine)
John Bull Magazine was a weekly periodical established in the City, London EC4, by Theodore Hook in 1820.-Publication dates:It was a popular periodical that continued in production through 1824 and at least until 1957...
in seven abridged instalments from March 21 (Volume 93, Number 2438) to May 2, 1953 (Volume 93, Number 2444) with illustrations by William Little.
International titles
- Dutch: Na de begrafenis (After the Funeral)
- Finnish: Hautajaisten jälkeen (After the Funeral)
- German: Der Wachsblumenstrauß (The Bouquet of Wax Flowers)
- Hungarian: Temetni veszélyes (Funerals are Dangerous)
- Italian: Dopo le esequie (After the Funeral)
- Spanish: Después del Funeral (After the Funeral)
- Swedish: Begravningar är Farliga (Funerals are Dangerous)
External links
- After the Funeral at the official Agatha Christie website