The Moving Finger
Encyclopedia
The Moving Finger is detective fiction
novel by Agatha Christie
, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
in July 1942
and in UK by the Collins Crime Club
in June 1943. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence
(7/6). It features the elderly detective
Miss Marple
in a minor, deus ex machina
-like role, appearing more than halfway through and in only a handful of scenes.
's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
:
The poem, in turn, refers to Belshazzar's feast as related in the Book of Daniel
, which is the source of the common phrase the writing on the wall
.
Things flare up when Mrs. Symmington, the wife of the local solicitor, commits suicide upon receiving a letter which states that her second child is actually illegitimate. Her body is discovered with the letter, a glass containing potassium cyanide and a torn suicide note which reads "I can't go on".
An inquest is held and the verdict of suicide is brought in. The police begin to search for the anonymous letter writer. The Burtons' maid, Partridge, receives a call from the Symmington's maidservant, Agnes, who seems distraught over something. Partridge asks Agnes over to tea the next afternoon, but Agnes never arrives. Agnes' body is discovered in the under-stairs cupboard the next day by Mr. Symmington's rather shabbily-dressed step-daughter, Megan.
Scotland Yard
sends someone to investigate, and comes to the conclusion that the letter-writer/murderer is a middle-aged woman who must be one of the prominent citizens of Lymstock. Progress is slow until the vicar's wife calls up an expert of her own, Miss Marple
. Jerry Burton gives Miss Marple some vital clues by telling her of the contents of his dreams and his disconnected thoughts.
There is a break in the case when the Symmingtons' beautiful young governess, Elsie Holland, receives an anonymous letter typed on the same typewriter, proven to have been used to create envelopes for all the previous letters. The doctor's sister, Aimée Griffith, is arrested, since she has been seen both typing the letter and delivering it.
On the way to London for a visit to his doctor, Jerry takes Megan along with him to London where he buys her some new clothes to make her look presentable. He also begins to realize that he has fallen in love with her. When they return to Lymstock, Jerry asks Megan to marry him, and she refuses. As a result, Jerry goes to Mr. Symmington to ask for his permission and to inform him of her refusal. Symmington, who is eager to have Megan off his hands, tells Jerry that he will speak with her.
Later that evening, Megan goes to Mr. Symmington’s office and tries to blackmail him. He coolly pays her, but later, when she is asleep, he tries to murder her by putting her head in the gas oven. He is immediately stopped by Jerry and the police. It is revealed that Miss Marple wished to prove Mr. Symmington’s guilt in this way, and that Megan was brave enough to assist her.
Symmington had written all the letters as a cover-up for killing his wife. He had used phrases from a similar incident, done by a school-girl, which fooled the police into thinking that a woman had been the letter-writer. He murdered his wife by the use of cyanide and then planted the letter and a fake suicide note to disguise his crime. He committed the murders because he wished to marry his children's governess. Aimée Griffith, who was in love with Symmington, had written only the letter to Miss Holland, out of jealousy and to try to protect the man she loved from marrying the wrong woman.
Megan, in light of recent events, finally realizes that she does indeed love Jerry. His sister Joanna marries the local doctor, and both couples settle down in Lymstock instead of returning to London. After explaining the case, Miss Marple returns home to St. Mary Mead.
The book's title, The Moving Finger, is emphasized twice. The first is how the accusatory letters point blame from one town member to another, the second is from the addresses on the letters, which the Scotland Yard agent uses to determine the envelopes were all "typed by someone using one finger" in order to avoid a recognizable 'touch.'
of June 19, 1943 was mostly positive, starting, "Beyond all doubt the puzzle in The Moving Finger is fit for experts" and continuing, "The author is generous with her clues. Anyone ought to be able to read her secret with half an eye – if the other one-and-a-half did not get in the way. There has rarely been a detective story so likely to create an epidemic of self indulgent kicks." However, some reservations were expressed: "Having expended so much energy on her riddle, the author cannot altogether be blamed for neglecting the other side of her story. It would grip more if Jerry Burton, who tells it, was more credible. He is an airman who has crashed and walks with the aid of two sticks. That he should make a lightning recovery is all to the good, but why, in between dashing downstairs two at a time and lugging a girl into a railway carriage by main force, should he complain that it hurts to drive a car? And why, since he is as masculine in sex as the sons of King Gama
does he think in this style, "The tea was china and delicious and there were plates of sandwiches and thin bread and butter and a quantity of little cakes"? Nor does it help verisimilitude that a bawling young female gawk should become an elegant beauty in less than a day."
Maurice Richardson in the June 13, 1943 issue of The Observer
set the tone thus: "An atmosphere of perpetual, after-breakfast well-being; sherry parties in a country town where nobody is quite what he seems; difficult slouching daughters with carefully concealed coltish charm; crazy spinsters, of course; and adulterous solicitors. Agatha Christie is at it again, lifting the lid off delphiniums and weaving the scarlet warp all over the pastel pouffe." And he concluded, "Probably you will call Mrs. Christie's double bluff, but this will only increase your pleasure."
An unnamed reviewer in the Toronto Daily Star
of November 7, 1942 said, "The Moving Finger has for a jacket design a picture of a finger pointing out one suspect after another and that's the way it is with the reader as chapter after chapter of the mystery story unfolds. It is not one of [Christie's] stories about her famous French [sic] detective, Hercule Poirot, having instead Miss Marple, a little old lady sleuth who doesn't seem to do much but who sets the stage for the final exposure of the murderer."
Robert Barnard
: "Poison pen in Mayhem Parva, inevitably leading to murder. A good and varied cast list, some humour, and stronger than usual romantic interest of an ugly-duckling-into-swan type. One of the few times Christie gives short measure, and none the worse for that."
Sheldon Cooper
references this book twice in different episodes of the TV series The Big Bang Theory
; in season 2 episode 11 (7:00), and in season 3 episode 16 (16:12).
The novel's first true publication was the US serialisation in Collier's Weekly
in eight instalments from March 28 (Volume 109, Number 13) to May 16, 1942 (Volume 109, Number 20) with illustrations by Mario Cooper.
The UK serialisation was as an abridged version in six parts in Woman's Pictorial from October 17 (Volume 44, Number 1136) to November 21, 1942 (Volume 44, Number 1141) under the slightly shorter title of Moving Finger. All six instalments were illustrated by Alfred Sindall.
This novel is one of two to differ significantly in American editions (the other being Three Act Tragedy
), both hardcover and paperback. The American edition of The Moving Finger has been abridged to remove sections of chapters.
Christie admitted that this book was one of her favourites, stating, "I find that another one [book] I am really pleased with is The Moving Finger. It is a great test to re-read what one has written some seventeen or eighteen years before. One's view changes. Some do not stand the test of time, others do."
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:...
novel 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...
, 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 July 1942
1942 in literature
The year 1942 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*André Gide leaves France to live in Tunis.*Robertson Davies becomes editor of the Peterborough Examiner.*Thomas Mann emigrates to California....
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...
in June 1943. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven 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....
(7/6). It features the elderly 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"...
Miss Marple
Miss 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...
in a minor, deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
-like role, appearing more than halfway through and in only a handful of scenes.
Explanation of the novel's title
The book takes its name from verse 51 of Edward FitzGeraldEdward FitzGerald (poet)
Edward FitzGerald was an English writer, best known as the poet of the first and most famous English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The spelling of his name as both FitzGerald and Fitzgerald is seen...
's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his translation of a selection of poems, originally written in Persian and of which there are about a thousand, attributed to Omar Khayyám , a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer...
:
- The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
- Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
- Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
- Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
The poem, in turn, refers to Belshazzar's feast as related in the Book of Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
, which is the source of the common phrase the writing on the wall
The writing on the wall
"The writing on the wall" , an idiom, is a portent of doom or misfortune. It originates in the Biblical book of Daniel—where supernatural writing foretells the demise of the Babylonian Empire...
.
Plot summary
Jerry and Joanna Burton, brother and sister from London society, take a country house in idyllic Lymstock so that Jerry can rest from injuries received in a wartime plane crash. They are just getting to know the town's strange cast of characters when an anonymous letter arrives, rudely accusing the two of not being brother and sister, but lovers. They quickly discover that these letters have been recently circulating around town, indiscriminate and completely inaccurate.Things flare up when Mrs. Symmington, the wife of the local solicitor, commits suicide upon receiving a letter which states that her second child is actually illegitimate. Her body is discovered with the letter, a glass containing potassium cyanide and a torn suicide note which reads "I can't go on".
An inquest is held and the verdict of suicide is brought in. The police begin to search for the anonymous letter writer. The Burtons' maid, Partridge, receives a call from the Symmington's maidservant, Agnes, who seems distraught over something. Partridge asks Agnes over to tea the next afternoon, but Agnes never arrives. Agnes' body is discovered in the under-stairs cupboard the next day by Mr. Symmington's rather shabbily-dressed step-daughter, Megan.
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
sends someone to investigate, and comes to the conclusion that the letter-writer/murderer is a middle-aged woman who must be one of the prominent citizens of Lymstock. Progress is slow until the vicar's wife calls up an expert of her own, Miss Marple
Miss 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...
. Jerry Burton gives Miss Marple some vital clues by telling her of the contents of his dreams and his disconnected thoughts.
There is a break in the case when the Symmingtons' beautiful young governess, Elsie Holland, receives an anonymous letter typed on the same typewriter, proven to have been used to create envelopes for all the previous letters. The doctor's sister, Aimée Griffith, is arrested, since she has been seen both typing the letter and delivering it.
On the way to London for a visit to his doctor, Jerry takes Megan along with him to London where he buys her some new clothes to make her look presentable. He also begins to realize that he has fallen in love with her. When they return to Lymstock, Jerry asks Megan to marry him, and she refuses. As a result, Jerry goes to Mr. Symmington to ask for his permission and to inform him of her refusal. Symmington, who is eager to have Megan off his hands, tells Jerry that he will speak with her.
Later that evening, Megan goes to Mr. Symmington’s office and tries to blackmail him. He coolly pays her, but later, when she is asleep, he tries to murder her by putting her head in the gas oven. He is immediately stopped by Jerry and the police. It is revealed that Miss Marple wished to prove Mr. Symmington’s guilt in this way, and that Megan was brave enough to assist her.
Symmington had written all the letters as a cover-up for killing his wife. He had used phrases from a similar incident, done by a school-girl, which fooled the police into thinking that a woman had been the letter-writer. He murdered his wife by the use of cyanide and then planted the letter and a fake suicide note to disguise his crime. He committed the murders because he wished to marry his children's governess. Aimée Griffith, who was in love with Symmington, had written only the letter to Miss Holland, out of jealousy and to try to protect the man she loved from marrying the wrong woman.
Megan, in light of recent events, finally realizes that she does indeed love Jerry. His sister Joanna marries the local doctor, and both couples settle down in Lymstock instead of returning to London. After explaining the case, Miss Marple returns home to St. Mary Mead.
The book's title, The Moving Finger, is emphasized twice. The first is how the accusatory letters point blame from one town member to another, the second is from the addresses on the letters, which the Scotland Yard agent uses to determine the envelopes were all "typed by someone using one finger" in order to avoid a recognizable 'touch.'
Literary significance and reception
Maurice Willson Disher in The Times Literary SupplementThe Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
of June 19, 1943 was mostly positive, starting, "Beyond all doubt the puzzle in The Moving Finger is fit for experts" and continuing, "The author is generous with her clues. Anyone ought to be able to read her secret with half an eye – if the other one-and-a-half did not get in the way. There has rarely been a detective story so likely to create an epidemic of self indulgent kicks." However, some reservations were expressed: "Having expended so much energy on her riddle, the author cannot altogether be blamed for neglecting the other side of her story. It would grip more if Jerry Burton, who tells it, was more credible. He is an airman who has crashed and walks with the aid of two sticks. That he should make a lightning recovery is all to the good, but why, in between dashing downstairs two at a time and lugging a girl into a railway carriage by main force, should he complain that it hurts to drive a car? And why, since he is as masculine in sex as the sons of King Gama
Princess Ida
Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. Princess Ida opened at the Savoy Theatre on January 5, 1884, for a run of 246 performances...
does he think in this style, "The tea was china and delicious and there were plates of sandwiches and thin bread and butter and a quantity of little cakes"? Nor does it help verisimilitude that a bawling young female gawk should become an elegant beauty in less than a day."
Maurice Richardson in the June 13, 1943 issue of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
set the tone thus: "An atmosphere of perpetual, after-breakfast well-being; sherry parties in a country town where nobody is quite what he seems; difficult slouching daughters with carefully concealed coltish charm; crazy spinsters, of course; and adulterous solicitors. Agatha Christie is at it again, lifting the lid off delphiniums and weaving the scarlet warp all over the pastel pouffe." And he concluded, "Probably you will call Mrs. Christie's double bluff, but this will only increase your pleasure."
An unnamed reviewer in the Toronto Daily Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
of November 7, 1942 said, "The Moving Finger has for a jacket design a picture of a finger pointing out one suspect after another and that's the way it is with the reader as chapter after chapter of the mystery story unfolds. It is not one of [Christie's] stories about her famous French [sic] detective, Hercule Poirot, having instead Miss Marple, a little old lady sleuth who doesn't seem to do much but who sets the stage for the final exposure of the murderer."
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....
: "Poison pen in Mayhem Parva, inevitably leading to murder. A good and varied cast list, some humour, and stronger than usual romantic interest of an ugly-duckling-into-swan type. One of the few times Christie gives short measure, and none the worse for that."
Sheldon Cooper
Sheldon Cooper
Sheldon Lee Cooper, B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D. is a fictional character from Texas on the CBS television series The Big Bang Theory, portrayed by actor Jim Parsons...
references this book twice in different episodes of the TV series The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom serve as executive producers on the show, along with Steven Molaro. All three also serve as head writers...
; in season 2 episode 11 (7:00), and in season 3 episode 16 (16:12).
Film, TV, Radio or theatrical adaptations
- The Moving Finger was first adapted for television by the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
with Joan HicksonJoan HicksonJoan Hickson OBE was an English actress of theatre, film and television, famed for playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple.- Wivenhoe :...
in the series Miss MarpleMiss Marple (TV series)Miss Marple is a British television series based on the Miss Marple murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie. It starred Joan Hickson in the title role, and aired from 1984 to 1992. All twelve original Miss Marple Christie novels have been dramatised. The screenplays were written by T. R...
. It was transmitted in two parts from February 21 to 22, 1985. - A second adaptation was made with Geraldine McEwanGeraldine McEwanGeraldine McEwan is an English actor with a diverse history in theatre, film, and television. From 2004 to 2009 she appeared as Miss Marple, the Agatha Christie sleuth, for the series Marple.-Background:...
as Marple in the TV series MarpleMarple (TV series)Marple is a British television series based on the Miss Marple and other murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie. It is also known as Agatha Christie's Marple. The title character was played by Geraldine McEwan from the first to third series, until her retirement from the role. She was replaced...
. This episode transmitted on February 12, 2006 in the UK. - A radio adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio4 on 5 May 2001 in the Saturday Play slot, starring June WhitfieldJune WhitfieldJune Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, well known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....
as Miss Marple.
Publication history
- 1942, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), July 1942, Hardcover, 229 pp
- 1943, Collins Crime Club (London), June 1943, Hardcover, 160 pp
- 1948, Avon Books, Paperback, 158 pp (Avon number 164)
- 1948, Pan BooksPan BooksPan Books is an imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
, Paperback, 190 pp (Pan number 55) - 1953, Penguin BooksPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
, Paperback, 189 pp (Penguin number 930) - 1961, 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, 160 pp - 1964, Dell Books, Paperback, 189 pp
- 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 255 pp
- 1968, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 255 pp
- 1970, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 331 pp ISBN 0-85-456670-8
- 2005, Marple Facsimile edition (Facsimile of 1943 UK first edition), September 12, 2005, Hardcover ISBN 0-00-720845-6
The novel's first true publication was the US serialisation in Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
in eight instalments from March 28 (Volume 109, Number 13) to May 16, 1942 (Volume 109, Number 20) with illustrations by Mario Cooper.
The UK serialisation was as an abridged version in six parts in Woman's Pictorial from October 17 (Volume 44, Number 1136) to November 21, 1942 (Volume 44, Number 1141) under the slightly shorter title of Moving Finger. All six instalments were illustrated by Alfred Sindall.
This novel is one of two to differ significantly in American editions (the other being Three Act Tragedy
Three Act Tragedy
Three Act Tragedy is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1934 under the title Murder in Three Acts and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1935 under Christie's original title...
), both hardcover and paperback. The American edition of The Moving Finger has been abridged to remove sections of chapters.
Christie admitted that this book was one of her favourites, stating, "I find that another one [book] I am really pleased with is The Moving Finger. It is a great test to re-read what one has written some seventeen or eighteen years before. One's view changes. Some do not stand the test of time, others do."
External links
- The Moving Finger at the official Agatha Christie website