Agatha Christie’s Greatest Creation and His Fate – Hercule Poirot in the Changing World of Culture
Agatha Christie’s Greatest Creation and His Fate – Hercule Poirot in the Changing World of Culture

Summary/Abstract: Looking back through the history of detective/mystery fiction I would like to find out what it is that has helped to establish the genre and win it the position it holds within literature. One of the pillars of the genre is definitely the character of the ‘Great Detective’, more particularly the exceptional and outstanding one - Hercule Poirot. I tried, therefore, to analyze him as a character through his creator’s attitude to media and their treatment of her Detective, and the degree to which the most recent adaptations had helped to establish what can today be defined as a literary character which long ago became fixed within British pop-culture. The question, quite simple to ask but definitely not that easy to answer is – what was it that made the typical detective of the Golden Age (the period of roughly the 1920s and 1930s i.e. the most prolific years for mystery fiction) become an icon of the modern times literally round the world such a long time after his coming to life? Some information that is dealt with in this text may be generally known but I see it as important to refer to it as it is essential for understanding the process of changing the literary experts’ attitude to and treatment of mystery novel, as well as for understanding the process of Poirot’s becoming a (fictional) brand.

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