Agatha Christie: A Book Discussion Series led by Stuart Barnett

LITCHFIELD, Conn. - Dec. 20, 2016 - PRLog -- According to the Guinness World Book of Records, only Shakespeare and the Bible have outsold Agatha Christie in terms of overall book sales in the English language. UNESCO has identified Agatha Christie as the most-translated author of all time.

In this discussion series, we will explore two of her most celebrated books: And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

January 22: And Then There Were None- Of her many books, And Then There Were None is her most successful.Since its initial publication in 1939, it has gone on to sell over 100,000,000 copies. In the US alone, 100,000 copies a year are sold. What accounts for this staggering success?

It would be natural to expect the most popular Agatha Christie to be, in a way, the most quintessential Agatha Christie. Yet And Then There Were None is actually quite atypical. It features none of her famous serial detectives, in fact, it cannot be said to feature a detective at all.  And Then There Were None is a rich, multi-faceted work that has been re-told in different          adaptations, which, in turn, have enabled varied interpretations. There have been multiple film versions in a variety of languages.

February 26:  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd- Published in 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd established Agatha Christie's reputation. It is still considered to be a landmark in detective fiction. It also inspired the critic Edmund Wilson to publish his essay "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?" in the New Yorker.

Despite Wilson, the novel remains in high regard - in 2013, it was voted the best crime novel ever written by the Crime Writer's Association of Britain. The novel also triggered widespread debate over its fairness, with many critics and readers accusing it of cheating the reader. No less an authority on the topic than Dorothy Sayers felt compelled to come to Christie's defense.

That this charge was considered seriously and that it continued to hang over the book since its publication is indicated by the fact that Christie felt it necessary to refute the charge in her Autobiography - which was written decades after the publication of the novel.

Stuart Barnett is Professor of English at Central Connecticut State University. He has published on German and French philosophy and literature. More recently, he has been lecturing and publishing on Agatha Christie. He has researched at Greenway, Agatha Christie's house, which is now managed by the National Trust and worked with the Agatha Christie Archive, which is managed by her grandson.

Currently, he is writing a book on the cultural impact of And Then There Were None. He is also working with the US Coast Guard Museum to put on exhibit on Agatha Christie and the Coast Guard. (During WWII, her home became the headquarters for a flotilla of the US Coast Guard, which was in England to train for the invasion of D-Day.

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