For my Short Story Wednesday post this week, I have reviewed a story for the Agatha Christie Short Stories Read Along hosted by Fanda at Fanda Classiclit. Fanda's post for April is here.
"Philomel Cottage"
To be honest, I enjoyed this story of psychological suspense, but when I got to the end I could not figure what had happened.
Alix Martin is the main character. She is in her thirties and for fifteen years supported herself in a clerical job. Then she received an unexpected inheritance which allowed her some independence. Shortly after that, she married a man she met at a friend's house, after a whirlwind romance. When they married they moved into a remote cottage that she paid for with part of her small inheritance.
This all sounds very idyllic but Alix begins to have doubts about her marriage. She has several dreams about her husband dying and she hears of questionable things that her husband has said or done but not shared with her.
Then she hears from an old boyfriend who wants to drop by and visit her and her husband. This confuses her even more because the boyfriend had been in her dreams about her husband.
The ending was abrupt, and I thought that it was ambiguous, although not all reviewers agreed with that. Regardless the story is filled with tension and was very entertaining.
This story first appeared in The Grand Magazine in November 1924. It later appeared in a collection titled The Listerdale Mystery in the UK in 1934 and in The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories in the US in 1948.
Short Story Wednesday is hosted by Patricia Abbott at Pattinase.
14 comments:
So glad to see you mentioning this one, Tracy. It doesn't get as much attention as some of Christie's other stories, but it is a well-written story with some real tension. I agree with you about the ending; it is abrupt. But I think that invites readers to draw their own conclusions about what happened. Overall, it's a good story, in my opinion.
One of my upcoming projects is to reread all the Miss Marple Mysteries covered in AGATHA CHRISTIE'S MARPLE: EXPERT ON WICKEDNESS by Mark Aldridge. Aldridge analyzes all of the Marple novels and short stories. Very comprehensive!
Margot, I need to find a list of all of Christie's stories and figure out which ones I have not read. I have read all of the Miss Marple short stories and the Mr Quin stories, and some of the Hercule Poirot stories and some of those without any specific sleuth. I had never even heard of this short story before.
George, that sounds like a great project. And I want to get that book by Mark Aldridge as soon as I can. I have two of his books: Agatha Christie's Poirot and Agatha Christie on Screen. Which I haven't read yet.
Hmm it does sounds a bit mysterious. Does the boyfriend want to cause harm to her husband? Often abrupt ambiguous endings can be a bit frustrating.
I'm still slowly, but surely making my way through her novels. Someday I'll get to some of her short stories!
Susan, it was mysterious and suspenseful. I couldn't decide what anybody's motivations were for sure. This story gets a lot of attention on the internet, which surprised me.
Kelly, in general I like Christie's novels better than the short stories. I like the Hercule Poirot stories especially because I like Poirot and Captain Hastings so much.
I've read quite a few AC short stories but this one doesn't ring any bells at all so I'll see if I have it in one of my unread collections. It sounds good.
Ambiguous endings are never my favorite thing. I just finished reading Why Didn't They Ask Evans? and didn't love the long letter at the end explaining everything...though the rest of the book was fun.
Cath, all of the Agatha Christie short story collections that I have are scattered all over the house, so I hope to locate them and figure out which ones are neither Poirot or Marple stories. I want to read more of those.
Lark, I don't like ambiguous endings either, but they seem to happen quite often in short stories.
I did not like Why Didn't They Ask Evans? as much as other Christie novels, and I have completely forgotten the ending. (I read it about three years ago.)
Tracy, a list of all of Christie's short stories and where they can be found is at the FictionMags website. The stories are listed both alphabetically and chronologically; they are also listed by series character (Poirot, Marple, Tommy & Tuppence, Harley Quinn, Parker Pine, etc.)
Jerry, thanks for that information. That is a source I have heard of but tend to forget to use. I am looking at the lists right now.
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