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Hercule Poirot
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Poirot
First appearance	The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
Last appearance	Curtain (1975)
Created by	Agatha Christie
Portrayed by	Charles Laughton Francis L. Sullivan Austin Trevor Orson Welles Harold Huber Richard Williams John Malkovich José Ferrer Martin Gabel Tony Randall Albert Finney Dudley Jones Peter Ustinov Ian Holm David Suchet John Moffatt Maurice Denham Peter Sallis Konstantin Raikin Alfred Molina Robert Powell Jason Durr Kenneth Branagh Anthony O’Donnell Shirō Itō (Takashi Akafuji) Mansai Nomura (Takeru Suguro) Tom Conti
Voiced by	Kōtarō Satomi
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Private investigator Police officer (former occupation)
Family	Jules-Louis Poirot (father) Godelieve Poirot (mother)
Religion	Catholic
Nationality	Belgian

Hercule Poirot (, ^[1]) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (Black Coffee and Alibi), and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.

Poirot has been portrayed on radio, in film and on television by various actors, including Austin Trevor, John Moffatt, Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina, Orson Welles, David Suchet, Kenneth Branagh, and John Malkovich.

Overview[edit]

Influences[edit]

Poirot’s name was derived from two other fictional detectives of the time: Marie Belloc Lowndes’ Hercule Popeau and Frank Howel Evans’ Monsieur Poiret, a retired French police officer living in London.^[2] Evans’ Jules Poiret «was small and rather heavyset, hardly more than five feet, but moved with his head held high. The most remarkable features of his head were the stiff military moustache. His apparel was neat to perfection, a little quaint and frankly dandified.» He was accompanied by Captain Harry Haven, who had returned to London from a Colombian business venture ended by a civil war. ^[3]

A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle. In An Autobiography, Christie states, «I was still writing in the Sherlock Holmes tradition – eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp».^[4] For his part, Conan Doyle acknowledged basing his detective stories on the model of Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin and his anonymous narrator, and basing his character Sherlock Holmes on Joseph Bell, who in his use of «ratiocination» prefigured Poirot’s reliance on his «little grey cells».

Poirot also bears a striking resemblance to A. E. W. Mason’s fictional detective Inspector Hanaud of the French Sûreté, who first appeared in the 1910 novel At the Villa Rose and predates the first Poirot novel by 10 years.

Christie’s Poirot was clearly the result of her early development of the detective in her first book, written in 1916 and published in 1920. Belgium’s occupation by Germany during World War I provided a plausible explanation of why such a skilled detective would be available to solve mysteries at an English country house.^[5] At the time of Christie’s writing, it was considered patriotic to express sympathy towards the Belgians,^[6] since the invasion of their country had constituted Britain’s casus belli for entering World War I, and British wartime propaganda emphasised the «Rape of Belgium».

Popularity[edit]

Poirot first appeared in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (published in 1920) and exited in Curtain (published in 1975). Following the latter, Poirot was the only fictional character to receive an obituary on the front page of The New York Times.^[7][8]

By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot «insufferable», and by 1960 she felt that he was a «detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep». Despite this, Poirot remained an exceedingly popular character with the general public. Christie later stated that she refused to kill him off, claiming that it was her duty to produce what the public liked.^[9]

Appearance and proclivities[edit]

Captain Arthur Hastings’s first description of Poirot:

He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. Even if everything on his face was covered, the tips of moustache and the pink-tipped nose would be visible.
The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police.^[5]

Agatha Christie’s initial description of Poirot in The Murder on the Orient Express:

By the step leading up into the sleeping-car stood a young French lieutenant, resplendent in uniform, conversing with a small man [Hercule Poirot] muffled up to the ears of whom nothing was visible but a pink-tipped nose and the two points of an upward-curled moustache. ^[10]

In the later books, his limp is not mentioned, suggesting it may have been a temporary wartime injury. (In Curtain, Poirot admits he was wounded when he first came to England.) Poirot has green eyes that are repeatedly described as shining «like a cat’s» when he is struck by a clever idea,^[11] and dark hair, which he dyes later in life. In Curtain, he admits to Hastings that he wears a wig and a false moustache.^[12] However, in many of his screen incarnations, he is bald or balding.

Frequent mention is made of his patent leather shoes, damage to which is frequently a source of misery for him, but comical for the reader.^[13] Poirot’s appearance, regarded as fastidious during his early career, later falls hopelessly out of fashion.^[14]

Among Poirot’s most significant personal attributes is the sensitivity of his stomach:

The plane dropped slightly. «Mon estomac,» thought Hercule Poirot, and closed his eyes determinedly.^[15]

He suffers from sea sickness,^[16] and, in Death in the Clouds, he states that his air sickness prevents him from being more alert at the time of the murder. Later in his life, we are told:

Always a man who had taken his stomach seriously, he was reaping his reward in old age. Eating was not only a physical pleasure, it was also an intellectual research.^[15]

Poirot is extremely punctual and carries a pocket watch almost to the end of his career.^[17] He is also particular about his personal finances, preferring to keep a bank balance of 444 pounds, 4 shillings, and 4 pence.^[18] Actor David Suchet, who portrayed Poirot on television, said «there’s no question he’s obsessive-compulsive».^[19] Film portrayer Kenneth Branagh said that he «enjoyed finding the sort of obsessive-compulsive» in Poirot.^[20]

As mentioned in Curtain and The Clocks, he is fond of classical music, particularly Mozart and Bach.

Methods[edit]

In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot operates as a fairly conventional, clue-based and logical detective; reflected in his vocabulary by two common phrases: his use of «the little grey cells» and «order and method». Hastings is irritated by the fact that Poirot sometimes conceals important details of his plans, as in The Big Four.^[21] In this novel, Hastings is kept in the dark throughout the climax. This aspect of Poirot is less evident in the later novels, partly because there is rarely a narrator to mislead.

In Murder on the Links, still largely dependent on clues himself, Poirot mocks a rival «bloodhound» detective who focuses on the traditional trail of clues established in detective fiction (e.g., Sherlock Holmes depending on footprints, fingerprints, and cigar ash). From this point on, Poirot establishes his psychological bona fides. Rather than painstakingly examining crime scenes, he enquires into the nature of the victim or the psychology of the murderer. He predicates his actions in the later novels on his underlying assumption that particular crimes are committed by particular types of people.

Poirot focuses on getting people to talk. In the early novels, he casts himself in the role of «Papa Poirot», a benign confessor, especially to young women. In later works, Christie made a point of having Poirot supply false or misleading information about himself or his background to assist him in obtaining information.^[22] In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot speaks of a non-existent mentally disabled nephew^[23] to uncover information about homes for the mentally unfit. In Dumb Witness, Poirot invents an elderly invalid mother as a pretence to investigate local nurses. In The Big Four, Poirot pretends to have (and poses as) an identical twin brother named Achille: however, this brother was mentioned again in The Labours of Hercules.^[21]

«If I remember rightly – though my memory isn’t what it was – you also had a brother called Achille, did you not?” Poirot’s mind raced back over the details of Achille Poirot’s career. Had all that really happened? «Only for a short space of time,» he replied.^[24]

Poirot is also willing to appear more foreign or vain in an effort to make people underestimate him. He admits as much:

It is true that I can speak the exact, the idiomatic English. But, my friend, to speak the broken English is an enormous asset. It leads people to despise you. They say – a foreigner – he can’t even speak English properly. … Also I boast! An Englishman he says often, «A fellow who thinks as much of himself as that cannot be worth much.» … And so, you see, I put people off their guard.^[25]

He also has a tendency to refer to himself in the third person.^[26][27]

In later novels, Christie often uses the word mountebank when characters describe Poirot, showing that he has successfully passed himself off as a charlatan or fraud.

Poirot’s investigating techniques assist him solving cases; «For in the long run, either through a lie, or through truth, people were bound to give themselves away…»^[28] At the end, Poirot usually reveals his description of the sequence of events and his deductions to a room of suspects, often leading to the culprit’s apprehension.

Life[edit]

Origins[edit]

Christie was purposely vague about Poirot’s origins, as he is thought to be an elderly man even in the early novels. In An Autobiography, she admitted that she already imagined him to be an old man in 1920. At the time, however, she did not know that she would write works featuring him for decades to come.

A brief passage in The Big Four provides original information about Poirot’s birth or at least childhood in or near the town of Spa, Belgium: «But we did not go into Spa itself. We left the main road and wound into the leafy fastnesses of the hills, till we reached a little hamlet and an isolated white villa high on the hillside.»^[29] Christie strongly implies that this «quiet retreat in the Ardennes»^[30] near Spa is the location of the Poirot family home.

An alternative tradition holds that Poirot was born in the village of Ellezelles (province of Hainaut, Belgium).^[31] A few memorials dedicated to Hercule Poirot can be seen in the centre of this village. There appears to be no reference to this in Christie’s writings, but the town of Ellezelles cherishes a copy of Poirot’s birth certificate in a local memorial ‘attesting’ Poirot’s birth, naming his father and mother as Jules-Louis Poirot and Godelieve Poirot.

Christie wrote that Poirot is a Catholic by birth,^[32] but not much is described about his later religious convictions, except sporadic references to his «going to church».^[33] Christie provides little information regarding Poirot’s childhood, only mentioning in Three Act Tragedy that he comes from a large family with little wealth, and has at least one younger sister. Apart from French and English, Poirot is also fluent in German.^[34]

Policeman[edit]

Gustave … was not a policeman. I have dealt with policemen all my life and I know. He could pass as a detective to an outsider but not to a man who was a policeman himself.

— Hercule Poirot Christie 1947c

Hercule Poirot was active in the Brussels police force by 1893.^[35] Very little mention is made about this part of his life, but in «The Nemean Lion» (1939) Poirot refers to a Belgian case of his in which «a wealthy soap manufacturer … poisoned his wife in order to be free to marry his secretary». As Poirot was often misleading about his past to gain information, the truthfulness of that statement is unknown; it does, however, scare off a would-be wife-killer.

In the short story «The Chocolate Box» (1923), Poirot reveals to Captain Arthur Hastings an account of what he considers to be his only failure. Poirot admits that he has failed to solve a crime «innumerable» times:

I have been called in too late. Very often another, working towards the same goal, has arrived there first. Twice I have been struck down with illness just as I was on the point of success.

Nevertheless, he regards the 1893 case in «The Chocolate Box»,^[36] as his only failure through his fault only. Again, Poirot is not reliable as a narrator of his personal history and there is no evidence that Christie sketched it out in any depth. During his police career, Poirot shot a man who was firing from a roof into the public below.^[37] In Lord Edgware Dies, Poirot reveals that he learned to read writing upside down during his police career. Around that time he met Xavier Bouc, director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

Inspector Japp offers some insight into Poirot’s career with the Belgian police when introducing him to a colleague:

You’ve heard me speak of Mr Poirot? It was in 1904 he and I worked together – the Abercrombie forgery case – you remember he was run down in Brussels. Ah, those were the days Moosier. Then, do you remember «Baron» Altara? There was a pretty rogue for you! He eluded the clutches of half the police in Europe. But we nailed him in Antwerp – thanks to Mr. Poirot here.^[38]

In The Double Clue, Poirot mentions that he was Chief of Police of Brussels, until «the Great War» (World War I) forced him to leave for England.

Private detective[edit]

I had called in at my friend Poirot’s rooms to find him sadly overworked. So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed to secure the services of the great Hercule Poirot. ^[39]

During World War I, Poirot left Belgium for England as a refugee, although he returned a few times. On 16 July 1916 he again met his lifelong friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, and solved the first of his cases to be published, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It is clear that Hastings and Poirot are already friends when they meet in Chapter 2 of the novel, as Hastings tells Cynthia that he has not seen him for «some years» (Agatha Christie’s Poirot has Hastings reveal that they met on a shooting case where Hastings was a suspect). Particulars such as the date of 1916 for the case and that Hastings had met Poirot in Belgium, are given in Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, Chapter 1. After that case, Poirot apparently came to the attention of the British secret service and undertook cases for the British government, including foiling the attempted abduction of the Prime Minister.^[40] Readers were told that the British authorities had learned of Poirot’s keen investigative ability from certain members of Belgium’s royal family.

After the war, Poirot became a private detective and began undertaking civilian cases. He moved into what became both his home and work address, Flat 203 at 56B Whitehaven Mansions. Hastings first visits the flat when he returns to England in June 1935 from Argentina in The A.B.C. Murders, Chapter 1. The TV programmes place this in Florin Court, Charterhouse Square, in the wrong part of London. According to Hastings, it was chosen by Poirot «entirely on account of its strict geometrical appearance and proportion» and described as the «newest type of service flat». (The Florin Court building was actually built in 1936, decades after Poirot fictionally moved in.) His first case in this period was «The Affair at the Victory Ball», which allowed Poirot to enter high society and begin his career as a private detective.

Between the world wars, Poirot travelled all over Europe and the Middle East investigating crimes and solving murders. Most of his cases occurred during this time and he was at the height of his powers at this point in his life. In The Murder on the Links, the Belgian pits his grey cells against a French murderer. In the Middle East, he solved the cases Death on the Nile and Murder in Mesopotamia with ease and even survived An Appointment with Death. As he passed through Eastern Europe on his return trip, he solved The Murder on the Orient Express. However, he did not travel to Africa or Asia, probably to avoid seasickness.

It is this villainous sea that troubles me! The mal de mer – it is horrible suffering!^[41]

It was during this time he met the Countess Vera Rossakoff, a glamorous jewel thief. The history of the countess is, like Poirot’s, steeped in mystery. She claims to have been a member of the Russian aristocracy before the Russian Revolution and suffered greatly as a result, but how much of that story is true is an open question. Even Poirot acknowledges that Rossakoff offered wildly varying accounts of her early life. Poirot later became smitten with the woman and allowed her to escape justice.^[42]

It is the misfortune of small, precise men always to hanker after large and flamboyant women. Poirot had never been able to rid himself of the fatal fascination that the countess held for him.^[43]

Although letting the countess escape was morally questionable, it was not uncommon. In The Nemean Lion, Poirot sided with the criminal, Miss Amy Carnaby, allowing her to evade prosecution by blackmailing his client Sir Joseph Hoggins, who, Poirot discovered, had plans to commit murder. Poirot even sent Miss Carnaby two hundred pounds as a final payoff prior to the conclusion of her dog kidnapping campaign. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot allowed the murderer to escape justice through suicide and then withheld the truth to spare the feelings of the murderer’s relatives. In The Augean Stables, he helped the government to cover up vast corruption. In Murder on the Orient Express, Poirot allowed the murderers to go free after discovering that twelve different people participated in the murder, each one stabbing the victim in a darkened carriage after drugging him into unconsciousness so that there was no way for anyone to definitively determine which of them actually delivered the killing blow. The victim had committed a disgusting crime which led to the deaths of at least five people, and there was no question of his guilt, but he had been acquitted in America in a miscarriage of justice. Considering it poetic justice that twelve jurors had acquitted him and twelve people had stabbed him, Poirot produced an alternative sequence of events to explain the death involving an unknown additional passenger on the train, with the medical examiner agreeing to doctor his own report to support this theory.

After his cases in the Middle East, Poirot returned to Britain. Apart from some of the so-called Labours of Hercules (see next section) he very rarely went abroad during his later career. He moved into Styles Court towards the end of his life.

While Poirot was usually paid handsomely by clients, he was also known to take on cases that piqued his curiosity, although they did not pay well.

Poirot shows a love of steam trains, which Christie contrasts with Hastings’ love of autos: this is shown in The Plymouth Express, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Murder on the Orient Express, and The ABC Murders (in the TV series, steam trains are seen in nearly all of the episodes).

Retirement[edit]

That’s the way of it. Just a case or two, just one case more – the Prima Donna’s farewell performance won’t be in it with yours, Poirot.^[44]

Confusion surrounds Poirot’s retirement. Most of the cases covered by Poirot’s private detective agency take place before his retirement to attempt to grow larger marrows, at which time he solves The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It has been said that the twelve cases related in The Labours of Hercules (1947) must refer to a different retirement, but the fact that Poirot specifically says that he intends to grow marrows indicates that these stories also take place before Roger Ackroyd, and presumably Poirot closed his agency once he had completed them. There is specific mention in «The Capture of Cerberus» of the twenty-year gap between Poirot’s previous meeting with Countess Rossakoff and this one. If the Labours precede the events in Roger Ackroyd, then the Ackroyd case must have taken place around twenty years later than it was published, and so must any of the cases that refer to it. One alternative would be that having failed to grow marrows once, Poirot is determined to have another go, but this is specifically denied by Poirot himself.^[45] Also, in «The Erymanthian Boar», a character is said to have been turned out of Austria by the Nazis, implying that the events of The Labours of Hercules took place after 1937. Another alternative would be to suggest that the Preface to the Labours takes place at one date but that the labours are completed over a matter of twenty years. None of the explanations is especially attractive.

In terms of a rudimentary chronology, Poirot speaks of retiring to grow marrows in Chapter 18 of The Big Four^[46] (1927) which places that novel out of published order before Roger Ackroyd. He declines to solve a case for the Home Secretary because he is retired in Chapter One of Peril at End House (1932). He has certainly retired at the time of Three Act Tragedy (1935) but he does not enjoy his retirement and repeatedly takes cases thereafter when his curiosity is engaged. He continues to employ his secretary, Miss Lemon, at the time of the cases retold in Hickory Dickory Dock and Dead Man’s Folly, which take place in the mid-1950s. It is, therefore, better to assume that Christie provided no authoritative chronology for Poirot’s retirement but assumed that he could either be an active detective, a consulting detective, or a retired detective as the needs of the immediate case required.

One consistent element about Poirot’s retirement is that his fame declines during it so that in the later novels he is often disappointed when characters (especially younger characters) recognise neither him nor his name:

«I should, perhaps, Madame, tell you a little more about myself. I am Hercule Poirot.»

The revelation left Mrs Summerhayes unmoved.

«What a lovely name,» she said kindly. «Greek, isn’t it?»^[47]

Post–World War II[edit]

He, I knew, was not likely to be far from his headquarters. The time when cases had drawn him from one end of England to the other was past.

Poirot is less active during the cases that take place at the end of his career. Beginning with Three Act Tragedy (1934), Christie had perfected during the inter-war years a subgenre of Poirot novel in which the detective himself spent much of the first third of the novel on the periphery of events. In novels such as Taken at the Flood, After the Funeral, and Hickory Dickory Dock, he is even less in evidence, frequently passing the duties of main interviewing detective to a subsidiary character. In Cat Among the Pigeons, Poirot’s entrance is so late as to be almost an afterthought. Whether this was a reflection of his age or of Christie’s distaste for him, is impossible to assess. Crooked House (1949) and Ordeal by Innocence (1957), which could easily have been Poirot novels, represent a logical endpoint of the general diminution of his presence in such works.

Towards the end of his career, it becomes clear that Poirot’s retirement is no longer a convenient fiction. He assumes a genuinely inactive lifestyle during which he concerns himself with studying famous unsolved cases of the past and reading detective novels. He even writes a book about mystery fiction in which he deals sternly with Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins.^{[49][page needed]} In the absence of a more appropriate puzzle, he solves such inconsequential domestic riddles as the presence of three pieces of orange peel in his umbrella stand.^{[50][page needed]}

Poirot (and, it is reasonable to suppose, his creator)^[a] becomes increasingly bemused by the vulgarism of the up-and-coming generation’s young people. In Hickory Dickory Dock, he investigates the strange goings-on in a student hostel, while in Third Girl (1966) he is forced into contact with the smart set of Chelsea youths. In the growing drug and pop culture of the sixties, he proves himself once again but has become heavily reliant on other investigators (especially the private investigator, Mr. Goby) who provide him with the clues that he can no longer gather for himself.

You’re too old. Nobody told me you were so old. I really don’t want to be rude but – there it is. You’re too old. I’m really very sorry.

— Norma Restarick to Poirot in Third Girl, Chapter 1^{[49][page needed]}

Notably, during this time his physical characteristics also change dramatically, and by the time Arthur Hastings meets Poirot again in Curtain, he looks very different from his previous appearances, having become thin with age and with obviously dyed hair.

Death[edit]

On the ITV television series, Poirot died in October 1949^[53] from complications of a heart condition at the end of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case. This took place at Styles Court, the scene of his first English case in 1916. In Christie’s novels, he lived into the early 1970s, perhaps even until 1975 when Curtain was published. In both the novel and the television adaptation, he had moved his amyl nitrite pills out of his own reach, possibly because of guilt. He thereby became the murderer in Curtain, although it was for the benefit of others. Poirot himself noted that he wanted to kill his victim shortly before his own death so that he could avoid succumbing to the arrogance of the murderer, concerned that he might come to view himself as entitled to kill those whom he deemed necessary to eliminate.

The «murderer» that he was hunting had never actually killed anyone, but he had manipulated others to kill for him, subtly and psychologically manipulating the moments where others desire to commit murder so that they carry out the crime when they might otherwise dismiss their thoughts as nothing more than a momentary passion. Poirot thus was forced to kill the man himself, as otherwise he would have continued his actions and never been officially convicted, as he did not legally do anything wrong. It is revealed at the end of Curtain that he fakes his need for a wheelchair to fool people into believing that he is suffering from arthritis, to give the impression that he is more infirm than he is. His last recorded words are «Cher ami!«, spoken to Hastings as the Captain left his room. (The TV adaptation adds that as Poirot is dying alone, he whispers out his final prayer to God in these words: «Forgive me… forgive…») Poirot was buried at Styles, and his funeral was arranged by his best friend Hastings and Hastings’ daughter Judith. Hastings reasoned, «Here was the spot where he had lived when he first came to this country. He was to lie here at the last.»

Poirot’s actual death and funeral occurred in Curtain, years after his retirement from the active investigation, but it was not the first time that Hastings attended the funeral of his best friend. In The Big Four (1927), Poirot feigned his death and subsequent funeral to launch a surprise attack on the Big Four.

Recurring characters[edit]

Captain Arthur Hastings[edit]

Hastings, a former British Army officer, meets Poirot during Poirot’s years as a police officer in Belgium and almost immediately after they both arrive in England. He becomes Poirot’s lifelong friend and appears in many cases. Poirot regards Hastings as a poor private detective, not particularly intelligent, yet helpful in his way of being fooled by the criminal or seeing things the way the average man would see them and for his tendency to unknowingly «stumble» onto the truth.^[54] Hastings marries and has four children – two sons and two daughters. As a loyal, albeit somewhat naïve companion, Hastings is to Poirot what Watson is to Sherlock Holmes.

Hastings is capable of great bravery and courage, facing death unflinchingly when confronted by The Big Four and displaying unwavering loyalty towards Poirot. However, when forced to choose between Poirot and his wife in that novel, he initially chooses to betray Poirot to protect his wife. Later, though, he tells Poirot to draw back and escape the trap.

The two are an airtight team until Hastings meets and marries Dulcie Duveen, a beautiful music hall performer half his age, after investigating the Murder on the Links. They later emigrated to Argentina, leaving Poirot behind as a «very unhappy old man». However, Poirot and Hastings reunite during the novels The Big Four, Peril at End House, The ABC Murders, Lord Edgware Dies, and Dumb Witness, when Hastings arrives in England for business, with Poirot noting in ABC Murders that he enjoys having Hastings over because he feels that he always has his most interesting cases with Hastings. The two collaborate for the final time in Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case when the seemingly-crippled Poirot asks Hastings to assist him in his final case. When the killer they are tracking nearly manipulates Hastings into committing murder, Poirot describes this in his final farewell letter to Hastings as the catalyst that prompted him to eliminate the man himself, as Poirot knew that his friend was not a murderer and refused to let a man capable of manipulating Hastings in such a manner go on.

Mrs Ariadne Oliver[edit]

Detective novelist Ariadne Oliver is Agatha Christie’s humorous self-caricature. Like Christie, she is not overly fond of the detective whom she is most famous for creating–in Ariadne’s case, Finnish sleuth Sven Hjerson. We never learn anything about her husband, but we do know that she hates alcohol and public appearances and has a great fondness for apples until she is put off them by the events of Hallowe’en Party. She also has a habit of constantly changing her hairstyle, and in every appearance by her much is made of her clothes and hats. Her maid Maria prevents the public adoration from becoming too much of a burden on her employer but does nothing to prevent her from becoming too much of a burden on others.

She has authored more than 56 novels and greatly dislikes people modifying her characters. She is the only one in Poirot’s universe to have noted that «It’s not natural for five or six people to be on the spot when B is murdered and all have a motive for killing B.» She first met Poirot in the story Cards on the Table and has bothered him ever since.

Miss Felicity Lemon[edit]

Poirot’s secretary, Miss Felicity Lemon, has few human weaknesses. The only mistakes she makes within the series are a typing error during the events of Hickory Dickory Dock and the mis-mailing of an electricity bill, although she was worried about strange events surrounding her sister who worked at a student hostel at the time. Poirot described her as being «Unbelievably ugly and incredibly efficient. Anything that she mentioned as worth consideration usually was worth consideration.» She is an expert on nearly everything and plans to create the perfect filing system. She also worked for the government statistician-turned-philanthropist Parker Pyne. Whether this was during one of Poirot’s numerous retirements or before she entered his employment is unknown.^{[citation needed]} In The Agatha Christie Hour, she was portrayed by Angela Easterling, while in Agatha Christie’s Poirot she was portrayed by Pauline Moran. On a number of occasions, she joins Poirot in his inquiries or seeks out answers alone at his request.

Chief Inspector James Harold Japp[edit]

Japp is a Scotland Yard Inspector and appears in many of the stories trying to solve cases that Poirot is working on. Japp is outgoing, loud, and sometimes inconsiderate by nature, and his relationship with the refined Belgian is one of the stranger aspects of Poirot’s world. He first met Poirot in Belgium in 1904, during the Abercrombie Forgery. Later that year they joined forces again to hunt down a criminal known as Baron Altara. They also meet in England where Poirot often helps Japp and lets him take credit in return for special favours. These favours usually entail Poirot being supplied with other interesting cases.^[55] In Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Japp was portrayed by Philip Jackson. In the film, Thirteen at Dinner (1985), adapted from Lord Edgware Dies, the role of Japp was taken by the actor David Suchet, who would later star as Poirot in the ITV adaptations.

Major novels[edit]

The Poirot books take readers through the whole of his life in England, from the first book (The Mysterious Affair at Styles), where he is a refugee staying at Styles, to the last Poirot book (Curtain), where he visits Styles before his death. In between, Poirot solves cases outside England as well, including his most famous case, Murder on the Orient Express (1934).

Hercule Poirot became famous in 1926 with the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, whose surprising solution proved controversial. The novel is still among the most famous of all detective novels: Edmund Wilson alludes to it in the title of his well-known attack on detective fiction, «Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?» Aside from Roger Ackroyd, the most critically acclaimed Poirot novels appeared from 1932 to 1942, including Murder on the Orient Express (1934); The ABC Murders (1935); Cards on the Table (1936); and Death on the Nile (1937), a tale of multiple murders upon a Nile steamer. Death on the Nile was judged by the famed detective novelist John Dickson Carr to be among the ten greatest mystery novels of all time.^[56]

The 1942 novel Five Little Pigs (a.k.a. Murder in Retrospect), in which Poirot investigates a murder committed sixteen years before by analysing various accounts of the tragedy, has been called «the best Christie of all»^[57] by critic and mystery novelist Robert Barnard.

In 2014, the Poirot canon was added to by Sophie Hannah, the first author to be commissioned by the Christie estate to write an original story. The novel was called The Monogram Murders, and was set in the late 1920s, placing it chronologically between The Mystery of the Blue Train and Peril at End House. A second Hannah-penned Poirot came out in 2016, called Closed Casket, and a third, The Mystery of Three Quarters, in 2018.^[58]

Portrayals[edit]

Stage[edit]

The first actor to portray Poirot was Charles Laughton. He appeared on the West End in 1928 in the play Alibi which had been adapted by Michael Morton from the novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
In 1932, the play was performed as The Fatal Alibi on Broadway. Another Poirot play, Black Coffee opened in London at the Embassy Theatre on 8 December 1930 and starred Francis L. Sullivan as Poirot. Another production of Black Coffee ran in Dublin, Ireland from 23 to 28 June 1931, starring Robert Powell. American playwright Ken Ludwig adapted Murder on the Orient Express into a play, which premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey on 14 March 2017. It starred Allan Corduner in the role of Hercule Poirot.

Film[edit]

Austin Trevor[edit]

Austin Trevor debuted the role of Poirot on screen in the 1931 British film Alibi. The film was based on the stage play. Trevor reprised the role of Poirot twice, in Black Coffee and Lord Edgware Dies. Trevor said once that he was probably cast as Poirot simply because he could do a French accent.^[59] Notably, Trevor’s Poirot did not have a moustache. Leslie S. Hiscott directed the first two films, and Henry Edwards took over for the third.

Tony Randall[edit]

Tony Randall portrayed Poirot in The Alphabet Murders, a 1965 film also known as The ABC Murders. This was more a satire of Poirot than a straightforward adaptation and was greatly changed from the original. Much of the story, set in modern times, was played for comedy, with Poirot investigating the murders while evading the attempts by Hastings (Robert Morley) and the police to get him out of England and back to Belgium.

Albert Finney[edit]

Albert Finney played Poirot in 1974 in the cinematic version of Murder on the Orient Express. As of now, Finney is the only actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for playing Poirot, though he did not win.

Peter Ustinov[edit]

Peter Ustinov played Poirot six times, starting with Death on the Nile (1978). He reprised the role in Evil Under the Sun (1982) and Appointment with Death (1988).

Christie’s daughter Rosalind Hicks observed Ustinov during a rehearsal and said, «That’s not Poirot! He isn’t at all like that!» Ustinov overheard and remarked «He is now!«^[60]

He appeared again as Poirot in three television films: Thirteen at Dinner (1985), Dead Man’s Folly (1986), and Murder in Three Acts (1986). Earlier adaptations were set during the time in which the novels were written, but these television films were set in the contemporary era. The first of these was based on Lord Edgware Dies and was made by Warner Bros. It also starred Faye Dunaway, with David Suchet as Inspector Japp, just before Suchet began to play Poirot. David Suchet considers his performance as Japp to be «possibly the worst performance of [his] career».^[61]

Kenneth Branagh[edit]

Kenneth Branagh played Poirot in film adaptations of Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and Death on the Nile in 2022, both of which he also directed. He is currently set to return for a third film.

Other[edit]

• Anatoly Ravikovich, Zagadka Endkhauza (End House Mystery) (1989; based on «Peril at End House»)

Television[edit]

David Suchet[edit]

David Suchet starred as Poirot in the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot from 1989 until June 2013, when he announced that he was bidding farewell to the role. «No one could’ve guessed then that the series would span a quarter-century or that the classically trained Suchet would complete the entire catalogue of whodunits featuring the eccentric Belgian investigator, including 33 novels and dozens of short stories.»^[62] His final appearance in the show was in an adaptation of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, aired on 13 November 2013.

The writers of the «Binge!» article of Entertainment Weekly Issue #1343–44 (26 December 2014 – 3 January 2015) picked Suchet as «Best Poirot» in the «Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple» timeline.^[63]

The episodes were shot in various locations in the UK and abroad (for example Triangle at Rhodes and Problem at Sea^[64]), whilst other scenes were shot at Twickenham Studios.^[65]

Other[edit]

• Heini Göbel, (1955; an adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express for the West German television series Die Galerie der großen Detektive)
• José Ferrer, Hercule Poirot (1961; Unaired TV Pilot, MGM; adaptation of «The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim»)
• Martin Gabel, General Electric Theater (4/1/1962; adaptation of «The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim»)
• Horst Bollmann, Black Coffee 1973
• Ian Holm, Murder by the Book, 1986
• Arnolds Liniņš, Slepkavība Stailzā (The Mysterious Affair at Styles), 1990
• Hugh Laurie, Spice World, 1997
• Alfred Molina, Murder on the Orient Express, 2001
• Konstantin Raikin, Neudacha Puaro (Poirot’s Failure) (2002; based on «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd»)
• Anthony O’Donnell, Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures, 2004
• Shirō Itō (Takashi Akafuji), Meitantei Akafuji Takashi (The Detective Takashi Akafuji), 2005
• Mansai Nomura (Takeru Suguro), Orient Kyūkō Satsujin Jiken (Murder on the Orient Express), 2015; Kuroido Goroshi (The Murder of Kuroido), 2018 (based on «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd»); Shi to no Yakusoku, 2021 (based on Appointment with Death)
• John Malkovich was Poirot in the 2018 BBC adaptation of The ABC Murders.^[66]

Anime[edit]

In 2004, NHK (Japanese public TV network) produced a 39 episode anime series titled Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple, as well as a manga series under the same title released in 2005. The series, adapting several of the best-known Poirot and Marple stories, ran from 4 July 2004 through 15 May 2005, and in repeated reruns on NHK and other networks in Japan. Poirot was voiced by Kōtarō Satomi and Miss Marple was voiced by Kaoru Yachigusa.

Radio[edit]

From 1985 to 2007, BBC Radio 4 produced a series of twenty-seven adaptations of Poirot novels and short stories, adapted by Michael Bakewell and directed by Enyd Williams.^[67] Twenty five starred John Moffatt as Poirot; Maurice Denham and Peter Sallis played Poirot on BBC Radio 4 in the first two adaptations, The Mystery of the Blue Train and in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas respectively.

In 1939, Orson Welles and the Mercury Players dramatised Roger Ackroyd on CBS’s Campbell Playhouse.^[68][69]

On 6 October 1942, the Mutual radio series Murder Clinic broadcast «The Tragedy at Marsden Manor» starring Maurice Tarplin as Poirot.^[70]

A 1945 radio series of at least 13 original half-hour episodes (none of which apparently adapt any Christie stories) transferred Poirot from London to New York and starred character actor Harold Huber,^[71] perhaps better known for his appearances as a police officer in various Charlie Chan films. On 22 February 1945, «speaking from London, Agatha Christie introduced the initial broadcast of the Poirot series via shortwave».^[68]

An adaptation of Murder in the Mews was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in March 1955 starring Richard Williams as Poirot; this program was thought lost, but was discovered in the BBC archives in 2015.^[72]

Other audio[edit]

In 2017, Audible released an original audio adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express starring Tom Conti as Poirot.^[73] The cast included Jane Asher as Mrs. Hubbard, Jay Benedict as Monsieur Bouc, Ruta Gedmintas as Countess Andrenyi, Sophie Okonedo as Mary Debenham, Eddie Marsan as Ratchett, Walles Hamonde as Hector MacQueen, Paterson Joseph as Colonel Arbuthnot, Rula Lenska as Princess Dragimiroff and Art Malik as the Narrator. According to the Publisher’s Summary on Audible.com, «sound effects [were] recorded on the Orient Express itself.»

In 2021, L.A. Theatre Works produced an adaptation of The Murder on the Links, dramatised by Kate McAll. Alfred Molina starred as Poirot, with Simon Helberg as Hastings.^[74]

Video games[edit]

The video game Agatha Christie — Hercule Poirot: The First Cases has Poirot voice acted by Will De Renzy-Martin.^{[citation needed]}

Parodies and references[edit]

Parodies of Hercule Poirot have appeared in a number of movies, including Revenge of the Pink Panther, where Poirot makes a cameo appearance in a mental asylum, portrayed by Andrew Sachs and claiming to be «the greatest detective in all of France, the greatest in all the world»; Neil Simon’s Murder by Death, where «Milo Perrier» is played by American actor James Coco; the 1977 film The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977); the film Spice World, where Hugh Laurie plays Poirot; and in Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, Poirot appears as a young boy on the train transporting Holmes and Watson. Holmes helps the boy in opening a puzzle-box, with Watson giving the boy advice about using his «little grey cells».

In the book series Geronimo Stilton, the character Hercule Poirat is inspired by Hercule Poirot.

The Belgian brewery Brasserie Ellezelloise makes a stout called Hercule with a moustachioed caricature of Hercule Poirot on the label.^[75]

In season 2, episode 4 of TVFPlay’s Indian web series Permanent Roommates, one of the characters refers to Hercule Poirot as her inspiration while she attempts to solve the mystery of the cheating spouse. Throughout the episode, she is mocked as Hercule Poirot and Agatha Christie by the suspects.^[76] TVFPlay also telecasted a spoof of Indian TV suspense drama CID as «Qissa Missing Dimaag Ka: C.I.D Qtiyapa«. In the first episode, when Ujjwal is shown to browse for the best detectives of the world, David Suchet appears as Poirot in his search.^[77]

See also[edit]

• Poirot Investigates
• Tropes in Agatha Christie’s novels

Footnotes[edit]

References[edit]

Literature[edit]

Works[edit]

• Christie, Agatha (1939). The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-61298-214-4.
• Christie, Agatha (1947). Prologue. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1947a). The Apples of the Hesperides. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1947b). The Stymphalean Birds. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1947c). The Erymanthian Boar. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1948). Taken at the Flood.
• Christie, Agatha (1952). Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.
• Christie, Agatha (1961). The Pale Horse by A.Christie. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1975). Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-712112-0.
• Christie, Agatha (1980). Evil Under the Sun: Death Comes as the End; The Sittaford Mystery. Lansdowne Press. ISBN 978-0-7018-1458-8.
• Christie, Agatha (1991). The A.B.C. murders: [a Hercule Poirot mystery]. Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-425-13024-7.
• Christie, Agatha (28 September 2004a). The Clocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174050-3.
• Christie, Agatha (6 January 2004b). The Big Four. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-173909-5.
• Christie, Agatha (25 January 2005). After the Funeral: Hercule Poirot Investigates. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-173991-0.
• Christie, Agatha (3 October 2006a). The Labours of Hercules: Hercule Poirot Investigates. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174638-3.
• Christie, Agatha (3 October 2006b). Three Act Tragedy. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-175403-6.
• Christie, Agatha (17 March 2009). The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-176340-3.
• Christie, Agatha (17 March 2009b). Peril at End House. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174927-8.
• Christie, Agatha (10 February 2010). Death in the Clouds. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174311-5.
• Christie, Agatha (1 February 2011a). Five Little Pigs: A Hercule Poirot Mystery. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-207357-0.
• Christie, Agatha (29 March 2011). Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-207350-1.
• Christie, Agatha (1 September 2011b). The Dream: A Hercule Poirot Short Story. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-745198-2.
• Christie, Agatha (14 June 2011c). Third Girl: A Hercule Poirot Mystery. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-207376-1.
• Christie, Agatha (12 April 2012). The Kidnapped Prime Minister: A Hercule Poirot Short Story. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-748658-8.
• Christie, Agatha (2013). Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories: A Hercule Poirot Collection with Foreword by Charles Todd. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-225165-7.
• Christie, Agatha (9 July 2013a). The Lost Mine: A Hercule Poirot Story. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-229818-8.
• Christie, Agatha (23 July 2013b). Double Sin: A Hercule Poirot Story. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-229845-4.

Reviews[edit]

• Barnard, Robert (1980), A Talent to Deceive, London: Fontana/Collins
• Goddard, John (2018), Agatha Christie’s Golden Age: An Analysis of Poirot’s Golden Age Puzzles, Stylish Eye Press, ISBN 978-1-999-61200-9
• Hart, Anne (2004), Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot, London: Harper and Collins
• Kretzschmar, Judith; Stoppe, Sebastian; Vollberg, Susanne, eds. (2016), Hercule Poirot trifft Miss Marple. Agatha Christie intermedial, Darmstadt: Büchner, ISBN 978-3-941310-48-3.
• Osborne, Charles (1982), The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, London: Collins

External links[edit]

• Official Agatha Christie website
• A collection of public domain Poirot works as eBooks at Standard Ebooks
• Hercule Poirot on IMDb
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles at Project Gutenberg
• Listen to Orson Welles in «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd»
• Listen to the 1945 Hercule Poirot radio program
• Wiktionary definition of Edgar Allan Poe’s «ratiocination»

Hercule Poirot
David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s Poirot
First appearance	The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
Last appearance	Curtain (1975)
Created by	Agatha Christie
Portrayed by	Charles Laughton Francis L. Sullivan Austin Trevor Orson Welles Harold Huber Richard Williams John Malkovich José Ferrer Martin Gabel Tony Randall Albert Finney Dudley Jones Peter Ustinov Ian Holm David Suchet John Moffatt Maurice Denham Peter Sallis Konstantin Raikin Alfred Molina Robert Powell Jason Durr Kenneth Branagh Anthony O’Donnell Shirō Itō (Takashi Akafuji) Mansai Nomura (Takeru Suguro) Tom Conti
Voiced by	Kōtarō Satomi
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Private investigator Police officer (former occupation)
Family	Jules-Louis Poirot (father) Godelieve Poirot (mother)
Religion	Catholic
Nationality	Belgian

Hercule Poirot (, ^[1]) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (Black Coffee and Alibi), and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.

Poirot has been portrayed on radio, in film and on television by various actors, including Austin Trevor, John Moffatt, Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina, Orson Welles, David Suchet, Kenneth Branagh, and John Malkovich.

Overview[edit]

Influences[edit]

Poirot’s name was derived from two other fictional detectives of the time: Marie Belloc Lowndes’ Hercule Popeau and Frank Howel Evans’ Monsieur Poiret, a retired French police officer living in London.^[2] Evans’ Jules Poiret «was small and rather heavyset, hardly more than five feet, but moved with his head held high. The most remarkable features of his head were the stiff military moustache. His apparel was neat to perfection, a little quaint and frankly dandified.» He was accompanied by Captain Harry Haven, who had returned to London from a Colombian business venture ended by a civil war. ^[3]

A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle. In An Autobiography, Christie states, «I was still writing in the Sherlock Holmes tradition – eccentric detective, stooge assistant, with a Lestrade-type Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Japp».^[4] For his part, Conan Doyle acknowledged basing his detective stories on the model of Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin and his anonymous narrator, and basing his character Sherlock Holmes on Joseph Bell, who in his use of «ratiocination» prefigured Poirot’s reliance on his «little grey cells».

Poirot also bears a striking resemblance to A. E. W. Mason’s fictional detective Inspector Hanaud of the French Sûreté, who first appeared in the 1910 novel At the Villa Rose and predates the first Poirot novel by 10 years.

Christie’s Poirot was clearly the result of her early development of the detective in her first book, written in 1916 and published in 1920. Belgium’s occupation by Germany during World War I provided a plausible explanation of why such a skilled detective would be available to solve mysteries at an English country house.^[5] At the time of Christie’s writing, it was considered patriotic to express sympathy towards the Belgians,^[6] since the invasion of their country had constituted Britain’s casus belli for entering World War I, and British wartime propaganda emphasised the «Rape of Belgium».

Popularity[edit]

Poirot first appeared in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (published in 1920) and exited in Curtain (published in 1975). Following the latter, Poirot was the only fictional character to receive an obituary on the front page of The New York Times.^[7][8]

By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot «insufferable», and by 1960 she felt that he was a «detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep». Despite this, Poirot remained an exceedingly popular character with the general public. Christie later stated that she refused to kill him off, claiming that it was her duty to produce what the public liked.^[9]

Appearance and proclivities[edit]

Captain Arthur Hastings’s first description of Poirot:

He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. Even if everything on his face was covered, the tips of moustache and the pink-tipped nose would be visible.
The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police.^[5]

Agatha Christie’s initial description of Poirot in The Murder on the Orient Express:

By the step leading up into the sleeping-car stood a young French lieutenant, resplendent in uniform, conversing with a small man [Hercule Poirot] muffled up to the ears of whom nothing was visible but a pink-tipped nose and the two points of an upward-curled moustache. ^[10]

In the later books, his limp is not mentioned, suggesting it may have been a temporary wartime injury. (In Curtain, Poirot admits he was wounded when he first came to England.) Poirot has green eyes that are repeatedly described as shining «like a cat’s» when he is struck by a clever idea,^[11] and dark hair, which he dyes later in life. In Curtain, he admits to Hastings that he wears a wig and a false moustache.^[12] However, in many of his screen incarnations, he is bald or balding.

Frequent mention is made of his patent leather shoes, damage to which is frequently a source of misery for him, but comical for the reader.^[13] Poirot’s appearance, regarded as fastidious during his early career, later falls hopelessly out of fashion.^[14]

Among Poirot’s most significant personal attributes is the sensitivity of his stomach:

The plane dropped slightly. «Mon estomac,» thought Hercule Poirot, and closed his eyes determinedly.^[15]

He suffers from sea sickness,^[16] and, in Death in the Clouds, he states that his air sickness prevents him from being more alert at the time of the murder. Later in his life, we are told:

Always a man who had taken his stomach seriously, he was reaping his reward in old age. Eating was not only a physical pleasure, it was also an intellectual research.^[15]

Poirot is extremely punctual and carries a pocket watch almost to the end of his career.^[17] He is also particular about his personal finances, preferring to keep a bank balance of 444 pounds, 4 shillings, and 4 pence.^[18] Actor David Suchet, who portrayed Poirot on television, said «there’s no question he’s obsessive-compulsive».^[19] Film portrayer Kenneth Branagh said that he «enjoyed finding the sort of obsessive-compulsive» in Poirot.^[20]

As mentioned in Curtain and The Clocks, he is fond of classical music, particularly Mozart and Bach.

Methods[edit]

In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot operates as a fairly conventional, clue-based and logical detective; reflected in his vocabulary by two common phrases: his use of «the little grey cells» and «order and method». Hastings is irritated by the fact that Poirot sometimes conceals important details of his plans, as in The Big Four.^[21] In this novel, Hastings is kept in the dark throughout the climax. This aspect of Poirot is less evident in the later novels, partly because there is rarely a narrator to mislead.

In Murder on the Links, still largely dependent on clues himself, Poirot mocks a rival «bloodhound» detective who focuses on the traditional trail of clues established in detective fiction (e.g., Sherlock Holmes depending on footprints, fingerprints, and cigar ash). From this point on, Poirot establishes his psychological bona fides. Rather than painstakingly examining crime scenes, he enquires into the nature of the victim or the psychology of the murderer. He predicates his actions in the later novels on his underlying assumption that particular crimes are committed by particular types of people.

Poirot focuses on getting people to talk. In the early novels, he casts himself in the role of «Papa Poirot», a benign confessor, especially to young women. In later works, Christie made a point of having Poirot supply false or misleading information about himself or his background to assist him in obtaining information.^[22] In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot speaks of a non-existent mentally disabled nephew^[23] to uncover information about homes for the mentally unfit. In Dumb Witness, Poirot invents an elderly invalid mother as a pretence to investigate local nurses. In The Big Four, Poirot pretends to have (and poses as) an identical twin brother named Achille: however, this brother was mentioned again in The Labours of Hercules.^[21]

«If I remember rightly – though my memory isn’t what it was – you also had a brother called Achille, did you not?” Poirot’s mind raced back over the details of Achille Poirot’s career. Had all that really happened? «Only for a short space of time,» he replied.^[24]

Poirot is also willing to appear more foreign or vain in an effort to make people underestimate him. He admits as much:

It is true that I can speak the exact, the idiomatic English. But, my friend, to speak the broken English is an enormous asset. It leads people to despise you. They say – a foreigner – he can’t even speak English properly. … Also I boast! An Englishman he says often, «A fellow who thinks as much of himself as that cannot be worth much.» … And so, you see, I put people off their guard.^[25]

He also has a tendency to refer to himself in the third person.^[26][27]

In later novels, Christie often uses the word mountebank when characters describe Poirot, showing that he has successfully passed himself off as a charlatan or fraud.

Poirot’s investigating techniques assist him solving cases; «For in the long run, either through a lie, or through truth, people were bound to give themselves away…»^[28] At the end, Poirot usually reveals his description of the sequence of events and his deductions to a room of suspects, often leading to the culprit’s apprehension.

Life[edit]

Origins[edit]

Christie was purposely vague about Poirot’s origins, as he is thought to be an elderly man even in the early novels. In An Autobiography, she admitted that she already imagined him to be an old man in 1920. At the time, however, she did not know that she would write works featuring him for decades to come.

A brief passage in The Big Four provides original information about Poirot’s birth or at least childhood in or near the town of Spa, Belgium: «But we did not go into Spa itself. We left the main road and wound into the leafy fastnesses of the hills, till we reached a little hamlet and an isolated white villa high on the hillside.»^[29] Christie strongly implies that this «quiet retreat in the Ardennes»^[30] near Spa is the location of the Poirot family home.

An alternative tradition holds that Poirot was born in the village of Ellezelles (province of Hainaut, Belgium).^[31] A few memorials dedicated to Hercule Poirot can be seen in the centre of this village. There appears to be no reference to this in Christie’s writings, but the town of Ellezelles cherishes a copy of Poirot’s birth certificate in a local memorial ‘attesting’ Poirot’s birth, naming his father and mother as Jules-Louis Poirot and Godelieve Poirot.

Christie wrote that Poirot is a Catholic by birth,^[32] but not much is described about his later religious convictions, except sporadic references to his «going to church».^[33] Christie provides little information regarding Poirot’s childhood, only mentioning in Three Act Tragedy that he comes from a large family with little wealth, and has at least one younger sister. Apart from French and English, Poirot is also fluent in German.^[34]

Policeman[edit]

Gustave … was not a policeman. I have dealt with policemen all my life and I know. He could pass as a detective to an outsider but not to a man who was a policeman himself.

— Hercule Poirot Christie 1947c

Hercule Poirot was active in the Brussels police force by 1893.^[35] Very little mention is made about this part of his life, but in «The Nemean Lion» (1939) Poirot refers to a Belgian case of his in which «a wealthy soap manufacturer … poisoned his wife in order to be free to marry his secretary». As Poirot was often misleading about his past to gain information, the truthfulness of that statement is unknown; it does, however, scare off a would-be wife-killer.

In the short story «The Chocolate Box» (1923), Poirot reveals to Captain Arthur Hastings an account of what he considers to be his only failure. Poirot admits that he has failed to solve a crime «innumerable» times:

I have been called in too late. Very often another, working towards the same goal, has arrived there first. Twice I have been struck down with illness just as I was on the point of success.

Nevertheless, he regards the 1893 case in «The Chocolate Box»,^[36] as his only failure through his fault only. Again, Poirot is not reliable as a narrator of his personal history and there is no evidence that Christie sketched it out in any depth. During his police career, Poirot shot a man who was firing from a roof into the public below.^[37] In Lord Edgware Dies, Poirot reveals that he learned to read writing upside down during his police career. Around that time he met Xavier Bouc, director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

Inspector Japp offers some insight into Poirot’s career with the Belgian police when introducing him to a colleague:

You’ve heard me speak of Mr Poirot? It was in 1904 he and I worked together – the Abercrombie forgery case – you remember he was run down in Brussels. Ah, those were the days Moosier. Then, do you remember «Baron» Altara? There was a pretty rogue for you! He eluded the clutches of half the police in Europe. But we nailed him in Antwerp – thanks to Mr. Poirot here.^[38]

In The Double Clue, Poirot mentions that he was Chief of Police of Brussels, until «the Great War» (World War I) forced him to leave for England.

Private detective[edit]

I had called in at my friend Poirot’s rooms to find him sadly overworked. So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed to secure the services of the great Hercule Poirot. ^[39]

During World War I, Poirot left Belgium for England as a refugee, although he returned a few times. On 16 July 1916 he again met his lifelong friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, and solved the first of his cases to be published, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It is clear that Hastings and Poirot are already friends when they meet in Chapter 2 of the novel, as Hastings tells Cynthia that he has not seen him for «some years» (Agatha Christie’s Poirot has Hastings reveal that they met on a shooting case where Hastings was a suspect). Particulars such as the date of 1916 for the case and that Hastings had met Poirot in Belgium, are given in Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, Chapter 1. After that case, Poirot apparently came to the attention of the British secret service and undertook cases for the British government, including foiling the attempted abduction of the Prime Minister.^[40] Readers were told that the British authorities had learned of Poirot’s keen investigative ability from certain members of Belgium’s royal family.

After the war, Poirot became a private detective and began undertaking civilian cases. He moved into what became both his home and work address, Flat 203 at 56B Whitehaven Mansions. Hastings first visits the flat when he returns to England in June 1935 from Argentina in The A.B.C. Murders, Chapter 1. The TV programmes place this in Florin Court, Charterhouse Square, in the wrong part of London. According to Hastings, it was chosen by Poirot «entirely on account of its strict geometrical appearance and proportion» and described as the «newest type of service flat». (The Florin Court building was actually built in 1936, decades after Poirot fictionally moved in.) His first case in this period was «The Affair at the Victory Ball», which allowed Poirot to enter high society and begin his career as a private detective.

Between the world wars, Poirot travelled all over Europe and the Middle East investigating crimes and solving murders. Most of his cases occurred during this time and he was at the height of his powers at this point in his life. In The Murder on the Links, the Belgian pits his grey cells against a French murderer. In the Middle East, he solved the cases Death on the Nile and Murder in Mesopotamia with ease and even survived An Appointment with Death. As he passed through Eastern Europe on his return trip, he solved The Murder on the Orient Express. However, he did not travel to Africa or Asia, probably to avoid seasickness.

It is this villainous sea that troubles me! The mal de mer – it is horrible suffering!^[41]

It was during this time he met the Countess Vera Rossakoff, a glamorous jewel thief. The history of the countess is, like Poirot’s, steeped in mystery. She claims to have been a member of the Russian aristocracy before the Russian Revolution and suffered greatly as a result, but how much of that story is true is an open question. Even Poirot acknowledges that Rossakoff offered wildly varying accounts of her early life. Poirot later became smitten with the woman and allowed her to escape justice.^[42]

It is the misfortune of small, precise men always to hanker after large and flamboyant women. Poirot had never been able to rid himself of the fatal fascination that the countess held for him.^[43]

Although letting the countess escape was morally questionable, it was not uncommon. In The Nemean Lion, Poirot sided with the criminal, Miss Amy Carnaby, allowing her to evade prosecution by blackmailing his client Sir Joseph Hoggins, who, Poirot discovered, had plans to commit murder. Poirot even sent Miss Carnaby two hundred pounds as a final payoff prior to the conclusion of her dog kidnapping campaign. In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot allowed the murderer to escape justice through suicide and then withheld the truth to spare the feelings of the murderer’s relatives. In The Augean Stables, he helped the government to cover up vast corruption. In Murder on the Orient Express, Poirot allowed the murderers to go free after discovering that twelve different people participated in the murder, each one stabbing the victim in a darkened carriage after drugging him into unconsciousness so that there was no way for anyone to definitively determine which of them actually delivered the killing blow. The victim had committed a disgusting crime which led to the deaths of at least five people, and there was no question of his guilt, but he had been acquitted in America in a miscarriage of justice. Considering it poetic justice that twelve jurors had acquitted him and twelve people had stabbed him, Poirot produced an alternative sequence of events to explain the death involving an unknown additional passenger on the train, with the medical examiner agreeing to doctor his own report to support this theory.

After his cases in the Middle East, Poirot returned to Britain. Apart from some of the so-called Labours of Hercules (see next section) he very rarely went abroad during his later career. He moved into Styles Court towards the end of his life.

While Poirot was usually paid handsomely by clients, he was also known to take on cases that piqued his curiosity, although they did not pay well.

Poirot shows a love of steam trains, which Christie contrasts with Hastings’ love of autos: this is shown in The Plymouth Express, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Murder on the Orient Express, and The ABC Murders (in the TV series, steam trains are seen in nearly all of the episodes).

Retirement[edit]

That’s the way of it. Just a case or two, just one case more – the Prima Donna’s farewell performance won’t be in it with yours, Poirot.^[44]

Confusion surrounds Poirot’s retirement. Most of the cases covered by Poirot’s private detective agency take place before his retirement to attempt to grow larger marrows, at which time he solves The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It has been said that the twelve cases related in The Labours of Hercules (1947) must refer to a different retirement, but the fact that Poirot specifically says that he intends to grow marrows indicates that these stories also take place before Roger Ackroyd, and presumably Poirot closed his agency once he had completed them. There is specific mention in «The Capture of Cerberus» of the twenty-year gap between Poirot’s previous meeting with Countess Rossakoff and this one. If the Labours precede the events in Roger Ackroyd, then the Ackroyd case must have taken place around twenty years later than it was published, and so must any of the cases that refer to it. One alternative would be that having failed to grow marrows once, Poirot is determined to have another go, but this is specifically denied by Poirot himself.^[45] Also, in «The Erymanthian Boar», a character is said to have been turned out of Austria by the Nazis, implying that the events of The Labours of Hercules took place after 1937. Another alternative would be to suggest that the Preface to the Labours takes place at one date but that the labours are completed over a matter of twenty years. None of the explanations is especially attractive.

In terms of a rudimentary chronology, Poirot speaks of retiring to grow marrows in Chapter 18 of The Big Four^[46] (1927) which places that novel out of published order before Roger Ackroyd. He declines to solve a case for the Home Secretary because he is retired in Chapter One of Peril at End House (1932). He has certainly retired at the time of Three Act Tragedy (1935) but he does not enjoy his retirement and repeatedly takes cases thereafter when his curiosity is engaged. He continues to employ his secretary, Miss Lemon, at the time of the cases retold in Hickory Dickory Dock and Dead Man’s Folly, which take place in the mid-1950s. It is, therefore, better to assume that Christie provided no authoritative chronology for Poirot’s retirement but assumed that he could either be an active detective, a consulting detective, or a retired detective as the needs of the immediate case required.

One consistent element about Poirot’s retirement is that his fame declines during it so that in the later novels he is often disappointed when characters (especially younger characters) recognise neither him nor his name:

«I should, perhaps, Madame, tell you a little more about myself. I am Hercule Poirot.»

The revelation left Mrs Summerhayes unmoved.

«What a lovely name,» she said kindly. «Greek, isn’t it?»^[47]

Post–World War II[edit]

He, I knew, was not likely to be far from his headquarters. The time when cases had drawn him from one end of England to the other was past.

Poirot is less active during the cases that take place at the end of his career. Beginning with Three Act Tragedy (1934), Christie had perfected during the inter-war years a subgenre of Poirot novel in which the detective himself spent much of the first third of the novel on the periphery of events. In novels such as Taken at the Flood, After the Funeral, and Hickory Dickory Dock, he is even less in evidence, frequently passing the duties of main interviewing detective to a subsidiary character. In Cat Among the Pigeons, Poirot’s entrance is so late as to be almost an afterthought. Whether this was a reflection of his age or of Christie’s distaste for him, is impossible to assess. Crooked House (1949) and Ordeal by Innocence (1957), which could easily have been Poirot novels, represent a logical endpoint of the general diminution of his presence in such works.

Towards the end of his career, it becomes clear that Poirot’s retirement is no longer a convenient fiction. He assumes a genuinely inactive lifestyle during which he concerns himself with studying famous unsolved cases of the past and reading detective novels. He even writes a book about mystery fiction in which he deals sternly with Edgar Allan Poe and Wilkie Collins.^{[49][page needed]} In the absence of a more appropriate puzzle, he solves such inconsequential domestic riddles as the presence of three pieces of orange peel in his umbrella stand.^{[50][page needed]}

Poirot (and, it is reasonable to suppose, his creator)^[a] becomes increasingly bemused by the vulgarism of the up-and-coming generation’s young people. In Hickory Dickory Dock, he investigates the strange goings-on in a student hostel, while in Third Girl (1966) he is forced into contact with the smart set of Chelsea youths. In the growing drug and pop culture of the sixties, he proves himself once again but has become heavily reliant on other investigators (especially the private investigator, Mr. Goby) who provide him with the clues that he can no longer gather for himself.

You’re too old. Nobody told me you were so old. I really don’t want to be rude but – there it is. You’re too old. I’m really very sorry.

— Norma Restarick to Poirot in Third Girl, Chapter 1^{[49][page needed]}

Notably, during this time his physical characteristics also change dramatically, and by the time Arthur Hastings meets Poirot again in Curtain, he looks very different from his previous appearances, having become thin with age and with obviously dyed hair.

Death[edit]

On the ITV television series, Poirot died in October 1949^[53] from complications of a heart condition at the end of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case. This took place at Styles Court, the scene of his first English case in 1916. In Christie’s novels, he lived into the early 1970s, perhaps even until 1975 when Curtain was published. In both the novel and the television adaptation, he had moved his amyl nitrite pills out of his own reach, possibly because of guilt. He thereby became the murderer in Curtain, although it was for the benefit of others. Poirot himself noted that he wanted to kill his victim shortly before his own death so that he could avoid succumbing to the arrogance of the murderer, concerned that he might come to view himself as entitled to kill those whom he deemed necessary to eliminate.

The «murderer» that he was hunting had never actually killed anyone, but he had manipulated others to kill for him, subtly and psychologically manipulating the moments where others desire to commit murder so that they carry out the crime when they might otherwise dismiss their thoughts as nothing more than a momentary passion. Poirot thus was forced to kill the man himself, as otherwise he would have continued his actions and never been officially convicted, as he did not legally do anything wrong. It is revealed at the end of Curtain that he fakes his need for a wheelchair to fool people into believing that he is suffering from arthritis, to give the impression that he is more infirm than he is. His last recorded words are «Cher ami!«, spoken to Hastings as the Captain left his room. (The TV adaptation adds that as Poirot is dying alone, he whispers out his final prayer to God in these words: «Forgive me… forgive…») Poirot was buried at Styles, and his funeral was arranged by his best friend Hastings and Hastings’ daughter Judith. Hastings reasoned, «Here was the spot where he had lived when he first came to this country. He was to lie here at the last.»

Poirot’s actual death and funeral occurred in Curtain, years after his retirement from the active investigation, but it was not the first time that Hastings attended the funeral of his best friend. In The Big Four (1927), Poirot feigned his death and subsequent funeral to launch a surprise attack on the Big Four.

Recurring characters[edit]

Captain Arthur Hastings[edit]

Hastings, a former British Army officer, meets Poirot during Poirot’s years as a police officer in Belgium and almost immediately after they both arrive in England. He becomes Poirot’s lifelong friend and appears in many cases. Poirot regards Hastings as a poor private detective, not particularly intelligent, yet helpful in his way of being fooled by the criminal or seeing things the way the average man would see them and for his tendency to unknowingly «stumble» onto the truth.^[54] Hastings marries and has four children – two sons and two daughters. As a loyal, albeit somewhat naïve companion, Hastings is to Poirot what Watson is to Sherlock Holmes.

Hastings is capable of great bravery and courage, facing death unflinchingly when confronted by The Big Four and displaying unwavering loyalty towards Poirot. However, when forced to choose between Poirot and his wife in that novel, he initially chooses to betray Poirot to protect his wife. Later, though, he tells Poirot to draw back and escape the trap.

The two are an airtight team until Hastings meets and marries Dulcie Duveen, a beautiful music hall performer half his age, after investigating the Murder on the Links. They later emigrated to Argentina, leaving Poirot behind as a «very unhappy old man». However, Poirot and Hastings reunite during the novels The Big Four, Peril at End House, The ABC Murders, Lord Edgware Dies, and Dumb Witness, when Hastings arrives in England for business, with Poirot noting in ABC Murders that he enjoys having Hastings over because he feels that he always has his most interesting cases with Hastings. The two collaborate for the final time in Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case when the seemingly-crippled Poirot asks Hastings to assist him in his final case. When the killer they are tracking nearly manipulates Hastings into committing murder, Poirot describes this in his final farewell letter to Hastings as the catalyst that prompted him to eliminate the man himself, as Poirot knew that his friend was not a murderer and refused to let a man capable of manipulating Hastings in such a manner go on.

Mrs Ariadne Oliver[edit]

Detective novelist Ariadne Oliver is Agatha Christie’s humorous self-caricature. Like Christie, she is not overly fond of the detective whom she is most famous for creating–in Ariadne’s case, Finnish sleuth Sven Hjerson. We never learn anything about her husband, but we do know that she hates alcohol and public appearances and has a great fondness for apples until she is put off them by the events of Hallowe’en Party. She also has a habit of constantly changing her hairstyle, and in every appearance by her much is made of her clothes and hats. Her maid Maria prevents the public adoration from becoming too much of a burden on her employer but does nothing to prevent her from becoming too much of a burden on others.

She has authored more than 56 novels and greatly dislikes people modifying her characters. She is the only one in Poirot’s universe to have noted that «It’s not natural for five or six people to be on the spot when B is murdered and all have a motive for killing B.» She first met Poirot in the story Cards on the Table and has bothered him ever since.

Miss Felicity Lemon[edit]

Poirot’s secretary, Miss Felicity Lemon, has few human weaknesses. The only mistakes she makes within the series are a typing error during the events of Hickory Dickory Dock and the mis-mailing of an electricity bill, although she was worried about strange events surrounding her sister who worked at a student hostel at the time. Poirot described her as being «Unbelievably ugly and incredibly efficient. Anything that she mentioned as worth consideration usually was worth consideration.» She is an expert on nearly everything and plans to create the perfect filing system. She also worked for the government statistician-turned-philanthropist Parker Pyne. Whether this was during one of Poirot’s numerous retirements or before she entered his employment is unknown.^{[citation needed]} In The Agatha Christie Hour, she was portrayed by Angela Easterling, while in Agatha Christie’s Poirot she was portrayed by Pauline Moran. On a number of occasions, she joins Poirot in his inquiries or seeks out answers alone at his request.

Chief Inspector James Harold Japp[edit]

Japp is a Scotland Yard Inspector and appears in many of the stories trying to solve cases that Poirot is working on. Japp is outgoing, loud, and sometimes inconsiderate by nature, and his relationship with the refined Belgian is one of the stranger aspects of Poirot’s world. He first met Poirot in Belgium in 1904, during the Abercrombie Forgery. Later that year they joined forces again to hunt down a criminal known as Baron Altara. They also meet in England where Poirot often helps Japp and lets him take credit in return for special favours. These favours usually entail Poirot being supplied with other interesting cases.^[55] In Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Japp was portrayed by Philip Jackson. In the film, Thirteen at Dinner (1985), adapted from Lord Edgware Dies, the role of Japp was taken by the actor David Suchet, who would later star as Poirot in the ITV adaptations.

Major novels[edit]

The Poirot books take readers through the whole of his life in England, from the first book (The Mysterious Affair at Styles), where he is a refugee staying at Styles, to the last Poirot book (Curtain), where he visits Styles before his death. In between, Poirot solves cases outside England as well, including his most famous case, Murder on the Orient Express (1934).

Hercule Poirot became famous in 1926 with the publication of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, whose surprising solution proved controversial. The novel is still among the most famous of all detective novels: Edmund Wilson alludes to it in the title of his well-known attack on detective fiction, «Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?» Aside from Roger Ackroyd, the most critically acclaimed Poirot novels appeared from 1932 to 1942, including Murder on the Orient Express (1934); The ABC Murders (1935); Cards on the Table (1936); and Death on the Nile (1937), a tale of multiple murders upon a Nile steamer. Death on the Nile was judged by the famed detective novelist John Dickson Carr to be among the ten greatest mystery novels of all time.^[56]

The 1942 novel Five Little Pigs (a.k.a. Murder in Retrospect), in which Poirot investigates a murder committed sixteen years before by analysing various accounts of the tragedy, has been called «the best Christie of all»^[57] by critic and mystery novelist Robert Barnard.

In 2014, the Poirot canon was added to by Sophie Hannah, the first author to be commissioned by the Christie estate to write an original story. The novel was called The Monogram Murders, and was set in the late 1920s, placing it chronologically between The Mystery of the Blue Train and Peril at End House. A second Hannah-penned Poirot came out in 2016, called Closed Casket, and a third, The Mystery of Three Quarters, in 2018.^[58]

Portrayals[edit]

Stage[edit]

The first actor to portray Poirot was Charles Laughton. He appeared on the West End in 1928 in the play Alibi which had been adapted by Michael Morton from the novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
In 1932, the play was performed as The Fatal Alibi on Broadway. Another Poirot play, Black Coffee opened in London at the Embassy Theatre on 8 December 1930 and starred Francis L. Sullivan as Poirot. Another production of Black Coffee ran in Dublin, Ireland from 23 to 28 June 1931, starring Robert Powell. American playwright Ken Ludwig adapted Murder on the Orient Express into a play, which premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey on 14 March 2017. It starred Allan Corduner in the role of Hercule Poirot.

Film[edit]

Austin Trevor[edit]

Austin Trevor debuted the role of Poirot on screen in the 1931 British film Alibi. The film was based on the stage play. Trevor reprised the role of Poirot twice, in Black Coffee and Lord Edgware Dies. Trevor said once that he was probably cast as Poirot simply because he could do a French accent.^[59] Notably, Trevor’s Poirot did not have a moustache. Leslie S. Hiscott directed the first two films, and Henry Edwards took over for the third.

Tony Randall[edit]

Tony Randall portrayed Poirot in The Alphabet Murders, a 1965 film also known as The ABC Murders. This was more a satire of Poirot than a straightforward adaptation and was greatly changed from the original. Much of the story, set in modern times, was played for comedy, with Poirot investigating the murders while evading the attempts by Hastings (Robert Morley) and the police to get him out of England and back to Belgium.

Albert Finney[edit]

Albert Finney played Poirot in 1974 in the cinematic version of Murder on the Orient Express. As of now, Finney is the only actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for playing Poirot, though he did not win.

Peter Ustinov[edit]

Peter Ustinov played Poirot six times, starting with Death on the Nile (1978). He reprised the role in Evil Under the Sun (1982) and Appointment with Death (1988).

Christie’s daughter Rosalind Hicks observed Ustinov during a rehearsal and said, «That’s not Poirot! He isn’t at all like that!» Ustinov overheard and remarked «He is now!«^[60]

He appeared again as Poirot in three television films: Thirteen at Dinner (1985), Dead Man’s Folly (1986), and Murder in Three Acts (1986). Earlier adaptations were set during the time in which the novels were written, but these television films were set in the contemporary era. The first of these was based on Lord Edgware Dies and was made by Warner Bros. It also starred Faye Dunaway, with David Suchet as Inspector Japp, just before Suchet began to play Poirot. David Suchet considers his performance as Japp to be «possibly the worst performance of [his] career».^[61]

Kenneth Branagh[edit]

Kenneth Branagh played Poirot in film adaptations of Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and Death on the Nile in 2022, both of which he also directed. He is currently set to return for a third film.

Other[edit]

• Anatoly Ravikovich, Zagadka Endkhauza (End House Mystery) (1989; based on «Peril at End House»)

Television[edit]

David Suchet[edit]

David Suchet starred as Poirot in the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot from 1989 until June 2013, when he announced that he was bidding farewell to the role. «No one could’ve guessed then that the series would span a quarter-century or that the classically trained Suchet would complete the entire catalogue of whodunits featuring the eccentric Belgian investigator, including 33 novels and dozens of short stories.»^[62] His final appearance in the show was in an adaptation of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case, aired on 13 November 2013.

The writers of the «Binge!» article of Entertainment Weekly Issue #1343–44 (26 December 2014 – 3 January 2015) picked Suchet as «Best Poirot» in the «Hercule Poirot & Miss Marple» timeline.^[63]

The episodes were shot in various locations in the UK and abroad (for example Triangle at Rhodes and Problem at Sea^[64]), whilst other scenes were shot at Twickenham Studios.^[65]

Other[edit]

• Heini Göbel, (1955; an adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express for the West German television series Die Galerie der großen Detektive)
• José Ferrer, Hercule Poirot (1961; Unaired TV Pilot, MGM; adaptation of «The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim»)
• Martin Gabel, General Electric Theater (4/1/1962; adaptation of «The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim»)
• Horst Bollmann, Black Coffee 1973
• Ian Holm, Murder by the Book, 1986
• Arnolds Liniņš, Slepkavība Stailzā (The Mysterious Affair at Styles), 1990
• Hugh Laurie, Spice World, 1997
• Alfred Molina, Murder on the Orient Express, 2001
• Konstantin Raikin, Neudacha Puaro (Poirot’s Failure) (2002; based on «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd»)
• Anthony O’Donnell, Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures, 2004
• Shirō Itō (Takashi Akafuji), Meitantei Akafuji Takashi (The Detective Takashi Akafuji), 2005
• Mansai Nomura (Takeru Suguro), Orient Kyūkō Satsujin Jiken (Murder on the Orient Express), 2015; Kuroido Goroshi (The Murder of Kuroido), 2018 (based on «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd»); Shi to no Yakusoku, 2021 (based on Appointment with Death)
• John Malkovich was Poirot in the 2018 BBC adaptation of The ABC Murders.^[66]

Anime[edit]

In 2004, NHK (Japanese public TV network) produced a 39 episode anime series titled Agatha Christie’s Great Detectives Poirot and Marple, as well as a manga series under the same title released in 2005. The series, adapting several of the best-known Poirot and Marple stories, ran from 4 July 2004 through 15 May 2005, and in repeated reruns on NHK and other networks in Japan. Poirot was voiced by Kōtarō Satomi and Miss Marple was voiced by Kaoru Yachigusa.

Radio[edit]

From 1985 to 2007, BBC Radio 4 produced a series of twenty-seven adaptations of Poirot novels and short stories, adapted by Michael Bakewell and directed by Enyd Williams.^[67] Twenty five starred John Moffatt as Poirot; Maurice Denham and Peter Sallis played Poirot on BBC Radio 4 in the first two adaptations, The Mystery of the Blue Train and in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas respectively.

In 1939, Orson Welles and the Mercury Players dramatised Roger Ackroyd on CBS’s Campbell Playhouse.^[68][69]

On 6 October 1942, the Mutual radio series Murder Clinic broadcast «The Tragedy at Marsden Manor» starring Maurice Tarplin as Poirot.^[70]

A 1945 radio series of at least 13 original half-hour episodes (none of which apparently adapt any Christie stories) transferred Poirot from London to New York and starred character actor Harold Huber,^[71] perhaps better known for his appearances as a police officer in various Charlie Chan films. On 22 February 1945, «speaking from London, Agatha Christie introduced the initial broadcast of the Poirot series via shortwave».^[68]

An adaptation of Murder in the Mews was broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in March 1955 starring Richard Williams as Poirot; this program was thought lost, but was discovered in the BBC archives in 2015.^[72]

Other audio[edit]

In 2017, Audible released an original audio adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express starring Tom Conti as Poirot.^[73] The cast included Jane Asher as Mrs. Hubbard, Jay Benedict as Monsieur Bouc, Ruta Gedmintas as Countess Andrenyi, Sophie Okonedo as Mary Debenham, Eddie Marsan as Ratchett, Walles Hamonde as Hector MacQueen, Paterson Joseph as Colonel Arbuthnot, Rula Lenska as Princess Dragimiroff and Art Malik as the Narrator. According to the Publisher’s Summary on Audible.com, «sound effects [were] recorded on the Orient Express itself.»

In 2021, L.A. Theatre Works produced an adaptation of The Murder on the Links, dramatised by Kate McAll. Alfred Molina starred as Poirot, with Simon Helberg as Hastings.^[74]

Video games[edit]

The video game Agatha Christie — Hercule Poirot: The First Cases has Poirot voice acted by Will De Renzy-Martin.^{[citation needed]}

Parodies and references[edit]

Parodies of Hercule Poirot have appeared in a number of movies, including Revenge of the Pink Panther, where Poirot makes a cameo appearance in a mental asylum, portrayed by Andrew Sachs and claiming to be «the greatest detective in all of France, the greatest in all the world»; Neil Simon’s Murder by Death, where «Milo Perrier» is played by American actor James Coco; the 1977 film The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977); the film Spice World, where Hugh Laurie plays Poirot; and in Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, Poirot appears as a young boy on the train transporting Holmes and Watson. Holmes helps the boy in opening a puzzle-box, with Watson giving the boy advice about using his «little grey cells».

In the book series Geronimo Stilton, the character Hercule Poirat is inspired by Hercule Poirot.

The Belgian brewery Brasserie Ellezelloise makes a stout called Hercule with a moustachioed caricature of Hercule Poirot on the label.^[75]

In season 2, episode 4 of TVFPlay’s Indian web series Permanent Roommates, one of the characters refers to Hercule Poirot as her inspiration while she attempts to solve the mystery of the cheating spouse. Throughout the episode, she is mocked as Hercule Poirot and Agatha Christie by the suspects.^[76] TVFPlay also telecasted a spoof of Indian TV suspense drama CID as «Qissa Missing Dimaag Ka: C.I.D Qtiyapa«. In the first episode, when Ujjwal is shown to browse for the best detectives of the world, David Suchet appears as Poirot in his search.^[77]

See also[edit]

• Poirot Investigates
• Tropes in Agatha Christie’s novels

Footnotes[edit]

References[edit]

Literature[edit]

Works[edit]

• Christie, Agatha (1939). The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-61298-214-4.
• Christie, Agatha (1947). Prologue. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1947a). The Apples of the Hesperides. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1947b). The Stymphalean Birds. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1947c). The Erymanthian Boar. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1948). Taken at the Flood.
• Christie, Agatha (1952). Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.
• Christie, Agatha (1961). The Pale Horse by A.Christie. Collins.
• Christie, Agatha (1975). Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-712112-0.
• Christie, Agatha (1980). Evil Under the Sun: Death Comes as the End; The Sittaford Mystery. Lansdowne Press. ISBN 978-0-7018-1458-8.
• Christie, Agatha (1991). The A.B.C. murders: [a Hercule Poirot mystery]. Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-425-13024-7.
• Christie, Agatha (28 September 2004a). The Clocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174050-3.
• Christie, Agatha (6 January 2004b). The Big Four. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-173909-5.
• Christie, Agatha (25 January 2005). After the Funeral: Hercule Poirot Investigates. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-173991-0.
• Christie, Agatha (3 October 2006a). The Labours of Hercules: Hercule Poirot Investigates. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174638-3.
• Christie, Agatha (3 October 2006b). Three Act Tragedy. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-175403-6.
• Christie, Agatha (17 March 2009). The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-176340-3.
• Christie, Agatha (17 March 2009b). Peril at End House. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174927-8.
• Christie, Agatha (10 February 2010). Death in the Clouds. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-174311-5.
• Christie, Agatha (1 February 2011a). Five Little Pigs: A Hercule Poirot Mystery. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-207357-0.
• Christie, Agatha (29 March 2011). Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-207350-1.
• Christie, Agatha (1 September 2011b). The Dream: A Hercule Poirot Short Story. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-745198-2.
• Christie, Agatha (14 June 2011c). Third Girl: A Hercule Poirot Mystery. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-207376-1.
• Christie, Agatha (12 April 2012). The Kidnapped Prime Minister: A Hercule Poirot Short Story. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-748658-8.
• Christie, Agatha (2013). Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories: A Hercule Poirot Collection with Foreword by Charles Todd. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-225165-7.
• Christie, Agatha (9 July 2013a). The Lost Mine: A Hercule Poirot Story. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-229818-8.
• Christie, Agatha (23 July 2013b). Double Sin: A Hercule Poirot Story. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-229845-4.

Reviews[edit]

• Barnard, Robert (1980), A Talent to Deceive, London: Fontana/Collins
• Goddard, John (2018), Agatha Christie’s Golden Age: An Analysis of Poirot’s Golden Age Puzzles, Stylish Eye Press, ISBN 978-1-999-61200-9
• Hart, Anne (2004), Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot, London: Harper and Collins
• Kretzschmar, Judith; Stoppe, Sebastian; Vollberg, Susanne, eds. (2016), Hercule Poirot trifft Miss Marple. Agatha Christie intermedial, Darmstadt: Büchner, ISBN 978-3-941310-48-3.
• Osborne, Charles (1982), The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, London: Collins

External links[edit]

• Official Agatha Christie website
• A collection of public domain Poirot works as eBooks at Standard Ebooks
• Hercule Poirot on IMDb
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles at Project Gutenberg
• Listen to Orson Welles in «The Murder of Roger Ackroyd»
• Listen to the 1945 Hercule Poirot radio program
• Wiktionary definition of Edgar Allan Poe’s «ratiocination»

Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, 2 plays and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.

About Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot : the world-renowned, moustachioed Belgian private detective, unsurpassed in his intelligence and understanding of the criminal mind, respected and admired by police forces and heads of state across the globe. Since his inception over 100 years ago, Poirot has stolen the hearts and minds of audiences from Azerbaijan to Vietnam, and his celebrated cases have been recorded across 33 original novels and over 50 short stories.

Standing at a diminutive 5’4” – although there have been various interpretations of this on stage and screen – Poirot’s described in writing as having an egg-shaped head, often tilted to one side, and eyes that shine green when he’s excited. He dresses very precisely, and takes the utmost pride in his appearance.

Perhaps even more famous than the man himself, is his moustache. Luxurious, magnificent, immense, and dedicatedly groomed, the moustache precedes Poirot into a room; it’s a unique talking point, it’s provocative, and it has a character all of its own.

Poirot’s friend Hastings puts us straight in the picture in their first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, where we’re informed that “as a detective, Poirot’s flair had been extraordinary”. While some detectives scrabble around on the floor searching for clues, Poirot uses psychology and his extensive knowledge of human nature to weed out the criminals. He will of course take physical evidence into account, but more often than not his combination of order, method and his little grey cells does the trick. Poirot’s cases are invariably finished with a typical, dramatic denouement, satisfying his own ego and confirming to all that he is truly «the greatest mind in Europe.»

Creation

Over 100 years since his creation, Hercule Poirot remains one of the best known literary characters and one of the most famous fictional detectives of all time. But how did this celebrated Belgian with an egg shaped head and a thirst for precision come into existence?

Agatha Christie’s love of literature began at the age of five when she taught herself to read. Growing up she enjoyed reading Conan Doyle’s early Sherlock Holmes stories with her sister Madge, who later challenged her to write her own detective story.

During the First World War, Agatha Christie worked at the Red Cross Hospital in Torquay – first as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment and later in the dispensary where her lifelong interest in poisons began. It was during quiet periods in the dispensary that she began thinking about the earlier challenge her sister had set her, and being surrounded by poisons, the plot began to piece itself together.

“Since I was surrounded by poison, perhaps it was natural that death by poisoning should me the method I selected.”

— Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

Agatha Christie believed there was no method to her writing as inspiration could strike at any moment. She would begin by deciding on the crime and then work out the procedure that would make the twist tricky for readers to detect. In the case of her first novel, the outline of the plot was drafted – now Christie required a detective. It was August 1914 and a colony of Belgian refugees were living in a parish in her hometown of Torquay.

“Why not make my detective a Belgian? There were all types of refugees. How about a refugee police officer? A retired police officer.”

— Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

He was to be a tidy little man, because, as Christie herself observed, his creator was the opposite. Standing at no more than 5 feet 4 inches tall, and possessing a waxed moustache, he was immaculately groomed and dressed in the finest clothing. More importantly he must be extremely brainy, and possess little grey cells of the mind. Once these key traits were established, Christie moved onto the task of naming him. With the desire for a grand name, Hercules came first, then Poirot. Not pleased with the combination of Hercules Poirot, the name was adjusted and Hercule Poirot was born.

Agatha Christie had the start and the end of the story planned, and in moments of leisure she attempted to fill in the gaps, battering away on her sister’s old typewriter a chapter at a time. Finding the process tiring and irritating, her mother suggested that in order to finish the story, she should take a holiday away from home. With that in mind, Christie packed her bags and headed to Dartmoor for an undisturbed fortnight to focus on finishing her first detective novel.

Following a fortnight of focusing solely on the story, and after rewriting the over-complicated middle section, Agatha Christie’s first detective novel was complete. Once professionally typed up, Christie sent the story to a publisher – Hodder and Stoughton – who returned it. Not letting that stop her, she sent it off to another publisher.

Poirot was finally introduced to the world in The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920, 4 years after it was written, and Hastings had the honour of describing him to readers.

“Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible, I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound.”

— Arthur Hastings, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

100 years on and Agatha Christie’s creation — Hercule Poirot — is still considered to be one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time.

Portrayals

Since the late 1920’s, Agatha Christie’s famous fictional creation Hercule Poirot has been reimagined and depicted on stage, screen, radio and in games by over 40 actors. The assortment of portrayals includes a moustache-less Austin Trevor, a parodic Hugh Laurie, a hugely popular Japanese Mansai Nomura and the longest standing Poirot, David Suchet.

We’ve taken a look at five of the actors who have taken on the challenge of bringing Poirot to life on stage and screen over the past 90 years.

Charles Laughton – The First Portrayal of Poirot

The first portrayal of Hercule Poirot came in the form of Charles Laughton who played the role of the fictional sleuth in Alibi; a stage adaptation by Michael Morton based on Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. This was the first time that one of Christie’s books had been adapted into a play, and it opened in London’s West End in 1928. Laughton wasn’t an obvious choice for Poirot as he was too young and physically stockier than Christie had described him in her books. Alibi ran for over 250 performances with Laughton in the role before it closed at the end of the year. In 1932 he reprised the role on Broadway in The Fatal Alibi– a production he also directed.

Austin Trevor – The Clean-Shaven Poirot

Three years later there was a new Poirot on the scene — Austin Trevor — who was the first actor to bring Hercule Poirot to the screen, and did so in three British films; Alibi and Black Coffee in 1931 and Lord Edgware Dies in 1934. Alibi producer Julius Hagen and director Leslie Hiscott turned the character into a typical Thirties sleuth, choosing a good-looking clean shaven young Austin Trevor as their Poirot. Contrary to Poirot being Belgian, it is believed that Trevor claimed that he was cast because he could do a great French accent!

Albert Finney – The Young Poirot

Often pinpointed as the turning point in the history of Agatha Christie screen adaptations, in 1974 Murder on the Orient Express was released, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. Being just 38, at first Albert Finney was considered too young to play Poirot, but eventually he was chosen regardless as it was decided that he could be made up to resemble an older Poirot. This required many hours of make-up to become Poirot, every morning of filming, Finney would be picked up from his house in an ambulance where he would sleep whilst make-up artists would begin work on the transformation, that would then continue in the studio whilst he would remain asleep. As well as having a false nose, to achieve a short solid looking body he wore body padding in the form of a t-shirt draped with cotton wool!

Despite Agatha Christie enjoying the film, she had one major reservation about Albert Finney’s portrayal of her famous sleuth. “I wrote that my detective had the finest moustache in England, but he didn’t in the film. I thought that was a pity. Why shouldn’t he have the best moustache?”

Peter Ustinov – The Charming Poirot

Four years after Albert Finney’s take on the sleuth, Peter Ustinov appeared as Poirot in Death on the Nile, before taking on the role in a further two big screen films and three television productions. Purposefully, Ustinov’s impersonation of Poirot was different to Finney’s, partly to avoid judgement that he was impersonating his predecessor. Ustinov’s success in the role came from his insight and attention to detail in Christie’s character. He focused on Poirot’s personality and even referred to the role as exhausting, explaining that “Poirot is so terribly accurate and tidy in his mind and habits. So meticulous.”

David Suchet – The Long-standing Poirot

In 1989 David Suchet took on his first role as Hercule Poirot, which would be the beginning of a 25-year career which saw him depict Poirot in 70 episodes across 13 series, watched by 700 million viewers in over 100 countries worldwide. Suchet attributes his popularity of portraying Poirot to the attention to detail that he paid to the personal eccentricities that Christie described in her novels. Each day before filming Suchet would read through his list of character notes which contained over 90 traits of Agatha Christie’s sleuth, to help him get into the Poirot mindset. The notes ranged from highlighting Poirot’s ‘passion for tidiness’ to the fact that he ‘hates golf!’

Facts

• Hercule Poirot first appeared in chapter two of Agatha Christie’s first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which was completed in 1916 but not published until 1920.
• The first description of Poirot was by Hastings in The Mysterious Affair at Styles who said, ‘He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side…The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound.”
• He is a retired Belgian police officer turned world famous private detective.
• Poirot is disgusted by disorder and once said that he finds it, “really unsupportable that every hen lays an egg of a different size! What symmetry can there be on the breakfast table?” He’s also known to have refused to eat an irregularly shaped loaf of bread.
• He insists on precision and neatness and even his books are arranged in height order.
• He takes great pride in his appearance from his immaculately groomed black moustache to his patent leather shoes. He uses a special preparation called “Revivit” to darken his grey hair.
• Agatha Christie ‘saw’ the living embodiment of Hercule Poirot twice in her life – once having lunch in the Savoy and once on a boat trip in the Canary Islands.
• Christie dropped the Belgian detective from four of her Poirot novels when she adapted them for the stage. These were Murder on the Nile (Death on the Nile), Appointment with Death, The Hollow and Go Back for Murder (Five Little Pigs).
• He is the only fictional character to have received an obituary on the front of The New York Times in 1975, following the publication of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case.
• Christie had originally planned to have Miss Marple as the detective in Death on the Nile instead of Poirot.
• In an article written for The Daily Mail in 1938, Agatha Christie counted The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as one of Poirot’s favourite cases, explaining that in the book ‘he was at his best, investigating a crime in a quiet country village and using his knowledge of human nature to get at the truth.’
• In 2014, HarperCollins published the first authorised Poirot continuation novel, The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah, which reached the bestseller charts in 16 territories including the UK and US.
• Poirot stars in 33 novels and 59 short stories and 1 original play by Agatha Christie, and 3 continuation novels by Sophie Hannah. He will return in August 2020 in Hannah’s fourth novel, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill.
• Charles Laughton was the first actor to play Hercule Poirot on the stage in 1928’s production of Alibi (based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), and he has since been played by Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov and David Suchet to name a few.
• Poirot narrates most of his own adventures in The Lost Mine and The Chocolate Box. Hastings is the most frequent narrator of Poirot stories, but other narrators include Dr. Sheppard (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), Nurse Leatheran (Murder in Mesopotamia), and Colin Lamb (The Clocks).
• Poirot doesn’t just investigate murders in England. He has investigated crimes in France, Belgium, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Switzerland, and the Balkans.
• Poirot is very particular about the beverages he drinks. His preferred hot beverage is cocoa, though he often takes herbal tisanes for health reasons. He does not care for many forms of alcohol, like beer and most hard liquors, but he does like good wines. His preferred aperitifs are non-alcoholic sirops, in flavours like blackcurrant and other fruits.
• The great love of Poirot’s life is Countess Vera Rossakoff, a flamboyant Russian expatriate who may or may not be a true aristocrat. The Countess is a jewel thief and henchwoman for The Big Four before she reforms and eventually manages a nightclub.

Quotes

“’Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend’, observed Poirot philosophically. ‘You cannot mix up sentiment and reason.’”

— The Mysterious Affair at Styles, on suspects

“Hercule Poirot’s methods are his own. Order and method, and ‘the little grey cells’.”

— The Big Four, on being an individual

“I do not need to bend and measure the footprints and pick up the cigarette ends and examine the bent blades of grass. It is enough for me to sit back in my chair and think.”

— Five Little Pigs, on his methodical approach

“In England the cult of the moustache is lamentably neglected.”

— Dumb Witness, on appearance

“It is not the past that matters, but the future.”

— Death on the Nile, on progress

“Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.”

— The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, on the art of detection

“It is a profound belief of mine that if you can induce a person to talk to you for long enough, on any subject whatever! Sooner or later they will give themselves away.”

— After the Funeral, on human behaviour

“If you will allow Poirot to offer you a piece of wise advice: the pursuit of revenge is rarely a good idea.”

— The Mystery of Three Quarters, on revenge

Poirot’s Moustache

Poirot’s moustache is his trademark. It’s often the first thing people notice about him, and it’s his pride and joy. Poirot takes great care with his appearance from the tip of his shoes to the top of his egg-shaped head, and his moustache is no exception. He believes he has both the finest moustache and the finest brain in Britain – a claim many of his fans around the world would no doubt agree with. Throughout the six decades that his mysteries were documented by Agatha Christie, Poirot’s moustache was described in a number of ways, and was often the focus defining his appearance…

Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie’s most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, 2 plays and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975.

About Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot : the world-renowned, moustachioed Belgian private detective, unsurpassed in his intelligence and understanding of the criminal mind, respected and admired by police forces and heads of state across the globe. Since his inception over 100 years ago, Poirot has stolen the hearts and minds of audiences from Azerbaijan to Vietnam, and his celebrated cases have been recorded across 33 original novels and over 50 short stories.

Standing at a diminutive 5’4” – although there have been various interpretations of this on stage and screen – Poirot’s described in writing as having an egg-shaped head, often tilted to one side, and eyes that shine green when he’s excited. He dresses very precisely, and takes the utmost pride in his appearance.

Perhaps even more famous than the man himself, is his moustache. Luxurious, magnificent, immense, and dedicatedly groomed, the moustache precedes Poirot into a room; it’s a unique talking point, it’s provocative, and it has a character all of its own.

Poirot’s friend Hastings puts us straight in the picture in their first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, where we’re informed that “as a detective, Poirot’s flair had been extraordinary”. While some detectives scrabble around on the floor searching for clues, Poirot uses psychology and his extensive knowledge of human nature to weed out the criminals. He will of course take physical evidence into account, but more often than not his combination of order, method and his little grey cells does the trick. Poirot’s cases are invariably finished with a typical, dramatic denouement, satisfying his own ego and confirming to all that he is truly «the greatest mind in Europe.»

Creation

Over 100 years since his creation, Hercule Poirot remains one of the best known literary characters and one of the most famous fictional detectives of all time. But how did this celebrated Belgian with an egg shaped head and a thirst for precision come into existence?

Agatha Christie’s love of literature began at the age of five when she taught herself to read. Growing up she enjoyed reading Conan Doyle’s early Sherlock Holmes stories with her sister Madge, who later challenged her to write her own detective story.

During the First World War, Agatha Christie worked at the Red Cross Hospital in Torquay – first as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment and later in the dispensary where her lifelong interest in poisons began. It was during quiet periods in the dispensary that she began thinking about the earlier challenge her sister had set her, and being surrounded by poisons, the plot began to piece itself together.

“Since I was surrounded by poison, perhaps it was natural that death by poisoning should me the method I selected.”

— Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

Agatha Christie believed there was no method to her writing as inspiration could strike at any moment. She would begin by deciding on the crime and then work out the procedure that would make the twist tricky for readers to detect. In the case of her first novel, the outline of the plot was drafted – now Christie required a detective. It was August 1914 and a colony of Belgian refugees were living in a parish in her hometown of Torquay.

“Why not make my detective a Belgian? There were all types of refugees. How about a refugee police officer? A retired police officer.”

— Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

He was to be a tidy little man, because, as Christie herself observed, his creator was the opposite. Standing at no more than 5 feet 4 inches tall, and possessing a waxed moustache, he was immaculately groomed and dressed in the finest clothing. More importantly he must be extremely brainy, and possess little grey cells of the mind. Once these key traits were established, Christie moved onto the task of naming him. With the desire for a grand name, Hercules came first, then Poirot. Not pleased with the combination of Hercules Poirot, the name was adjusted and Hercule Poirot was born.

Agatha Christie had the start and the end of the story planned, and in moments of leisure she attempted to fill in the gaps, battering away on her sister’s old typewriter a chapter at a time. Finding the process tiring and irritating, her mother suggested that in order to finish the story, she should take a holiday away from home. With that in mind, Christie packed her bags and headed to Dartmoor for an undisturbed fortnight to focus on finishing her first detective novel.

Following a fortnight of focusing solely on the story, and after rewriting the over-complicated middle section, Agatha Christie’s first detective novel was complete. Once professionally typed up, Christie sent the story to a publisher – Hodder and Stoughton – who returned it. Not letting that stop her, she sent it off to another publisher.

Poirot was finally introduced to the world in The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920, 4 years after it was written, and Hastings had the honour of describing him to readers.

“Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible, I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound.”

— Arthur Hastings, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

100 years on and Agatha Christie’s creation — Hercule Poirot — is still considered to be one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time.

Portrayals

Since the late 1920’s, Agatha Christie’s famous fictional creation Hercule Poirot has been reimagined and depicted on stage, screen, radio and in games by over 40 actors. The assortment of portrayals includes a moustache-less Austin Trevor, a parodic Hugh Laurie, a hugely popular Japanese Mansai Nomura and the longest standing Poirot, David Suchet.

We’ve taken a look at five of the actors who have taken on the challenge of bringing Poirot to life on stage and screen over the past 90 years.

Charles Laughton – The First Portrayal of Poirot

The first portrayal of Hercule Poirot came in the form of Charles Laughton who played the role of the fictional sleuth in Alibi; a stage adaptation by Michael Morton based on Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. This was the first time that one of Christie’s books had been adapted into a play, and it opened in London’s West End in 1928. Laughton wasn’t an obvious choice for Poirot as he was too young and physically stockier than Christie had described him in her books. Alibi ran for over 250 performances with Laughton in the role before it closed at the end of the year. In 1932 he reprised the role on Broadway in The Fatal Alibi– a production he also directed.

Austin Trevor – The Clean-Shaven Poirot

Three years later there was a new Poirot on the scene — Austin Trevor — who was the first actor to bring Hercule Poirot to the screen, and did so in three British films; Alibi and Black Coffee in 1931 and Lord Edgware Dies in 1934. Alibi producer Julius Hagen and director Leslie Hiscott turned the character into a typical Thirties sleuth, choosing a good-looking clean shaven young Austin Trevor as their Poirot. Contrary to Poirot being Belgian, it is believed that Trevor claimed that he was cast because he could do a great French accent!

Albert Finney – The Young Poirot

Often pinpointed as the turning point in the history of Agatha Christie screen adaptations, in 1974 Murder on the Orient Express was released, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. Being just 38, at first Albert Finney was considered too young to play Poirot, but eventually he was chosen regardless as it was decided that he could be made up to resemble an older Poirot. This required many hours of make-up to become Poirot, every morning of filming, Finney would be picked up from his house in an ambulance where he would sleep whilst make-up artists would begin work on the transformation, that would then continue in the studio whilst he would remain asleep. As well as having a false nose, to achieve a short solid looking body he wore body padding in the form of a t-shirt draped with cotton wool!

Despite Agatha Christie enjoying the film, she had one major reservation about Albert Finney’s portrayal of her famous sleuth. “I wrote that my detective had the finest moustache in England, but he didn’t in the film. I thought that was a pity. Why shouldn’t he have the best moustache?”

Peter Ustinov – The Charming Poirot

Four years after Albert Finney’s take on the sleuth, Peter Ustinov appeared as Poirot in Death on the Nile, before taking on the role in a further two big screen films and three television productions. Purposefully, Ustinov’s impersonation of Poirot was different to Finney’s, partly to avoid judgement that he was impersonating his predecessor. Ustinov’s success in the role came from his insight and attention to detail in Christie’s character. He focused on Poirot’s personality and even referred to the role as exhausting, explaining that “Poirot is so terribly accurate and tidy in his mind and habits. So meticulous.”

David Suchet – The Long-standing Poirot

In 1989 David Suchet took on his first role as Hercule Poirot, which would be the beginning of a 25-year career which saw him depict Poirot in 70 episodes across 13 series, watched by 700 million viewers in over 100 countries worldwide. Suchet attributes his popularity of portraying Poirot to the attention to detail that he paid to the personal eccentricities that Christie described in her novels. Each day before filming Suchet would read through his list of character notes which contained over 90 traits of Agatha Christie’s sleuth, to help him get into the Poirot mindset. The notes ranged from highlighting Poirot’s ‘passion for tidiness’ to the fact that he ‘hates golf!’

Facts

• Hercule Poirot first appeared in chapter two of Agatha Christie’s first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which was completed in 1916 but not published until 1920.
• The first description of Poirot was by Hastings in The Mysterious Affair at Styles who said, ‘He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side…The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound.”
• He is a retired Belgian police officer turned world famous private detective.
• Poirot is disgusted by disorder and once said that he finds it, “really unsupportable that every hen lays an egg of a different size! What symmetry can there be on the breakfast table?” He’s also known to have refused to eat an irregularly shaped loaf of bread.
• He insists on precision and neatness and even his books are arranged in height order.
• He takes great pride in his appearance from his immaculately groomed black moustache to his patent leather shoes. He uses a special preparation called “Revivit” to darken his grey hair.
• Agatha Christie ‘saw’ the living embodiment of Hercule Poirot twice in her life – once having lunch in the Savoy and once on a boat trip in the Canary Islands.
• Christie dropped the Belgian detective from four of her Poirot novels when she adapted them for the stage. These were Murder on the Nile (Death on the Nile), Appointment with Death, The Hollow and Go Back for Murder (Five Little Pigs).
• He is the only fictional character to have received an obituary on the front of The New York Times in 1975, following the publication of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case.
• Christie had originally planned to have Miss Marple as the detective in Death on the Nile instead of Poirot.
• In an article written for The Daily Mail in 1938, Agatha Christie counted The Murder of Roger Ackroyd as one of Poirot’s favourite cases, explaining that in the book ‘he was at his best, investigating a crime in a quiet country village and using his knowledge of human nature to get at the truth.’
• In 2014, HarperCollins published the first authorised Poirot continuation novel, The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah, which reached the bestseller charts in 16 territories including the UK and US.
• Poirot stars in 33 novels and 59 short stories and 1 original play by Agatha Christie, and 3 continuation novels by Sophie Hannah. He will return in August 2020 in Hannah’s fourth novel, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill.
• Charles Laughton was the first actor to play Hercule Poirot on the stage in 1928’s production of Alibi (based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), and he has since been played by Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov and David Suchet to name a few.
• Poirot narrates most of his own adventures in The Lost Mine and The Chocolate Box. Hastings is the most frequent narrator of Poirot stories, but other narrators include Dr. Sheppard (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), Nurse Leatheran (Murder in Mesopotamia), and Colin Lamb (The Clocks).
• Poirot doesn’t just investigate murders in England. He has investigated crimes in France, Belgium, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Switzerland, and the Balkans.
• Poirot is very particular about the beverages he drinks. His preferred hot beverage is cocoa, though he often takes herbal tisanes for health reasons. He does not care for many forms of alcohol, like beer and most hard liquors, but he does like good wines. His preferred aperitifs are non-alcoholic sirops, in flavours like blackcurrant and other fruits.
• The great love of Poirot’s life is Countess Vera Rossakoff, a flamboyant Russian expatriate who may or may not be a true aristocrat. The Countess is a jewel thief and henchwoman for The Big Four before she reforms and eventually manages a nightclub.

Quotes

“’Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend’, observed Poirot philosophically. ‘You cannot mix up sentiment and reason.’”

— The Mysterious Affair at Styles, on suspects

“Hercule Poirot’s methods are his own. Order and method, and ‘the little grey cells’.”

— The Big Four, on being an individual

“I do not need to bend and measure the footprints and pick up the cigarette ends and examine the bent blades of grass. It is enough for me to sit back in my chair and think.”

— Five Little Pigs, on his methodical approach

“In England the cult of the moustache is lamentably neglected.”

— Dumb Witness, on appearance

“It is not the past that matters, but the future.”

— Death on the Nile, on progress

“Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.”

— The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, on the art of detection

“It is a profound belief of mine that if you can induce a person to talk to you for long enough, on any subject whatever! Sooner or later they will give themselves away.”

— After the Funeral, on human behaviour

“If you will allow Poirot to offer you a piece of wise advice: the pursuit of revenge is rarely a good idea.”

— The Mystery of Three Quarters, on revenge

Poirot’s Moustache

Poirot’s moustache is his trademark. It’s often the first thing people notice about him, and it’s his pride and joy. Poirot takes great care with his appearance from the tip of his shoes to the top of his egg-shaped head, and his moustache is no exception. He believes he has both the finest moustache and the finest brain in Britain – a claim many of his fans around the world would no doubt agree with. Throughout the six decades that his mysteries were documented by Agatha Christie, Poirot’s moustache was described in a number of ways, and was often the focus defining his appearance…

Эркюль Пуаро (фр. Hercule Poirot) — придуманный Агатой Кристи частный детектив, самый известный представитель этой профессии после Шерлока Холмса. Назван в честь героя греческих мифов Геракла.

Его расследованиям посвящены 33 романа, больше полусотни рассказов и пьеса самой Кристи, а также несколько книг других авторов. Первая экранизация появилась еще в 1931 г., и новые фильмы выходят едва ли не каждый год. Многие считают, что лучше всего образ Пуаро воплотил Дэвид Суше в сериале ITV «Пуаро Агаты Кристи», выходившем в 1989—2013 годах.

Сама Кристи терпеть не могла придуманного ей «маленького лицемера», образ которого ей надоел уже несколько лет спустя. Однако истории о Пуаро пользовались такой всеобщей любовью, что она продолжала писать о приключениях частного детектива практически до самой смерти.

Маленький несносный иностранец[править]

Внешность и характер[править]

Эркюль Пуаро — бельгиец, бежавший в Великобританию от немецкой оккупации во время Первой мировой войны.^[1] Родом из небогатой многодетной семьи. Служил в бельгийской полиции. Детали довоенной жизни Пуаро очень скудны и расплывчаты, неизвестен даже его возраст.^[2]

Пуаро — низкий, полноватый брюнет (с возрастом начал красить волосы). Носит тщательно ухоженные усы, которыми очень гордится. Глаза — зеленые, создают впечатление кошачьих.

Отличается маниакальной страстью к чистоте и порядку. Вне зависимости от обстоятельств щегольски одет, хотя гардероб его со временем сильно отстает от моды. Дома всё всегда разложено строго по местам. Стремится, чтобы на банковском счету всегда было 444 фунта 4 шиллинга 4 пенса.

Отличается абсолютно логическим складом ума, хотя и не лишён эмоций. Чрезвычайно наблюдателен.

Свободно говорит по-английски, и если хочет — практически без акцента, лишь иногда вставляя в речь понятные французские слова. Но, если желает ввести собеседника в заблуждение и внушить ему или ей ложное чувство превосходства над маленьким иностранным чудиком, резко забывает язык Шекспира. Часто говорит о себе в третьем лице.

Считает себя лучшим сыщиком в мире и не страдает от ложной скромности (или от скромности вообще), что пару раз выходило ему боком. Любит быть в центре внимания, склонен к театральным эффектам в расследованиях. Есть Кнопка берсерка — не вздумайте называть его французом, и пусть его французская речь не вводит вас в заблуждение! Он бельгиец и точка.

Единственная известная любовь Пуаро — Вера Русакова (описано в романе «Большая четвёрка» и рассказе «Пленение Цербера»).

Детективный метод[править]

Свои расследования Пуаро строит на сборе, систематизации и приведении в логическую систему всех доступных фактов о преступлении. В поисках фактов может прибегать к неэтичным и откровенно незаконным методам — читает личную переписку, незаконно проникает в чужое жилье, подслушивает разговоры. «Воссоздать картину преступления — вот цель детектива. Для этого необходимо складывать известные вам факты так, будто вы строите карточный домик. Если какой-то факт не ложится в нужное место, — если карта не сохраняет равновесия, — надо начинать заново, или все ваше построение рухнет».(Пуаро о своем методе)

После того, как факты собраны, в работу вступают «маленькие серые клеточки». Иногда Пуаро находит ключ к разгадке благодаря ошибочным суждениям своих помощников. Также не любит классические улики вроде отпечатков пальцев или сигарного пепла, при том, что часто первым обращает внимание на такие мелочи.

У Пуаро, по крайней мере в 1930-е, есть собственное детективное агентство. Поскольку другие детективы в нём не работают — кто может сравниться с великим Пуаро? — то оно без особого вреда для сюжета закрывается где-то перед Второй мировой войной, и Пуаро продолжает работать в одиночестве.

Друзья и помощники[править]

Капитан Артур Гастингс[править]

Офицер британской армии в отставке, с которым Пуаро познакомился еще в Бельгии. Несмотря на разницу в возрасте и характере, эти двое подружились. Типичный английский джентльмен — хорошо образованный, храбрый, благородный, но не слишком умный. Обладает чрезмерно развитой фантазией, которая иногда помогает Пуаро раскрыть очередное преступление.

При поддержке Пуаро женится на девушке, с которой познакомился во время одного из расследований, и уезжает с ней в Аргентину. Периодически возвращается в Англию. Рассказывает о последнем деле Пуаро в романе «Занавес», там же присутствует одна из его дочерей.

В экранизациях ему обычно уделяется больше внимания, чем в книгах.

Ариадна Оливер[править]

Детективная писательница, прославившаяся книгами о финском детективе Свене Гьерсоне. Жизнерадостная и непосредственная дама средних лет с еще более диким воображением, чем у Гастингса. Очень любит яблоки и не любит свою писательскую славу.

Оливер — очевидная самопародия Кристи. Писательница умудряется высмеивать романы про Пуаро в романах про Пуаро!

Фелисити Лемон[править]

Секретарша в детективном агентстве Пуаро. Бельгиец считал её «неправдоподобно некрасивой и невероятно эффективной». Если мисс Лемон считает, что что-то заслуживает внимания, значит, это действительно заслуживает внимания. Напрочь лишена воображения, но крайне умна. Планирует создать идеальную систему делопроизводства.

Практически никогда не ошибается. Едва ли не единственная её ошибка во время работы у Пуаро была вызвана беспокойством за сестру, но Пуаро решил эту проблему.

В экранизациях часто оказывается более привлекательной и человечной, чем в книгах. Например, в «Пуаро Агаты Кристи» любит кошек.

Старший инспектор Джепп[править]

Старший инспектор Скотланд-Ярда Джеймс Гарольд Джепп представляет официальные власти в ранних книгах о Пуаро. Он редко помогает сыщику, обычно ограничиваясь арестом преступника.

Больше известен по экранизациям, особенно по «Пуаро Агаты Кристи». Давид Суше до знаменитого сериала тоже играл Джеппа — в одном из фильмов с Питером Устиновым в главной роли.

Мистер Гоби[править]

Управляющий частного детективного агентства, который периодически помогает Пуаро добывать необходимые сведения при помощи целой сети своих агентов. Отличительной чертой персонажа является привычка смотреть не на собеседника, а на какой-нибудь предмет рядом.

Другие киновоплощения Пуаро[править]

• Питер Устинов сыграл Пуаро сразу в нескольких фильмах и до сериала с Суше считался самым каноническим воплощением героя:
  • 1978 — Смерть на Ниле (номинация на премию BAFTA за лучшую мужскую роль)
  • 1982 — Зло под солнцем
  • 1985 — Тринадцать за обедом (на роли инспектора Джеппа мелькает Дэвид Суше)
  • 1986 — Загадка мертвеца
  • 1986 — Убийство в трёх актах
  • 1988 — Свидание со смертью
• «Убийство в Восточном экспрессе» (2017) — капустник со звёздами на всех ролях. В роли Пуаро — Кеннет Брана, он же режиссёр, что объясняет как его взяли на роль Пуаро с таким-то ростом. Аналогично — «Смерть на Ниле» (2022).
• В России Пуаро играли Константин Райкин — в фильме «Неудача Пуаро» и Анатолий Равикович — в фильме «Загадка Эндхауза».

Названные в честь Пуаро клише и тропы[править]

• Язык Пуаро на ТВ-тропах.
• Эффект Пуаро.

Примечания[править]

1. ↑ Во время войны Кристи познакомилась в Торки с бельгийскими беженцами, среди которых были и бывшие полицейские. Прямого прототипа Пуаро среди них не было, но идею писательнице они подали.
2. ↑ Действие книг о Пуаро происходит обычно за год-два до их выхода в печать, если прямо не сказано иное. И уже в первом романе «Загадочное происшествие в Стайлзе» он был «не слишком молодым». Кристи пришлось тщательно избегать указаний на возраст персонажа, иначе ему пришлось бы стать столетним стариком еще в середине карьеры.

[изменить] Детектив
Общее	Врёт, как очевидец • Кабинетные диалоги • Красная сельдь • Лист прячут в лесу • На шаг позади злодея • Палец в конверте • План Стэплтона • Слон из мухи vs Верхушка айсберга • Судмедэксперт в возмущении • Тайна запертой комнаты • Это два разных дела Убийца — не садовник: Виновны все подозреваемые • Злодей, косящий под жертву • Смерть — лучшее алиби • Убийства в театральном стиле • Убийства не было • Убийц было двое • Убийца — дворецкий • Убийца — заказчик • Убийца — один из нас • Убийца — я! • Убийцей был главный герой • Убить учёного
Жанры	Виртуальный детектив • Детский детектив • Иронический детектив • Исторический детектив • Нуар • Пинкертоновщина • Псевдодетектив • Психологический детектив • Шпионский роман • …
Кино и ТВ	Криминальное кино • Полицейская драма • Процедурал • …
Действующие лица	Детектив-недотёпа • Инспектор • Сыщик-любитель • Доктор Ватсон (как амплуа) • Профессор Мориарти (как амплуа) • Свидетель • Частный детектив/Частный консультант • Ясновидящий детектив
Авторы	Агата Кристи • Найо Марш • Эдгар По • Валерий Роньшин • Юлиан Семёнов • Дэшил Хэмметт • Рэймонд Чандлер • Джеймс Хедли Чейз • Дик Фрэнсис • Рекс Стаут
Персонажи	Эмиль Боев • Патер Браун • Ниро Вульф • Нэнси Дру • Адам Дэлглиш • мисс Марпл • комиссар Мегрэ • Перри Мейсон • монахиня Пелагия • Эркюль Пуаро • Аркадий Ренко • рабби Смолл • доктор Торндайк • Майк Хаммер • Инспектор Морс • Харри Холе • Шерлок Холмс • Эраст Фандорин
Книги	87-й полицейский участок • Имя розы • Хроники брата Кадфаэля • The Murders in the Rue Morgue • Millenium (серия романов) …
Фильмы	Врата Расёмон • Достать ножи…
Сериалы	CSI/NCIS • Вавилон-Берлин • Война Фойла • Глухарь • Закон и порядок • Инспектор Линли расследует • Касл • Коломбо • Мост • Метод • Мыслить как преступник • Настоящий детектив • Новичок • Нюхач • Обмани меня • Следствие по телу • Строго на юг • Твин Пикс • Улицы разбитых фонарей • Убойная сила • Шерлок • Шетланд…
Мультсериалы	Скуби-Ду
Игры	Ace Attorney • Blade Runner • Cluedo • Danganronpa • L.A. Noire • Still Life • Wolf Among Us Интерактивный аудиороман Внутренние тени.
←	Амплуа • Основы

Эркюль Пуаро (фр.Hercule Poirot) — детектив, литературный персонаж многих произведений Агаты Кристи.

Личность

Пуаро — вежливый, утонченный, экстравагантный, прагматичный и педантичный человек. Он не терпит физический труд, однако не может жить без дела. Склонен забываться, ставить себя выше других, проявлять нескромность и заносчивость. Тайны он раскрывает с долей театральности, в присутствии всех связанных с тем или иным делом лиц.

Пуаро любит порядок, симметрию во всем. Раздумывая над очередным сложным и загадочным делом, он любит строить карточные домики. Также Пуаро склонен к гурманству и любит готовить. Кроме того, ему не нравится, когда его называют «французом»: он всегда поправляет того, кто так его назвал, и говорит, что он — не француз, а бельгиец.

Биография Эркюля Пуаро в книгах

Отношения с окружающими

Лучшим другом Пуаро является капитан Артур Гастингс. Он всегда сопровождает его и выполняет при нём такую же роль, как доктор Ватсон — при Шерлоке Холмсе, выслушивая его рассуждения, задавая вопросы и искренне восхищаясь своим гениальным другом. Пуаро, со своей стороны, относится к Гастингсу хотя и дружелюбно, но слегка насмешливо: по его словам, Гастингс со своей наивностью и простодушием помогает ему понять, в чём именно преступник пытается убедить других людей и самого сыщика.

Цитаты

• Умный человек держит свои соображения при себе.
• Женщины бессознательно замечают тысячи мелких деталей, бессознательно сопоставляют их — и называют это интуицией.
• Соблюдение тайны — искусство, требующее многократной и виртуозной лжи, и больших артистических способностей, и умения наслаждаться этой комедией от всей души.
• Мой девиз: метод, порядок и серые клеточки мозга.
• Самое простое объяснение чаще всего и бывает самым верным.
• Чего хочет женщина, того хочет Бог. Так они все считают.
• Эркюль Пуаро не рискует своим костюмом без нужды. Это смешно. А я не бываю смешон.
• Все что-то прячут…
• Возьмем человека — обыкновенного человека, не помышляющего ни о каком убийстве. Но у него — слабый характер. Долгое время эта слабость не проявляется. Может, даже никогда не проявится, и тогда он сойдет в могилу уважаемым членом общества. Но предположим — что-то случилось. У него затруднения… Или он узнает секрет, от которого зависит чья-то жизнь. Первым его поползновением будет исполнить свой гражданский долг, но тут проявится эта слабость. Ведь перед ним откроется возможность получить большие деньги. Ему нужны деньги, а это так просто! Только молчать. Это начало. Жажда денег всё растет. Ему нужно еще и еще. Он ослеплен блеском золота, опьянен легкостью наживы. Он становится жадным и от жадности теряет чувство меры. Мужчину можно выжимать до бесконечности, но не женщину. Потому что женщина всегда стремится сказать правду. Сколько мужей, изменявших женам, унесли в могилу свои секреты! Сколько жен, обманувших мужей, разбивали свою жизнь, швыряя правду в лицо мужьям! («Убийство Роджера Экройда»)
• Не вредно иногда прибегать к услугам серых клеточек…
• Сыщика должно интересовать в первую очередь не само убийство, а что стоит за ним. Понимаете, о чем я говорю, Гастингс? […] Я заметил, что, когда мы работаем вместе, вы всегда стараетесь принудить меня к физическим действиям. Вы хотите, чтобы я измерял следы обуви, брал анализы сигаретного пепла или, ползая на коленях по полу, выискивал какие-то вещественные доказательства. Вам никогда не приходит в голову, что, когда сидишь с закрытыми глазами в кресле, удается быстрее подойти к решению проблемы, потому что ум видит больше, чем глаза.
• Честное слово, примерно так и было. Каждый раз я говорю: все, в последний раз. Но нет, что-нибудь еще происходит! Признаюсь, мне совсем не по душе отставка. Если не тренировать серое вещество, оно покроется ржавчиной.
• …И занялся выращиванием кабачков. И сразу же произошло убийство, и я послал кабачки к черту. Я хорошо знаю, что вы на это скажете: я как примадонна, которая дает прощальный спектакль. Дает неопределенное количество раз.
• Эксперты собирают факты, а роль детектива — разгадать преступление методом логической дедукции, правильно восстановить цепь событий, увязав их с уликами. Но превыше всего — понять психологию преступника.
• Дело проясняется прямо на глазах! Убийца — мужчина огромной физической силы, он же мозгляк, он же женщина, он же левша и правша одновременно.

См. также

• Эркюль Пуаро (Фильмы)