BOOK REVIEW: Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly (A Novella), by Agatha Christie
Publisher: Witness Impulse/HarperCollins
Publication Date: November 12, 2013
Source: Edelweiss
Review first appeared on Cozy Little Book Journal on February 8, 2014

I'm so glad I finally got around to reading this "previously unpublished" Agatha Christie novella if for no other reason than that it cleared up a question that had been nagging at me: what was Christie's obsession with follies? I didn't even know what an architectural folly was before I started reading Agatha Christie but she has three separate stories about them: Dead Man's Folly, "Greenshaw's Folly" and The Greenshore Folly. Why is she so fond of them? Finally I have an answer.

A folly, by the way, is an ornamental building, usually found in the large garden of a rich person, and is by definition a building that serves no purpose other than decorative but is designed to look like it does have a person. The most common follies are things like miniature replicas of ancient Greek temples or even fake ruins. They're very silly but at least they're aptly named.

An example of a folly: The Temple of Modern Philosophy in the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Park in France. This building was left unfinished on purpose, symbolizing that knowledge would never be complete and that philosophy will progress (and also to be pretentious).
from Wikipedia

As it turns out, Agatha Christie probably did not mean to write three separate stories about follies. It all started with this one, The Greenshore Folly, which she wrote as a gift to her local church. Specifically, she promised to donate the sales rights of one of her short stories to the church so they could install stained glass windows (which was apparently Christie's idea in the first place). Unfortunately after she had written it, she discovered that her publisher wouldn't publish it in its current state. It was too long to be a short story, too short to be a novel or even a proper novella, and not right for serialization. How embarrassing. What folly.

Stained glass windows in Church of St Mary the Virgin in the village of Churston Ferrers
Source: englishriviera.co.uk

So she extended The Greenshore Folly into a novel and called it Dead Man's Folly, which was a great success (it even became a video game, which I have played and it's pretty great). But she didn't promise the sales rights of a novel to the church (that's crazytalk) so she still owed them a short story. And apparently there was some issue with the contract that required her to write a story with a similar title to the original (perhaps because the church was located in Greenway?), thus "Greenshaw's Folly" was born. Of course in "Greenshaw's Folly" the "folly" in question is more of a state of being than an architectural detail, if I remember correctly.

David Suchet and Zoë Wanamaker as Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver in ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot--Season 13, Episode 3, "Dead Man's Folly"

So The Greenshore Folly ended up on a shelf, I suppose, though that's hardly surprising considering it's really just a shorter version of Dead Man's Folly. She couldn't really publish both stories when they're so similar. Still, I'm glad it has been published now. I think Dame Christie knew just what she was doing when she made this story the length it is. It's perfectly crafted and doesn't seem to need to be any longer or shorter.

Dead Man's Folly hidden object game. It's pretty good actually.

I can only compare it to Dead Man's Folly and "Greenshaw's Folly" based on the ITV productions of those stories, as I haven't read either of them. But it seems that the novella has more in common with the former than the latter.

Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple and Fiona Shaw as Miss Katherine Greenshaw in ITV's Agatha Christie's Marple--Season 6, Episode 2, "Greenshaw's Folly"
Yep, that's Mrs. Dursley, and she was MAGNIFICENT!

In any case, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I've had a renewed interest in Agatha Christie lately so this was just perfect. I'm so glad I started this blog because it gives me an excuse to write about all the Agatha Christie shows I've been watching lately too!

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