The Secret Adversary door Agatha Christie

Book report – Engels – Arjen Riedstra – 2015/16

1. ‘The secret adversary’

Aghata Christie

This book was written in 1922. The kind of era was 20th century. This does play a role in the story

The author is born on 15 September 1890 and is gone dead on 12 January 1976. She comes from Great-Britain. More than four billion of its copies have been sold and her books have been translated into 108 languages.

The book introduces the characters of Tommy and Tuppence who feature in three other Christie novels and one collection of short stories; the five Tommy and Tuppence books span Agatha Christie's writing career. ‘The Secret Adversary’ was turned into a film.

1. The story takes place in London, the capital of Great-Britain, and Bournemouth The story is set in 1915. The kind of milieu, where the story takes place is class. No, it is not a familiar place/time for me, because the story takes place a hundred years ago and London is a great big city. The story should different if it had been in another time, because not everyone who lived in 1915 had a car.
2. The cover of the book is not very inviting, because it doesn’t look nice. The cover is green and blue with the image, which a man in a hat and a woman. My first impression based on the cover met by the story in the book was that the story is about detectives. After the first page, I thought: ‘What book I’m reading right now?’ I liked the story, with which it began, not clear
3. Tuppence meets Tommy and speaks him to place an advertisement together, to look for work. They are overheard by Mr Whittington, who follows Tuppence to offer her a position. Tuppence wants not to tell her name, she says she is Jane Finn. Whittington sends her away. Tuppence and Tommy want to get information about Jane Finn. Carter, a member of the secret service, says that Jane Finn was a passenger on the ship "Lusitania", what wrecked.  Jane got a secret request what  had to go to London. Jane disappeared and was never found. Carter gives Tommy and Tuppence an order to find her. They find Julius, a cousin of Jane, who has given the last picture to Scotland Yard. Margaret Vandemeyer, a passenger of the ‘Lusitania’. Tommy and Tuppence visit her and see Whittington and another man leaving her house. Julius follows Whittington , Tommy the other man and Tuppence will work at Rita. Whittington is visiting Jane, she suffers from memory loss. Tuppence have contact with Sir James, he proposes that he helps to find Jane, Not much later, Rita is killed and Jane is traceless. Tommy who is following a meeting, is caught. Annette helps Tommy to escape. Sir James find Jane and it turns out that Annette is Jane. She remembers the secret request. Sir James revealed he is Mister Brown. He want to kill Jane and Prudence. He commits suicide.

1. The main characters are Thomas “Tommy” Beresford and Prudence “Tuppence” Cowley.

• Thomas “Tommy” Beresford: Tommy, is an Englishman and fought in the Great War. Can think clearly. He is a flat character, he does not change from beginning to end. He is smart.
• Prudence “Tuppence” Cowley: Tuppence is a young woman with black hair. She is stylisch and modern, quick and intuitive in her thinking. If she has an idea she is doing it.  She is also a flat character, because she was and is good.

For Jane Finn I had the most sympathy, because a American passenger said that she have to tell a secret request. She had to go to London. Why you have to that? For Mister Brown and Mister Whittington I did not have the sympathy, because                                                                              Mister Brown wants to dead Jane and Tuppence. And Mister Whittington cancelled the order. In this story, I don’t see a character who could my friend, because I think they are to many serious.

I would not acted the same as the main characters, because they are thinking and waiting. I want to do what have to do.

The relationship between the main characters is that they are workmates, they have the same job. The job is to find where and who Jane Finn is. And they are friends.

1. The story is told from the story teller, the teller has not specific information to tell.

The effect of this is that the story is reliable. You know what are the emotions of the characters, you know what they thinking. This would different, when the story was told by the main character, you know what the main character feels, but not what another character feels.

1. There are different chapters and they a number. The story does contains parts. Sometimes they take is another place or time, but then it is a continuation of the story.

The story does not have specific flashbacks, the story is told chronologically. It’s from the begin to the end. The story is build up from the beginning to the climax, because it became more exciting. The climax takes place in de middle of the book. I know this, because the begin of the book was very boring, and after that is was more exciting.

From the climax until the end became Rita dead and Jane traceless. And Tommy was caught. At the end was Jane found and Tommy escaped. The charters had learnt to remain calm in those situations.

1. The main characters Tommy and Tuppence are looking for a job. So they come out with different employers. From one of them, they must find some papers and they chase people. They do not know who their opponent as it were, and many people turn out to be someone else afterwards.

I think that the title is clear, because in this story the main characters have secret adversary´s. The title does the reader trigger. There is not more than one explanation for the title. I think that the title and the cover of the book match.

1. The theme of the story is detective. The message of the author is that you don´t have to trust everyone. The main characters are detectives.

1. I did not like reading this book. It was written a little old fashioned and there were hard words.

What I did like: title, climax, ending, Tommy and Tuppence.

What I did not like: author, theme, beginning and middle of the book.

I can’t relate the book to something else. I don’t think I will remember this book, I thought this book was more exciting.

1. The most memorable part of the book for me was on the end. When Mister Brown commits suicide. I was asking myself why Mister Brown was doing that. What could Tommy and Tuppence do?