Agatha Christie, Ordeal by Innocence

Amy Lee (The Open University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1958

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Crime and Detective
Novel

Resources

Ordeal by Innocence features one of Christie’s favourite characters from her previous stories, Arthur Calgary, a doctor and occasional unofficial detective. Here he is involved in the murder as a witness. Like Charles Hayward in Crooked House, he is the outsider involved in an investigation of a family; and like Charles he finally marries the woman he loves at the end of the story.

At the beginning of the novel, we see Arthur Calgary making a trip visit the Argyle family at Sunny Point. He is very troubled because he is going to announce to the Argyle family that he could have saved Jacko Argyle’s life by giving evidence at his trial two years ago, when he was convicted of murder. In his defence, Jacko had …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1231 words

Citation: Lee, Amy. "Ordeal by Innocence". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 October 2003 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3014, accessed 25 November 2024.]

Save this article