AgathaChristeClubR3

The Secret of Chimneys | Agatha Christie

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4. We'd be very remiss to talk about Herzoslovakia, Christie's fictional Eastern European country that will later appear in two Poirot stories. In prior discussions, we discussed the casual racism found in the books; this one is no exception. Christie barely discusses the country itself, but we the reader get a sense that the people from Herzoslovakia are suspect, to say the least. Any comments? #ChristiesCapers #AgathaChristeClubR3

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Librarybelle Here is a link to an article found in the Journal of Literature, Culture and Literary Translation that discusses all of the nuances of Herzoslovakia, including Christie's take on the place and the people: https://www.sic-journal.org/Article/Index/406 2mo

MallenNC I think this came out the most in the way Boris, the servant, was described like an animal. Thanks for sharing the article. 2mo

willaful The racism and politics are so bad in this one I had to just not think about them. 2mo

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BarbaraJean Like @willaful, I had to set aside the problematic racism/politics & not think about it. It was easier here than with Man in the Brown Suit, maybe because it's a fictional country! Thanks for sharing that article. The idea that Christie uses Herzoslovakia “not...as an Other to illustrate British virtue, but as a mirror to British vice“ is super interesting. The British characters are shown to also be complicit, so there was a BIT more nuance here. 2mo

dabbe @Librarybelle @MallenNC @willaful @BarbaraJean Christie‘s Herzoslovakia is a vague, unstable monarchy filled with “swarthy“ conspirators, bomb-throwing anarchists, and exaggerated accents; it seems that she depicts the Balkans as a hotbed of intrigue and violence. Herzoslovakians are uniformly portrayed as untrustworthy (Prince Michael) or buffoons (the Baron). Even Cade is a British-educated outsider, implying superiority. Thanks for the article! 2mo

Larkken I think I had just read the Poirot story with the “chinamen” cringe bits so I was braced to do like the rest of you and set them off to the side while reading. It‘s a bummer since they limit her books‘ rereadability- I have to be in the mood to consciously not think about things 2mo

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