Editing Hercule Poirot (section)

== Overview ==

=== Influences ===

Poirot's name was derived from two other fictional detectives of the time: [[Marie Belloc Lowndes]]'s Hercule Popeau and [[Frank Howel Evans]]'s Monsieur Poiret, a retired French police officer living in London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5054 |title=Agatha Christie (1890–1976) |access-date=6 September 2006 |first=Chris|last= Willis|location=London Metropolitan University}}</ref> Evans's 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. <ref>{{cite book|author=Frank Howell Evans|title=The Murder of Lady Malvern}}</ref>

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 [[Inspector Lestrade|Lestrade]]-type Scotland Yard detective, [[Inspector Japp]]".{{efn|Reproduced as the "Introduction" to 2013 ''Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories: A Hercule Poirot Collection with Foreword by Charles Todd''}} 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 "[[wikt:ratiocination|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 (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. The [[Belgian refugees in Britain during the First World War|large number of refugees in the country]] who had fled the [[German invasion of Belgium (1914)|German invasion of Belgium]] in August to November 1914 served as a plausible explanation of why such a skilled detective would be available to solve mysteries at an [[English country house]].{{sfn|Christie|1939}} At the time of Christie's writing, it was considered patriotic to express sympathy towards the Belgians,<ref>{{cite book|first=Horace Cornelius|last= Peterson|title=Propaganda for War. The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914–1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkJbnQEACAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Kennikat|isbn=9780804603652}}</ref> 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 ===

Poirot first appeared in ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]'', published in 1920, and exited in ''[[Curtain (novel)|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]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://uk.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/characters/poirot/ |title=Poirot |publisher=Official Agatha Christie website |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412131601/http://uk.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/characters/poirot/ |archive-date=12 April 2010 |access-date=10 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Hercule Poirot is Dead; Famed Belgian Detective; Hercule Poirot, the Detective, Dies |first=Thomas |last=Lask |date=6 August 1975 |page=1 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E10F63A5E157493C4A91783D85F418785F9}}</ref>

By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot "insufferable"; by 1960, she felt that Poirot 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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5054 |title=Agatha Christie (1890–1976) |date=16 July 2001 |access-date=10 June 2013 |first=Chris |last=Willis |encyclopedia=The Literary Encyclopedia |publisher=The Literary Dictionary Company |issn=1747-678X}}</ref>

=== Appearance and proclivities ===

[[Captain Arthur Hastings]]'s first description of Poirot:

{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Christie|1939}}}}

Agatha Christie's initial description of Poirot in ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'':

{{blockquote|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. {{sfn|Christie|2011}}}}

In the later books, his limp is not mentioned, suggesting it may have been a temporary wartime injury. (In ''[[Curtain: Poirot's Last Case|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,<ref>E.g. "For about ten minutes [Poirot] sat in dead silence... and all the time his eyes grew steadily greener" {{harvnb|Christie|1939|loc=Chapter 5}}</ref> and dark hair, which he dyes later in life. In ''Curtain'', he admits to Hastings that he has taken to wearing a wig and a false moustache.<ref>as Hastings discovers in {{harvnb|Christie|1991|loc=Chapter 1}}</ref> 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.<ref>E.g. "Hercule Poirot looked down at the tips of his patent-leather shoes and sighed." {{harvnb|Christie|1947a}}</ref> Poirot's appearance, regarded as fastidious during his early career, later falls hopelessly out of fashion.<ref>E.g. "And now here was the man himself. Really a most impossible person – the wrong clothes – button boots! an incredible moustache! Not his – Meredith Blake's kind of fellow at all." {{harvnb|Christie|2011|loc=Chapter 7}}</ref>

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

{{blockquote|The plane dropped slightly. ''"Mon estomac,"'' thought Hercule Poirot, and closed his eyes determinedly.{{sfn|Christie|2010|loc=Chapter 1}}}}

He suffers from [[sea sickness]],<ref>"My stomach, it is not happy on the sea"{{harvnb|Christie|1980|loc=Chapter 8, iv}}</ref> 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:

{{blockquote|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.{{sfn|Christie|2010|loc=Chapter 1}}}}

Poirot is extremely punctual and carries a [[pocket watch]] almost to the end of his career.<ref>"he walked up the steps to the front door and pressed the bell, glancing as he did so at the neat wrist-watch which had at last replaced an old favourite – the large turnip-faced watch of early days. Yes, it was exactly nine-thirty. As ever, Hercule Poirot was exact to the minute." {{harvnb|Christie|2011b}}</ref> He is also particular about his personal finances, preferring to keep a bank balance of 444 pounds, 4 shillings, and 4 pence.{{sfn|Christie|2013a}} Actor [[David Suchet]], who portrayed Poirot on television, said "there's no question he's [[obsessive-compulsive]]".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/may/19/david-suchet-poirot-agatha-christie|title=Poirot and me |last=Barton|first=Laura |author-link=Laura Barton |date=18 May 2009|work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |access-date=2021-05-06 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Film portrayer [[Kenneth Branagh]] said that he "enjoyed finding the sort of obsessive-compulsive" in Poirot.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/11/10/563378736/kenneth-branagh-on-his-meticulous-master-detective-role-in-murder-on-the-orient-|title=Kenneth Branagh on His Meticulous Master Detective Role In 'Murder on the Orient Express'|publisher=NPR |access-date=26 November 2017|language=en}}</ref>

As mentioned in ''[[Curtain (novel)|Curtain]]'' and ''[[The Clocks]]'', he is fond of classical music, particularly [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]].

=== Methods ===

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 "[[Grey matter|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''.{{sfn|Christie|2004b}} 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]], [[fingerprint]]s, 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.<ref>"It has been said of Hercule Poirot by some of his friends and associates, at moments when he has maddened them most, that he prefers lies to truth and will go out of his way to gain his ends by elaborate false statements, rather than trust to the simple truth." {{harvnb|Christie|2011a|loc= Book One, Chapter 9}}</ref> In ''The Murder of Roger Ackroyd'', Poirot speaks of a non-existent mentally disabled nephew<ref>E.g. "After a careful study of the goods displayed in the window, Poirot entered and represented himself as desirous of purchasing a rucksack for a hypothetical nephew." ''Hickory Dickory Dock'', Chapter 13</ref> 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''.{{sfn|Christie|2004b}}

<blockquote>"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.{{sfn|Christie|1947|p=}}</blockquote>

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

<blockquote>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.{{sfn|Christie|2006b|loc=final chapter}}</blockquote>

He also has a tendency to [[Illeism|refer to himself in the third person]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/jul/28/agatha-christie-poirot-box-set | title = Your next box set: Agatha Christie's Poirot | work = The Guardian | last = Saner | first = Emine | date=2011-07-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10431162/Poirot-The-Labours-of-Hercules-ITV-review.html | title = Poirot: The Labours of Hercules, ITV, review| work = The Telegraph | last = Pettie | first = Andrew | date=2013-11-06}}</ref>

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..."{{sfn|Christie|2005|loc=Chapter 18}} 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.