“Poirot has most of the characteristics that the British of the time were supposed to despise in bourgeois foreigners. He is vain, fussy, dapper and conceited enough to expect that everyone has heard of him and admires him. Yet it is vital that he is acceptable as a foreign hero to the readers. So although he has the veneer of a foreigner, he possesses the manners, social graces, values and sentiments so important to the British. His friendship with a proven British loyalist, Captain Hastings, also endorses his credibility.”
– Cathy Cook, The Agatha Christie Miscellany
Tag: agatha christie’s poirot
“Sit, Bob. Good dog. You are the only one who knows the truth, mon petit. You know how your mistress died. You also know, I think, who killed her. He or she passed you by as they laid the trip wire, saying to themselves, “Oh, this is only Bob, a fox terrier. He cannot speak. I am safe.” Such foolishness, n’est-ce pas? But you and I, we know, Bob, that one does not have to speak in order to tell. And you will tell me all, in your own good time.“