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Agatha Christie: Female Genius, Underrated
Agatha Christie’s detective fiction is not a leisurely fantasy but a clever commentary on social class. Why is that not recognised?
I always knew that detective stories— as well as other genre fiction — are routinely mocked as beach reads incapable of deep social analysis that remains reserved for the canon of “real literature” (a premise I resolutely reject). I was, however, surprised to learn that not all detective fiction faces such harsh prejudices — many male writers of detective novels are actually celebrated as geniuses by literary critics. Take Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, or — one of the subjects of this article — Raymond Chandler. (If you look at other genres, like sci-fi, horror, or fantasy, you will notice the same: Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, and J.R.R. Tolkien are all proud members of the “male-genius” club.). The stories of these authors have earned respect as works of literature, and rightly so; however, the same cannot be said of most female genre writers.
Agatha Christie, one of the most influential authors of all time, belongs to these underrated female geniuses — a fact that becomes especially apparent whenever Hercule Poirot, her signature character, is compared to detectives created by men, such as Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.
