Absent in the Spring
First American edition | |
Author | Mary Westmacott (pseudonym of Agatha Christie) |
---|---|
Cover artist | Not known |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Tragedy |
Publisher | Collins (UK) Farrar & Rinehart (US) |
Publication date | August 1944 |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 160 pp. |
Absent in the Spring is a novel written by Agatha Christie and first published in the United Kingdom by Collins in August 1944 and in the United States by Farrar & Rinehart later in the same year. It was the third of six novels Christie wrote under the pen name Mary Westmacott.
Explanation of the novel's title
The title is a quotation from William Shakespeare's sonnet 98: "From you have I been absent in the spring,..."
Plot introduction
Stranded between trains, Joan Scudamore finds herself reflecting upon her life, her family, and finally coming to grips with the uncomfortable truths about her life.
Literary significance and reception
The Times Literary Supplement's review of 19 August 1944 by Marjorie Grant Cook stated positively, "The writer has succeeded in making this novel told in retrospect, with its many technical difficulties, very readable indeed. She has not made Joan, with her shallow, scrappy mind, sympathetic, and the other characters in the tale, seen through her eyes, lack the charm they had for each other and withheld from her."[1]
J. D. Beresford's review in The Guardian of 25 August 1944 concluded, "It is a very clever and consistently interesting study of a character that not even a desert vision could permanently change."[2]
Publication history
- 1944, William Collins & Sons (London), August 1944, Hardcover, 160 pp.
- 1944, Farrar & Rinehart (New York), 1944, Hardcover, 250 pp.
- 1967, Dell Books, Paperback, 192 pp
- 1971, Arbor House, Hardback, 250 pp.
- 1974, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp.
- 1978, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 300 pp.; ISBN 0-7089-0115-8
The novel was first serialised in the United States in Good Housekeeping in two abridged instalments from July to August 1944.
References
External links
- Absent in the Spring at the official Agatha Christie website
- v
- t
- e
- Bibliography
- Universe
- Adaptations
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- The Secret Adversary
- The Murder on the Links
- The Man in the Brown Suit
- The Secret of Chimneys
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
- The Big Four
- The Mystery of the Blue Train
- The Seven Dials Mystery
- The Murder at the Vicarage
- The Sittaford Mystery
- Peril at End House
- Lord Edgware Dies
- Murder on the Orient Express
- Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
- Three Act Tragedy
- Death in the Clouds
- The A.B.C. Murders
- Murder in Mesopotamia
- Cards on the Table
- Dumb Witness
- Death on the Nile
- Appointment with Death
- Hercule Poirot's Christmas
- Murder Is Easy
- And Then There Were None
- Sad Cypress
- One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
- Evil Under the Sun
- N or M?
- The Body in the Library
- Five Little Pigs
- The Moving Finger
- Towards Zero
- Death Comes as the End
- Sparkling Cyanide
- The Hollow
- Taken at the Flood
- Crooked House
- A Murder Is Announced
- They Came to Baghdad
- Mrs McGinty's Dead
- They Do It with Mirrors
- After the Funeral
- A Pocket Full of Rye
- Destination Unknown
- Hickory Dickory Dock
- Dead Man's Folly
- 4.50 from Paddington
- Ordeal by Innocence
- Cat Among the Pigeons
- The Pale Horse
- The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
- The Clocks
- A Caribbean Mystery
- At Bertram's Hotel
- Third Girl
- Endless Night
- By the Pricking of My Thumbs
- Hallowe'en Party
- Passenger to Frankfurt
- Nemesis
- Elephants Can Remember
- Postern of Fate
- Curtain
- Sleeping Murder
Westmacott
- Giant's Bread
- Unfinished Portrait
- Absent in the Spring
- The Rose and the Yew Tree
- A Daughter's a Daughter
- The Burden
collections
- Poirot Investigates
- Partners in Crime
- The Mysterious Mr Quin
- The Thirteen Problems
- The Hound of Death
- The Listerdale Mystery
- Parker Pyne Investigates
- Murder in the Mews
- The Regatta Mystery
- The Labours of Hercules
- The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories
- Three Blind Mice and Other Stories
- The Under Dog and Other Stories
- The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
- Double Sin and Other Stories
- The Golden Ball and Other Stories
- Poirot's Early Cases
- Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories
- Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories
- The Harlequin Tea Set
- While the Light Lasts and Other Stories
- Black Coffee
- And Then There Were None
- Appointment with Death
- Murder on the Nile
- The Hollow
- The Mousetrap
- Witness for the Prosecution
- Spider's Web
- Towards Zero
- Verdict
- The Unexpected Guest
- Go Back For Murder
- Fiddlers Three
- Akhnaton
- Chimneys
television plays
- Wasp's Nest
- The Yellow Iris
- Three Blind Mice
- Butter in a Lordly Dish
- Personal Call
- Agatha Christie Memorial
- Agatha (1979 film)
- Agatha Christie: A Life in Pictures (2004 docudrama)
- The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008 TV episode)
- Agatha and the Truth of Murder (2018 film)
- Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar (2019 film)
- Agatha and the Midnight Murders (2020 film)
- See How They Run (2022 film)
- Archie Christie (first husband)
- Max Mallowan (second husband)
- Ashfield, Torquay (home)
- Greenway Estate (home)
- Agatha Award
- Agatha Christie Award (Japan)
- Category