The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons in June 1926 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company on the 19th of the same month. It features Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
It is one of Christie's best known and most controversial novels, its innovative twist ending having a significant impact on the genre. The short biography of Christie which is included in the present UK printings of all of her books states that this novel is her masterpiece. Howard Haycraft, in his seminal 1941 work Murder for Pleasure, included the novel in his "cornerstones" list of the most influential crime novels ever written. The character Caroline Sheppard was later acknowledged by Christie as a possible precursor to her famous detective Miss Marple.
Cultural references
- Pierre Bayard, literature professor and author, in Qui a tué Roger Ackroyd? (Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?), re-investigates Agatha Christie's Ackroyd, proposing an alternative solution. He argues in favor of a different murderer – Sheppard's sister, Caroline – and says Christie subconsciously knew who the real culprit is.
- In the novel The Reptile Room, book 2 of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, the character of Sunny Baudelaire uses, as part of her baby babble, the interjection "Ackroid!" (sic) as a substitute for the more common "Roger!" to mean "message received and understood."
- In 1944-1946, the noted American literary critic Edmund Wilson attacked the entire mystery genre in a set of three columns in the The New Yorker. The second, in the June 20, 1945 issue, was titled Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?
