At Bertram’s Hotel
For today’s book review, I picked up a much-loved book by Dame Agatha Christie, At Bertram’s Hotel.
If you enjoy “old-fashioned” values and nostalgic glimpses into the romanticized past of Britain, and a good murder mystery, you’ll likely enjoy any of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I love Miss Marple, because in large part she reminds me of the older women I’ve known and been quite fond of. What is Miss Marple like? Among other aspects of Miss Marple’s personality, Norma Siebenheller wrote in her essay published in The New Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie:
It is tempting to suspect that the knitting, that everpresent flurry of needles and wool, is a prop that Miss Marple uses to disguise her true personality. Not a bit of it. This is her true personality. She is straight out of the nineteenth century, spinsterish, proper, prim. She is a maiden lady, and a maiden lady of her day did certain things: she went to church (without necessarily being religious); she gossiped; she gardened; and she did needlework–embroidery or knitting.
(as an aside: As much as I love Christie’s books, and especially Miss Jane Marple, they do perpetuate the idea that needlework is something old ladies do. Spinsters. And that is simply not true (knitting has become especially popular amongst the more youthful crowd). All of us who are not elderly spinsters who do needlework of whatever variety, can let it be known to those around us that needlework is cross-generational, hip, and fun!)
I am highlighting this particular Miss Marple book because her needlework is much more evident throughout the story than in some of the other Miss Marple mysteries. Miss Marple is on holiday, courtesy of relatives, and enjoying some genteel leisure in an establishment that caters to people who think fondly of the “days gone by”.
From The New Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie:
It is sentimentality that brings Miss Jane Marple to Bertram’s. She was only fourteen when she first stayed there with an uncle and aunt, and she is at first delighted to find that the place has remained remarkably unchanged over the intervening decades. But what is it about the place that unnerves her now? Everything is just as she had remembered it, and like the rest of the clientele she can find nothing obviously untoward. All is perfect, simply perfect.
Yet something arouses her well-honed sense for evil. Yes, everything is perfect, too incredibly perfect. The help, for instance, know their parts too well, almost like well rehearsed actors. Beneath this veneer of Edwardian politesse Miss Jane Marple can sense something sinister.
From a mild beginning we the readers are hooked, wondering who is going to be murdered and what the reason behind it will be. There are tantalizing hints of crime syndicates and people succumbing to “modern vices”. Does Miss Marple find herself in the path of danger as she so many times does? Did the butler do it? And most importantly to the elderly clientele of Bertram’s Hotel, will the events that occur mean the death of the hotel itself? And occasionally, we get glimpses of Miss Marple’s needlework: some knitting in bed the first morning she is at the hotel, buying some knitting patterns and wools while out shopping..
Pumamouse has a pattern for a Crocheted Sleuthing Shawl, in case you need something to keep the chill off while you read.
If you’d like to stitch a piece featuring a house or hotel, 123 Stitch has many designs to choose from.
Tags: book-review, NeedleworkRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Book Reviews
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