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The Big Four (novel)
''The Big Four'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 27 January 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector Japp. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. The structure of the novel is different from other Poirot stories, as it began from twelve short stories (eleven in the US) that had been separately published. This is a tale of international intrigue and espionage, therefore opening up the possibility of more spy fiction from Christie. Development In 1926 Christie was already deeply affected by the death of her mother earlier in the year and the breakdown of her marriage to Archibald Christie. Her brother-in-law, Campbell Christie, suggested that, rather than undergo the strain of composing a completely new novel, Christie should merely compile her most recent series o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery '' The Mousetrap'', which has been performed in the West End since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. ''Guinness World Records'' lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Christie was born into a wealthy upper middle class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bodley Head
The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adult non-fiction imprint within Random House's CCV division. As of 2019, The Bodley Head is an imprint of Vintage Publishing UK. History Originally Elkin Mathews and John Lane, The Bodley Head was a partnership set up in 1887 by John Lane (1854–1925) and Elkin Mathews (1851–1921), to trade in antiquarian books in London. It took its name from a bust of Sir Thomas Bodley, the eponymist of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, above the shop door. Lane and Mathews began in 1894 to publish works of ‘stylish decadence’, including the notorious literary periodical ''The Yellow Book''. Also notable amongst Bodley Head's pre-Great War books were the two volume sets: ''Foundations of the Nineteenth Century'' (1910 and later editions, se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's historic and primary financial centre. Its name derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which also had an entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became the public entrance, and over time "Scotland Yard" has come to be used not only as the name of the headquarters building, but also as a metonym for both the Metropolitan Police Service itself and police officers, especially detectives, who serve in it. ''The New York Times'' wrote in 1964 that, just as Wall Street gave its name to New York's financial district, Scotland Yard became the name for police activity in London. The force moved from Great Scotland Yard in 1890, to a newly completed buil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inspector Japp
Inspector James Japp (later Chief Inspector Japp) is a fictional character who appears in several of Agatha Christie's novels featuring Hercule Poirot. Creation Inspector Japp was inspired by the fictional police detective Inspector Lestrade from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. Christie even modelled Japp after the "ferret-like" qualities of Lestrade. In the first novel in which Japp appears, '' The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', he is described as a "ferret-faced man", which is similar to the description of Lestrade as a "ferret-like man" in Doyle's 1891 short story " The Boscombe Valley Mystery". Appearances Japp has been depicted in seven novels written by Christie, all featuring Hercule Poirot: *'' The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (1920) * ''The Big Four'' (1927) *''Peril at End House'' (1932) *''Lord Edgware Dies'' (1933), also known as ''Thirteen at Dinner'' *''Death in the Clouds'' (1935), also known as ''Death in the Air'' *''The A.B.C. Murders'' (193 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidekick
A sidekick is a slang expression for a close companion or colleague (not necessarily in fiction) who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to the one they accompany. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato, Shrek's Donkey and Puss in Boots, Mickey Mouse's Donald Duck and Goofy, Mario's Luigi and Yoshi, Sonic's Tails and Knuckles, Donkey Kong's Diddy Kong, Daffy Duck's Porky Pig, Captain America's Bucky and Batman's Robin. Origins The first recorded use of the term dates from 1896. It is believed to have originated in pickpocket slang of the late 19th century. The "kick" was the front pocket of a pair of trousers, believed to be the pocket safest from theft. Thus, by analogy, a "side-kick" was a person's closest companion.Morris, EvanWord Detective(December 20, 1999). One of the earliest recorded sidekicks may be Enkidu, who adopted a sidekick rol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the seventh most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populous city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 states and the Federal District. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas; one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world; and the most populous Roman Catholic-majority country. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of . It borders all other countries and territories in South America except Ecuador and Chile and covers roughly half of the continent's land area. Its Amazon basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Investigator
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators often work for attorneys in civil and criminal cases. History In 1833, Eugène François Vidocq, a French soldier, criminal, and privateer, founded the first known private detective agency, "Le Bureau des Renseignements Universels pour le commerce et l'Industrie" ("The Office of Universal Information For Commerce and Industry") and hired ex-convicts. Much of what private investigators did in the early days was to act as the police in matters for which their clients felt the police were not equipped or willing to do. Official law enforcement tried many times to shut it down. In 1842, police arrested him in suspicion of unlawful imprisonment and taking money on false pretences after he had solved an embezzlement case. Vidocq later suspect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Character Actor
A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to be almost unrecognizable from part to part, and yet play many, many roles convincingly and memorably. .." The term, often contrasted with that of leading actor, is somewhat abstract and open to interpretation. In a literal sense, all actors can be considered character actors since they all play "characters", but the term more commonly refers to an actor who frequently plays a distinctive and important supporting role. Character actors are generally well-known and recognizable by the audience (by appearance if not by name), even if they play different types of roles in different movies. A character actor may play characters who are very different from the actor's off-screen real-life personality, while in another sense a character actor m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Diaspora
The Russian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Russians. The Russian-speaking ('' Russophone'') diaspora are the people for whom Russian language is the native language, regardless of whether they are ethnic Russians or not. History A significant ethnic Russian emigration took place in the wake of the Old Believer schism in the 17th century (for example, the Lipovans, who migrated southwards around 1700). Later ethnic Russian communities, such as the Doukhobors (who emigrated to the Transcaucasus from 1841 and onwards to Canada from 1899), also emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing centrist authority. One of the religious minorities that had a significant effect on emigration from Russia was the Russian Jewish Population. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, many Russian Jews fled to the country along with their non-Jewish relatives, with the current estimate of Russians in Israel totalling 300,000 (1,000,000 including Russian Jews who in the So ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grandmaster (chess)
Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally it has been revoked for cheating. The title of Grandmaster, along with the lesser FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and FIDE Master (FM), is open to all players regardless of gender. The great majority of grandmasters are men, but 40 women have been awarded the GM title as of 2022, out of a total of about 2000 grandmasters. Since about the year 2000, most of the top 10 women have held the GM title. There is also a Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements awarded only to women. There are also Grandmaster titles for composers and solvers of chess problems, awarded by the World Federation for Chess Composition (see List of grandmasters for chess composition). The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) awards t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jasminum Humile
''Jasminum humile'', the Italian jasmine or yellow jasmine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Oleaceae, native to Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), the Himalayas and south west China (Gansu, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang (Tibet), Yunnan). The species is widely cultivated and reportedly naturalized in Greece, Sicily and the former Yugoslavia. Growing tall by wide, it is a roundish semi-evergreen shrub with thick stems. It has stout, dark green leaves, 5 cm long, with 5-7 imparipinnate leaflets. In protected areas it retains its leaves over winter, though in cold winters its foliage and buds may freeze. It blooms in spring and summer with clusters of usually six yellow, scented flowers. Numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use, of which 'Revolutum' ( syn. ''J. reevesii'' ) has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Etymology ''Jasminum'' is a Latinized version of the Persian name ''yasemin'', or Arab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see History of Worcestershire). Over the centuries the county borders have been modified, but it was not until 1844 that substantial changes were made. Worcestershire was abolished as part of local government reforms in 1974, with its northern area becoming part of the West Midlands and the rest part of the county of Hereford and Worcester. In 1998 the county of Hereford and Worcester was abolished and Worcestershire was reconstituted, again without the West Midlands area. Location The county borders Herefordshire to the west, Shropshire to the north-west, Staffordshire only just to the north, West Midlands to the north and north-east, Warwickshire to the east and Gloucestershire to the south. The western border with Herefordshire includ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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