Did Agatha Christie ‘borrow’ the plot for one of her acclaimed titles froma novel published in Norway SEVENTEEN years earlier?!
News about Agatha Christie “borrowing” the the idea for the plot to her much-loved story, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd has surprised fans of her work.
Apparently new evidence suggests she may have sought inspiration in a Norwegian novel.
Lucy Moffatt, a British translator living in Norway, claims she found an early English magazine translation of Stein Riverton’s story Jernvognen (The Iron Chariot), which uses the same plot device as Christie.
The Poirot novel, published in 1926, became a literary sensation due to its twist which revealed its narrator – Dr James Sheppard – was the murderer.
While the device was novel in British literature, scholars now think Christie had seen a translation of Riverton’s work, which was published in Norway 17 years earlier in 1909.
‘Might Christie have also read or been aware of the Riverton story?’ she said, speaking to The Observer.
‘Well, the timing is extremely convenient, and she did publish a short story under the pen name of Mary Westmacott in the Sovereign Magazine in January 1926.’
The similarities between the plots have always been considered a coincidence, as Jernvognen did not come out in English until 2005 and Christie, who died in 1976, could not read Norwegian.
However, Moffatt has now discovered there was a one-off publication of Riverton’s story in a British crime magazine of the era: Tip Top Stories of Adventure and Mystery.
The magazine was only published for six months between 1923 and 1924, but Moffatt discovered a rare edition of the magazine in the British Library.
James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson and chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd went on to say the use of the novel device was a bold choice from the writer.
‘Roger Ackroyd was controversial when it came out for this reason, although it catapulted her to fame as an author,’ he said. ‘Some people thought it was unfair, as there were rules in crime fiction’ he said.