SSI - England - Agatha Christie
Siren Business
“Nobody’s life can be ruined except by himself.”
Dame Agatha Christie, renowned detective-story writer, had studied to be an opera singer but was too shy to pursue this career. She started writing when her sister challenged her to write a detective story. “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” introduced one of her world famous sleuths, Poirot. Dame Agatha was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in Torquay, England on September 15, 1890. She wrote more than 100 works-full-scale detective stories, volumes of short mystery stories, plays and several psychological novels. She enjoyed a tremendous following. Her works have been translated into almost every language. At the age of 85, in 1976, Dame Agatha died at her home in Wallingford, England.
Siren Business is a really fun and predictable short read which as usual starts of great keeping its mysterious atmosphere and a 3 pages in i already predicted the ending.
While on holiday in Mallorca, Mr. Parker Pyne—Agatha Christie’s unconventional problem-solver with a specialization in matters of the heart—is consulted by Mrs. Chester, an Englishwoman who is worried about her son Peter’s involvement with Lydia, a bohemian artist she considers an inappropriate partner. Mrs. Chester hires Pyne to break up the pair, fearing that Lydia will destroy Peter’s prospects.
Pyne devises a scheme to test Lydia’s motives: he persuades Sadie Blacklock, an attractive acquaintance, to pretend to take a romantic interest in Peter and see if Lydia responds with jealousy. However, Lydia takes them all by surprise and encourages Peter to go out with Sadie so that he could be certain of his feelings. The scheme takes a dramatic twist when Pyne learns that Lydia and Sadie had covertly worked together from the beginning, staging the whole ruse to reveal Mrs. Chester’s interference.
Lydia’s unselfishness and ingenuity finally demonstrate her true love for Peter, and the lovers are reunited. Mrs. Chester’s meddling backfires, and Pyne—despite technically losing his client—approves of Lydia’s cleverness, as the story wraps up with an inversion of expectations in which the “scheming woman” is revealed as the morally righteous winner.
While there is no philosophical or psychological theme and underlying and symbolism to pull out from this story coming from Siddhartha it was simple and fun, included a bit of humor and irony, overall I loved it. Would also recommend it if your in the mood for a quick read spanning like literal 20 mins (span of 7 pages depending on the edition you own)
some things that caught my eye …
“You mean it’s like putting Chippendale chairs in the attic in Victorian days? Later you get them down again and say, Aren’t they marvelous?”
“It isn’t healthy for a young man to be interested in serious subjects. He ought to be making an idiot of himself over one girl after another”
“What are the years from twenty to forty? Fettered and bound by personal and emotional relationships. That’s bound to be That’s living. But later there’s a new stage. You can think, observe life, discover something about other people and the truth about yourself. Life becomes real-significant. You see it as a whole. Not just one scene-the scene you, as an actor, are playing. No man or woman is actually himself (or herself) till after forty-five. That’s when individuality has a chance.”