Last week, I was determined to indulge myself, each evening after a dumb hour struggling with the phonetic symbols of language German, in several pages (by 'several', I would have had meant ten , but it turned out to be more than forty pages per rendezvous)of one of Tommy and Tuppence's adventures, the first,to be precisely, according to their chronology: the Secret Adversary. My determination was colossal,and my indulgence extravagant, that as I closed the novel and applauded as could Hercule Poirot:'Et bien, mon ami,Madame Christie est la reine du grand art de criminologie! Hors de questions!', I found myself lying in the dawn of Sunday...
The book, widely-known for its sentimental element, which is rare among Agatha Christie's detective masterpieces, struck me from the first sight, not by a romantic marathon however, but by how skillfully the author went around of it. Tommy and Tuppence entered the limelight as follows:
'Tommy, old thing!'
'Tuppence, old bean!'
See? Only six words, only two brisk and seemingly affectionate greetings--'at an exit of London Metro'--was enough to tell readers immediately that the young adventurers had known each other for sufficiently long, therefore, no extended prologue nor exaggerated scene in want pour fabriquer l'atomosphère romantique de l'amour. Yet there left unbounded hints that the two probably turned closer as the story drove on, a point that a quick reader cannot neglect of. On my part, I'd like to liken this couple as Guo Jing and Huang Rong, Mr Jin's golden pairing. And likewise, I found an absorbing sense of humour in their conversations.
I also noticed while reading--if I have not recommended on it before I am trying my best now-- Dame Agatha'formidability in maneuvering logical,lucid, witty way of narration, which on the contrary invariably fermented progressive waves of suspenses which afterwards cumulated into shocks,shivers,or thunderstorms. A reader seemed to see clearly what was going on, as if through the glass of a fish tank, which was instead a piece of tricky mirror that only tells lies and veils the truth behind. You may take the mysterious death of Mrs Vandemeyer and how at last the real Mr Brown bragged out his entire sneaky plot as typical examples.
But I have to admit that as the first of Tommy and Tuppence series (meaning Agatha only at her thirties), the book showed the author's attempt to direct multiple major actors (actresses)(even Mr Julius P. Hersheimmer and Sir James Peel Edgerton may be included in) and thus several lines of clue interwoven,one disappearing at another's occurence.
Nevertheless, when a reader repeatedly saw the same personages and similar traps, he(she)was very likely to ask why and formed his(her) own opinion on who could be who and jumped to the last page impatiently to prove the theory. So did I. And unfortunately I got awry as was Tuppence, no more no less. But still, I prefer Agatha's maturer pieces where the bigwigs hidden in shadow or in the more often cases the outwitting detectives hold intense suspensions until the last minute.
However, everything begins hard and at zero. I therefore applauded at the embarkment of the Young Adventurers. I cannot figure out better description of their afterwards performances than un gros succès. Old thing and old bean did really pretty well.
我另外觉得不够妥当的地方,大概是故事本身的一些情节,就如同我曾经说的:when a reader repeatedly saw the same personages and similar traps, he(she)was very likely to ask why and formed his(her) own opinion on who could be who and jumped to the last page impatiently to prove the theory.就是说,情节还欠自然,值得商榷。