Agatha Christie's lesbian characters

[james_davis_nicoll]

In a recent discussion about the new adaptations of the Miss Marple stories, I commented that I didn't recall the original stories having as many lesbians as the TV movies do, where "as many" = "any"*. The person I was chatting to suggested that perhaps they were there but as a young lad of 10 or so, I did not understand the significance of, eg, two spinster ladies living together. Can anyone who has actually read the books recently tell me if the movies have introduced a new element or if I just missed something when i read them 30 years ago?


* Or as many sword fights as the Margaret Rutherford version of Miss Marple.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Yes, Agatha Christie does have gay characters, most frequently two "spinsters" living together whom the reader is fairly clearly supposed to read as lesbians. See also A Murder is Announced.

Lesbians

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that A Murder is Announced is a good example of "fairly clearly" lesbian characters.