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Murder on the Orient Express, part 2
Manage episode 387586092 series 3316129
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Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. Once you read Murder on the Orient Express (1934), you’ll understand why.
Read: Buy it used or new on Amazon.
Reflect: Check out the conversation starters below.
Welcome our guest, Emily Schwartz!
Emily Schwartz was the Artistic Director of, and Resident Playwright for the immersive (and mostly macabre) theater company, The Strange Tree Group from 2003 to 2014. For the Trees she penned the Jeff Award-winning The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen, which also won the New York Fringe excellence award. When it was performed at Steppenwolf in 2011 the forensic scientist who discovered that the remains of Cora Crippen might not be Cora Crippen after all came to opening night where Emily debated him on what actually happened with the murder.
Other critically acclaimed productions include The Dastardly Ficus and Other Comedic Tales of Woe and Misery, Mr. Spacky, the Man Who Was Continuously Followed by Wolves, The Mysterious Elephant, and more. You can still find productions of her work across the country. The local Denver theater group The Catamounts, have performed both Dr. Crippen and Mr. Spacky, and the Three Faces of Doctor Crippen has a performance in the planning stages for 2024.
Currently Emily is mostly a professional event planner and mom to four year old Henry to whom she is passing on her love of the strange and unusual. She recently wrote an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland for the Latin school of Chicago, and is working on a children's book. Emily has known Sarah for approximately 50 or 60 years.
Here are some conversation starters and questions to get you thinking about the book!
The story was partly inspired by the shocking real-life kidnapping case involving the Charles Lindbergh baby. In 1932, aviator Charles Lindbergh’s 20-month old son was held for a $50,000 ransom. The ransom was paid, but Lindbergh’s son was later found dead. The case captivated and outraged the American public. What are the similarities and differences between the real-life story and the fictional account in this book?
Which character did you identify with most in Murder on the Orient Express? If you had to choose to be one of the characters on the Orient Express, who would you choose, and why? Or would you choose another alias altogether?
Poirot says, “I saw it as a perfect mosaic, each person playing his or her allotted part.” Were you able to identify the murderer before the very end? If so, what tipped you off? If not, who did you think the murderer was? Were you surprised when Poirot revealed whodunit?
The first time Poirot sees Samuel Ratchett, he says, “I could not rid myself of the impression that evil had passed me by very close.” What does it mean to be evil? Does pure evil exist? Along those lines, what’s the difference between vengeance and justice? Were the murderers justified in killing Ratchett because he was completely evil?
Have you seen either of the film versions of Murder on the Orient Express (1974 or 2017)? Before or after reading the book? Did it affect how you read the book?
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