After the Funeral is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1953 under the title Funerals are Fatal and in UK by the Collins Crime Club on 18 May of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.50

Food rationing in England came to an end in the year of publication, but its effect is still felt in the egg shortages that are mentioned in the novel. Throughout, there is a strong sense of the hardships of the post-war period, including the conniving Miss Gilchrist's heartache at losing her cherished teashop due to food shortages and being forced into a life of dependence, in which she is regarded as little more than a servant. There are also comments on the increased burden of taxation associated with Clement Attlee's government.

Literary significance and reception

Robert Barnard said of this novel that it had "A subject of perennial appeal – unhappy families: lots of scattered siblings, lots of Victorian money (made from corn plasters). Be sure you are investigating the right murder, and watch for mirrors (always interesting in Christie). Contains Christie's last major butler: the 'fifties and 'sixties were not good times for butlers."

Adaptations

Film

In 1963, a film adaptation entitled Murder at the Gallop was released by MGM. It was the second of George Pollock’s four popular Christie adaptations. This version replaced Poirot with the character of Miss Marple, played by Margaret Rutherford. The film makes a number of other changes to the novel:

  • A change in setting: the majority of the film's action is set in a riding establishment
  • The addition of film character 'Mr Stringer' (played by Stringer Davis, Margaret Rutherford's real-life husband)
  • The addition of a third death
  • The alteration and omission of a number of characters
  • A much lighter-hearted, more playful tone

Television

On 26 March 2006, an adaptation of the novel was broadcast on ITV with David Suchet as Poirot in the tenth series of Agatha Christie's Poirot. The cast included Michael Fassbender as George, Geraldine James as Helen Abernethie, Lucy Punch as Susan, Robert Bathurst as Gilbert Entwhistle, Anna Calder-Marshall as Maude, Fiona Glascott as Rosamund and Monica Dolan as Miss Gilchrist.

There were some changes made for the adaptation:

  • Cora is the divorced wife of an Italian artist named Gallaccio, whose surname she kept (interestingly, the producer of many episodes of the BBC's Miss Marple series was George Gallaccio). Gallaccio replaces the character of Mr Guthrie as the art expert that Poirot relies upon.
  • Miss Gilchrist's teashop in the novel was named the Palm Tree, but this version renamed it the Willow Tree (all the china was willow pattern). In the book, this is the name of the tea shop she kept before the war.
  • The painting revealed at the end is a Rembrandt instead of a Vermeer.
  • Entwhistle does not investigate following the funeral and will-reading, but only after Cora's death, though in a minor capacity.
  • The character of Mr Goby is omitted. Poirot appears solely under his own name and interviews the family members himself.
  • Timothy's ability to walk is only shown at the end, unlike in the book where it is known from the start; while Maude is presented as slightly foolish and participates in a flirtation with Gallaccio.
  • Susan Banks is renamed Susannah Henderson; she is unmarried and devoted to missionary work in Africa (specifically, Bechuanaland).
  • George is Helen's son, Richard's favoured nephew and expected heir to the bulk of the estate. He is carrying on a secret romance with Susan/Susannah; on the day after the funeral they had a secret tryst in Lytchett St Mary. Also, Richard was George's real father: Richard had told him this, but George refused to accept it and quarrelled violently with him (which Poirot and Entwhistle learn from Lanscombe) and in his disgust forged a will disinheriting himself in favour of the other relatives.
  • As in several other episodes, the time has been changed to the 1930s – in this case, from the post-World War II years.
  • The pier in the painting found by Susan/Susannah was destroyed by a fire, not the war.
  • Miss Gilchrist lost her tea-shop due to a Lyons tea-house opening nearby, not due to wartime rationing.
  • When Miss Gilchrist is arrested and taken away, she pauses to repeat her imitation of Cora. Poirot suggests she could be committed for insanity, but there is no further discussion.
  • Susan/Susannah and Rosamund are sisters instead of cousins, both of them being the daughters of Richard's sister Geraldine.
  • In the book, Rosamund's secret alibi is seeing a doctor to confirm that she was pregnant. In the episode, Rosamund knew she was pregnant and was going to get an abortion, but changed her mind after arriving.

In this production, common to the ITV-produced Poirot adaptations, as well as fleshing out the plot and relationships there are character developments inserted which are atypical to Christie's writing:

  • Cousins have an illicit encounter.
  • A wife with an unfaithful husband, goes for abortion but decides against it.
  • A woman and her brother-in-law have an affair and conceal the parentage of their child.

Radio

Michael Bakewell adapted After the Funeral for BBC Radio 4, featuring John Moffatt as Poirot with Frank Thornton as Mr. Entwistle, broadcast on 29 August 1999.

Publication history

right|thumb|Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (Book was first published in the US)

  • 1953, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), March 1953, Hardback, 243 pp
  • 1953, Collins Crime Club (London), 18 May 1953, Hardback, 192 pp
  • 1954, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 224 pp
  • 1956, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 191 pp
  • 1968, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 237 pp
  • 1978, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 422 pp

The novel was first serialised in the US in the Chicago Tribune in forty-seven parts from Tuesday, 20 January to Saturday, 14 March 1953. In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in seven abridged instalments from 21 March (Volume 93, Number 2438) to 2 May 1953 (Volume 93, Number 2444) with illustrations by William Little.

References

  • After the Funeral at the official Agatha Christie website