Hickory Dickory Dock is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 31 October 1955 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in November of the same year under the title of Hickory Dickory Death. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6)

  • René Halle, a French student residing at Hickory Road, studying English literature
  • Valèrie Hobhouse, a resident at Hickory Road in full-time employment as co-owner of Sabrina Fair, a beauty parlour
  • Elizabeth Johnston, a Jamaican student residing at Hickory Road, studying jurisprudence
  • Chandra Lal, an Indian student residing at Hickory Road studying political science
  • Patricia Lane, a student residing at Hickory Road with a diploma in archaeology
  • Geneviève Maricaud, a French student residing at Hickory Road studying English literature
  • Colin McNabb, a student residing at Hickory Road, doing post-graduate studies in psychology
  • Gopal Ram, an Indian student residing at Hickory Road studying political science
  • Jean Tomlinson, a resident at Hickory Road in full-time employment doing physical therapy at St Catherine's Hospital
  • Maria, the Italian cook at Hickory Road
  • Geronimo, Maria's husband, and the hostel manservant

Explanation of the novel's title

The title is taken, as are other of Christie's titles, from a nursery rhyme: Hickory Dickory Dock. This is nevertheless one of her most tenuous links to the original nursery rhyme, consisting of little more than the name of a road and an allusion being "in the dock," i.e. on trial. (“‘Hickory, dickory, dock,’ said Nigel, ‘the mouse ran up the clock. The police said, “Boo,” I wonder who, will eventually stand in the Dock?’”).

Literary significance and reception

Philip John Stead's review in the Times Literary Supplement of 23 December 1955 began: "Poirot's return to the happy hunting grounds of detective fiction is something of an event. He is called upon to solve the mystery of a series of apparently trivial thefts at a student's hostel but soon finds himself partnering the police in investigating murder. Mrs Christie rapidly establishes her favourite atmosphere by her skilful mixture of cheerfulness and suspense." After summarising the plot he concluded, "The amount of mischief going on in the hostel imposes some strain on the reader's patience as well as on Poirot's ingenuity; the author has been a little too liberal with the red herrings. Yet the thumb-nail sketches of the characters are as good as ever and in spite of the over-elaborate nature of the puzzle there is plenty of entertainment."

Robert Barnard: "A significant falling-off in standards in this mid-'fifties story. A highly perfunctory going-through-the-paces: the rhyme has no meaning within the story; the plot (drugs smuggled in imported haversacks) is unlikely in the extreme; and the attempt to widen the range of character types (Africans, Indians, students of Freud etc.) is far from successful. Evelyn Waugh's diary records that it 'began well' but deteriorated 'a third of the way through into twaddle' – a judgment which, unusually for him, erred on the side of charity."

Television adaptations

;British

A television adaptation, starring David Suchet as Poirot; Philip Jackson as Inspector Japp; Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon; Damian Lewis as Leonard Bateson; Sarah Badel as Mrs Hubbard; Elinor Morriston as Valerie Hobhouse and Jonathan Firth as Nigel Chapman, was broadcast in 1995 in the series Agatha Christie's Poirot. In common with the rest of the series, the setting is moved back in time from the post-World War II period of Christie's original novel to the 1930s. This results in an anachronism: the American student Sally Finch is said to be on a Fulbright scholarship, though the Fulbright Program was not founded until after the Second World War.

This adaptation differed from Christie's novel in that Sharpe is replaced with the recurring character of Inspector Japp, and a number of the students from the novel are left out, most notably Akibombo, Elizabeth Johnston, and Lal, who are students but neither English nor American. Other aspects omitted from the TV adaptation include the red herring of the green ink, the change of the motive for the murder of Celia, the theft of the poison being the only thing taken and the person who takes it (McNabb) and the smuggling involving only diamonds, the inclusion of a Custom and Excise Officer conducting an undercover operation, and the relationship between Valerie and Mrs Nicoletis.

;French

The novel was also adapted as a 2015 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie.

Publication history

  • 1955, Collins Crime Club (London), 31 October 1955, Hardcover, 192 pp
  • 1955, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), November 1955, Hardcover, 241 pp
  • 1956, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback, 222 pp
  • 1958, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
  • 1967, Pan Books, Paperback, 189 pp
  • 1987, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover,

In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in six abridged instalments from 28 May (Volume 97, Number 2552) to 2 July 1955 (Volume 98, Number 2557) with illustrations by "Fancett".

The novel was first serialised in the US in Collier's Weekly in three abridged instalments from 14 October (Volume 136, Number 8) to 11 November 1955 (Volume 136, Number 10) under the title Hickory Dickory Death with illustrations by Robert Fawcett.

References

  • Hickory Dickory Dock at the official Agatha Christie website