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This book is the first fully theorized queer reading of a Golden Age British crime writer. Agatha Christie was the most commercially successful novelist of the twentieth century, and her fiction remains popular. She created such memorable characters as Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, and has become synonymous with a nostalgic, conservative tradition of crime fiction. J.C. Bernthal reads Christie through the lens of queer theory, uncovering a playful, alert, and subversive social commentary. After considering Christie’s emergence in a commercial market hostile to her sex, in Queering Agatha Christie Bernthal explores homophobic stereotypes, gender performativity, queer children, and masquerade in key texts published between 1920 and 1952. Christie engaged with debates around human identity in a unique historical period affected by two world wars. The final chapter considers twenty-first century Poirot and Marple adaptations, with visible LGBT characters, and poses the question: might the books be queerer?

Literature. --- Ethnology --- Literature, Modern --- Fiction. --- British literature. --- Sociology. --- Sex (Psychology). --- Gender expression. --- Gender identity. --- Twentieth-Century Literature. --- British and Irish Literature. --- British Culture. --- Gender Studies. --- Europe. --- 20th century. --- Homosexuality --- Lesbianism --- Gays --- Lesbians --- Queer theory. --- Philosophy. --- Identity. --- Christie, Agatha, --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Female homosexuality --- Lesbian love --- Sapphism --- Christie, Agatha Miller, --- Christie, Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, --- Kri-xti, A-ga-ta, --- Christie, Agata, --- Kristi, Agata, --- Kristi, A. --- Kir̲isṭi, Akatā, --- Кристи, Агата, --- כריסטי, אגתה, --- アガサ・クリスティ, --- Sex identity (Gender identity) --- Sexual identity (Gender identity) --- Identity (Psychology) --- Sex (Psychology) --- Queer theory --- Expression, Gender --- Sex role --- Psychology, Sexual --- Sex --- Sexual behavior, Psychology of --- Sexual psychology --- Sensuality --- Social theory --- Social sciences --- Fiction --- Metafiction --- Novellas (Short novels) --- Novels --- Stories --- Literature --- Novelists --- Belles-lettres --- Western literature (Western countries) --- World literature --- Philology --- Authors --- Authorship --- Psychological aspects --- Philosophy --- Gender identity --- Women --- Sexual behavior --- Mallowan, Agatha Christie, --- Westmacott, Mary, --- Miller, Agatha Mary Clarissa --- Christie Mallowan, Agatha --- Literature, Modern-20th century. --- Ethnology-Europe. --- Developmental psychology. --- Development (Psychology) --- Developmental psychobiology --- Psychology --- Life cycle, Human --- Literature, Modern—20th century. --- Ethnology—Europe.