So I heard that Agatha didn't liked Poirot at all? Is that true? What you think about that?
Hello there! What you say is true. Just like Doyle got tired of Sherlock Holmes, so did Poirot start getting on Agatha’s nerves, so much that she regretted ever inventing him. “Detestable, bombastic, tiresome little creature” she called him.I’ve posted about it here.
Poirot was Agatha’s main source of income, she couldn’t retire him, just like Poirot wouldn’t wish to retire like “most public men”. She felt stuck with him. He was “insufferable”. In another quote she confessed she realised she was “going to have him with her for life”. In her later years she said she held off introducing Poirot until as late as she feasibly could in the story.
The quote from her 1938 article in the Daily Mail:
“There are moments when I have felt: Why-Why-Why did I ever invent this detestable, bombastic, tiresome little creature? …Eternally straightening things, eternally boasting, eternally twirling his moustaches and tilting his egg-shaped head… I point out that by a few strokes of the pen… I could destroy him utterly. He replies, grandiloquently: “Impossible to get rid of Poirot like that! He is much too clever.”
She rebelled against being chained to him for life. However, as mentioned in my other post, her feelings towards Poirot softened with age. Agatha admitted in the same article to having reluctant affection for him as he had become more human and less irritating. Even though she was financially beholden to him, they were foremost “friends and partners”.
Despite her personal feelings, Agatha was fiercely protective of Poirot and would fight stage directors if they tried changing his personality or wanted to de-age him and give him a bunch of love interests. If she didn’t like something about a Poirot actor’s performance or looks, she said so. Movie studios would get worried about any potential bad press at premieres because Agatha always spoke her mind!
Regarding your other question, even though I’m a huge Poirot fan myself, I can understand her getting fed up with a character she never expected would become so famous, he’d be living inside her head for almost 2/3 of her life. How could she have known she’d be writing Poirot stories for over half a decade? Anyone would get a little tired of that. Poirot made Agatha a household name, he turned her into a star, an actual celebrity. There was an increasing demand for new Poirot mysteries every year. The moment one was released, people already started pestering Agatha about Poirot’s next case. I think all the attention got to her, we know she disliked publicity and doing interviews (she did very few in her lifetime) and would get upset over outlets poking into her personal life and spreading rumours about her. Would she have gotten as much media and fan attention if it weren’t for Poirot?
I hope this answers your questions! :) Thank you for writing me!
