Miss Marple Novels (First Folio Society Edition)

The four Miss Marple novels in the Folio Society’s illustrated set, with colour plates by Andrew Davidson and an introduction by Christie’s biographer, Laura Thompson.

Miss Marple first appeared in “The Tuesday Night Club”, a short story published in the Royal Magazine in December 1927, and made her first novel appearance in The Murder at the Vicarage (1930). Christie drew on the elderly women of her step-grandmother’s circle for her. The village of St Mary Mead gave her a base from which to look at human nature, and her quiet attention to it proved a match for the police.

The four novels in this set span almost half a century. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) was followed by The Body in the Library (1942) and A Pocket Full of Rye (1953). Sleeping Murder, written and set in the 1940s but held back by Christie, was published last, in 1976.

The Folio Society’s set pairs the novels with Andrew Davidson’s illustrations, a frontispiece and six colour plates to each volume. The introduction is by Laura Thompson, who considers the life experiences behind Miss Marple and what the apparent simplicity of the novels reveals about human nature. The volumes were also sold individually. They are bound in buckram in a different colour for each novel.

CHRISTIE, Agatha. Miss Marple Novels. The Murder at the Vicarage; The Body in the Library; A Pocket Full of Rye; Sleeping Murder. With an introduction by Laura Thompson and illustrations by Andrew Davidson. London: The Folio Society, [2014].

First edition. Large octavo, four volumes in slipcase. A frontispiece and six colour illustrations by Andrew Davidson in each volume. Bound in buckram, each volume in a different colour, with an illustrated cover design and gilt titling to the spine. There are shelf markings to the slipcase, some loss to the spine titling and some markings along the edges of the volumes. A near fine set.

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Not currently on display in store. For viewing or more information, please contact: rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au

Catalogue Number: HH000918