The biggest challenge facing J. K. Rowling is to beat Agatha Christie. For the immortal Queen of Crime still holds one record that Rowling has been unable to break. In Britain she sells more tapes and CDs than any other writer. Worldwide, Christie has for decades outsold both Shakespeare and the Bible.

Yet one thing sadly eludes Christie: the cachet of “literature”. And if the Education Secretary can spare a moment from other activities, it is time he issued one more guideline to examination boards and told them to put Christie on every A‑level English syllabus.

It is only the stubborn snobbishness of those who criticise but cannot create that denies Christie cultural worth. For she passes with shining honours every objective test of literature.

In Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot she has created characters with a vivid recognition factor.

In politics plotting may be low cunning, in literature it is high art. And Agatha Christie polished it to new heights of perfection. Every chapter, sometimes every sentence, of her more than 70 novels presents surprise, suspense and sleep deprivation, because even at three in the morning one cannot put them down.

In her ceaseless creativity, she can lend charm to a council estate, and charm is the most underrated of literary qualities.

Beyond that lies humour, and Christie is the most gentle but persistent humorist.

Above all, Christie has durability, the ultimate in literary quality. Twenty seven and a half years after her death, I can buy her books at every airport and railway bookstall from Rouen to Rostock. Two new films will be in production by the autumn, and in an era when the screen seems more important then the page, her book sales refuse to go down below a yearly five million.

I am old enough to remember the days when no one could escape new books by Elizabeth Bowen and Ivy Compton‑Burnett. But where are they today? Long since expelled from Valhalla.

One of those empty pedestals must now go instantly to the writer of The Mousetrap. And I am perfectly happy to reserve the other one for J. K. Rowling. So long as in the next quarter century she and Harry Potter can show a fraction of the durability of Miss Marple and Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie. (adapted, 380 words)

Annotations:

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (1890-1976) - J(oanne) K(athleen) Rowling (1965- ) author of the "Harry Potter" books; cachet special mark of qualitiy; Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) Irish novelist and short-story writer; Ivy Compton‑Burnett (1884-1969), English author of ironic novels about upper-class England - Valhalla here: a mythical hall for the famous dead. The Mousetrap play by Agatha Christie (and one of the most successful plays ever written).

Tasks

Deal with the following tasks in one coherent text (marking the different parts by numbers)

1. What does the author of this article have to say about Agatha Christie and her status in the world of "literature".

2. Analyse the way he presents his rather controversial ideas about literary values (structure, choice of words, humour, etc.).

3. Comment on Agatha Christie’s “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” and say whether you agree with William Wolff about its qualities - use examples to underline your statements

Grundkurs Englisch 11.2, 2004/05 Klausur 1 April 4, 2005

Annotations:

Tasks