Spider’s Web
Review of the novel Spider’s Web by Charles Osborne.
Published by Harper Collins in 2001.
Cost: £7.99
ISBN 978-0-00-651493-0 (Paperback Edition - 229 pages)
This novel is an adaptation of the play Spider’s Web written by Agatha Christie. The play had its premiere on 4th December 1954 at the Savoy Theatre in London and was one of three plays by Agatha Christie being performed in London at that time.
The character of Clarissa in the play Spider’s Web was tailor-made by Agatha Christie for Margaret Lockwood who wanted to exploit her talent for comedy and it marked the first stage performance of an original Christie theatre script.
This is the third play by Agatha Christie adapted into a novel by Charles Osborne; the other two are The Unexpected Guest and Black Coffee.
Like those two books, the novelization of Spider’s Web is a straightforward transfer of the stage lines and directions of Christie's script into a written narrative. Osborne chose not to add characters, lines or scenes which would alter in any substantial way what had been presented on the stage, although minor amendments were made to produce suitable chapter endings.
The story is set in Copplestone Court, an elegant, eighteenth-century country home of Henry and Clarissa Hailsham-Brown. The text flows smoothly and fluently as the characters interact, with appropriate twists and turns making it an engaging story as the reader discovers what part they play in this comedy thriller.
Although the play premiered in late 1954, it could be set in any period and for me has a sense of the 1930s and the Golden Age of Crime. The personality of the lead character Clarissa, described as a beautiful dark-haired woman in her late twenties, is developed as her humorous side is discussed by her guests and revealed as she interacts with the other characters. She loves telling stories and ‘just supposing’ what could happen if things were different, and it is this aspect of her nature that the story revolves around and develops into what might be called a ‘Spider’s web’.
The main characters are introduced in chapter 1 and the plot is well developed with the scene set for the murder in Chapter 7. As we might expect, a number of possible individuals are put forward as potential murderers, but it is only at the end of chapter 21 that the real murderer is revealed. Following this, all the loose ends are tidied up to ensure that the heroine is cleared of murder.
It is an enjoyable read of 229 pages and at times the reader is drawn into the story, so much so that the novel is difficult to put down. But what makes it such a good novel is the writing style of Agatha Christie, she sticks to the rules of the Detective club, of which she was a member and president:
Rule 1. The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.
Rule 3. Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
Rule 7. The detective must not himself commit the crime.
Rule 8. The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.
Whenever I read the Christie adaptations by Charles Osborne, I find myself disappointed by the failure to describe the scene where the action takes place. In this story, the action is played out in the tastefully furnished ground-floor drawing-room of the house, although there is a mention of walking to the garden gate that leads to the local golf course, and a page which describes the conversation between the three house guests at the golf club, we learn nothing about them.
In the case of the stage play, the audience can visually take in the location as presented by the director; room, furniture, decoration, doors and items within the room. But this is missing from the novel, Osborne has failed to provide the reader with the necessary picture. He has given the reader only a brief insight, and as the story develops the characters enter the room from the French windows, exit through a door into the hall and use a secret passage to the library. He also fails to cultivate the attention of the reader, by bringing out any of the senses that we all rely on to help us understand the world around us. It could easily have been possible to bring to the reader’s attention the smell of the evening garden, - it was damp from the afternoon rain; the smells one might expect in the golf clubhouse; or more importantly the senses that the novel’s characters would have experienced by their interaction; the look of the bun that Pippa is attempting to eat, the colour of the deck of cards used by the characters. There is a missed opportunity to bring the reader into the story.
When the police arrive to investigate what they believe is a murder, they are not convincing, but it’s partly because there is no apparent crime or body for them to investigate. They are not the lead characters and therefore must take a backseat to the main characters. The description of the two policemen is lacking: The Inspector - ‘The older of the two police officers, a stocky, grey-haired man’, the constable – ‘the younger officer, a dark-haired man in his twenties with the build of a footballer’. Apart from this description, we learn nothing more visual about them. They seem incompetent and try as they might, they find it difficult to unravel the crime, but they insist on staying and try to solve the murder. However, when the reader believes they have left the scene, we are relieved to find that they have been listening to the murderer’s conversation with Clarissa, while in the drawing-room, and capture them in action before they commit another murder.
Instead of giving us a picture of the drawing-room, Osborne (or is it Christie) develops each of the individual characters to give us an understanding of them that we can use to assist us with making a decision as to whether, we, the reader, believe them to be the possible murderer. On page 15, Jeremy asks Clarissa: “…do you ever speak the truth?” She replies: “Of course I do – sometimes,”. This is quickly followed up on page 17 when in response to a question from Jeremy, Clarissa replies; “Serious? What’s so good about “serious”?” How is the reader meant to use this insight into Clarissa when it comes to understanding her character? We find out that she is very protective of Pippa, her stepdaughter, and is prepared to do anything to keep her by her side. Although we do not always see a visual portrayal of Clarissa, the novel clearly gives the reader a character that we can emphasise with and understand.
It is an excellent novel, and I have enjoyed reading again. It’s a true Agatha Christie 'whodunit'. Rating: 5 stars
Dr James Sheppard
8th January 2015
