Elephants Can Remember
Review of the novel Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie.
Published by Collins Crime Club, 6th November 1972
Cost: £1.60 1972 [£3.50 1975]
ISBN: 000612649 (Paperback Edition - 218 pages *starts on page 9)
I was playing badminton the other day and sitting on the side-lines, when another player asked me about this book and I felt it was time to re-read it and express my thoughts.
This is the last book that Hercule Poirot appears in, with the exception of the publication date of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case. Poirot is contacted by Mrs Ariadne Oliver, an authoress that has appeared in six Christie novels, and asked to investigate the death of the parents of her god-daughter. The story is based around the death of General Alistair Ravenscroft and his wife Lady Ravenscroft, twelve years previously. They were both found on a cliff near their manor house, where they had been shot. The police believed it to be suicide and were unable to tell if the wife shot her husband and then shot herself, or whether the husband shot his wife and then shot himself.
The investigation in the story is shared between the two leading characters, Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver, with perhaps more taken on by Mrs Oliver under the guidance of Poirot. The style of this story is similar to five others, in the sense that it is reviewing a murder mystery that has already taken place. There lies the problem. Rather than the normal interaction between characters and descriptions of locations where the deaths took place, this book has a very few characters, and when brought into the story, each tries to remember what took place twelve years ago. “People like talking about the past”, says Mrs Oliver. There are pages of individuals recalling the events, which have no dialogue, paragraphs, or interaction – it’s not always enjoyable reading, particularly when the events are retold to Poirot, although briefly.
What does make this story enjoyable is the impression that the reader gets from the words spoken by Ariadne Oliver, particularly at the beginning of the story; it’s almost as though Christie speaks the words herself. In this instance, Mrs Oliver has accepted an invitation to a literary lunch and as she dresses for the occasion she discusses the event with her home help, Maria, who suggests she will make a lovely speech:
‘No, I shouldn't,’ said Mrs Oliver. ‘I know what I can do and I know what I can’t. I can’t make speeches. I get all worried and nervy and I should probably stammer or say the same thing twice. I should not only feel silly, I should probably look silly. Now it’s all right with words. You can write words down or speak them into a machine or dictate them. I can do things with words so long as I know it’s not a speech I'm making.’
The book’s title is tied in with words spoken by Mrs Oliver in her rambling conversation with Poirot:
‘So I thought that what we've really got to do is to get at the people who are like elephants. Because elephants, so they say, don’t forget.’
‘That’s the point you see. Elephants remember. What I've got to do is – I've got to get in touch with some elephants.’
This mention of elephants runs throughout the story, being cited many times and I'm not sure if it adds to the story. As Mrs Oliver tries to understand the tales people recall, she says: ‘Like many elderly people, Mrs Carstairs could remember voices better than she did faces.’ Their conversation continues for another eight pages, and Mrs Carstairs comments:
‘Anyway, it [is] wonderful how women get a sort of second wind. You know, when they are forty or fifty or that sort of age and they suddenly want to begin a new life. Women do talk in a very silly way, you know, when they are referring to love-affairs when they get on in life. About how it’s never too late.’
As Poirot conducts most of the investigation from his apartment, we get to know a little more about George, his manservant; he knows exactly what Poirot requires and how the activities in the apartment should be managed. The faithful Miss Lemon is still carrying out secretarial duties for the ageing Poirot, but in this story she appears very briefly, on page 121, speaking only seven words. Miss lemon is given a letter to reply to the sender:
Miss Lemon reminded him of two appointments which he already had, but agreed that left plenty of hours vacant and she would arrange something as he wished.
‘Something to do with the Zoological Gardens?’ she enquired.
We hear no more from, or about, Miss Lemon.
To aid him in his enquiries Poirot calls upon the services of Superintendent Spence, who has appeared in three previous stories. Spence introduces the retired Chief Superintendent Garroway, who was the officer in charge of the investigation at the time of the shooting. At this point Christie states: ‘Hercule Poirot very nearly said “Elephants do remember,” but checked himself in time.’
Garroway discusses a number of the items from the case that Poirot feels need further investigation and at this point Christie provides her reader with clues that the reader could easily miss. Specifically mentioned are the realisation that Lady Ravenscroft had a twin sister; she also had four wigs, each to be worn on a specific occasion; and they had a dog that adored Lady Ravenscroft. The mention of twins is of interest to me, as I am a twin, (Yes there are two identical Dr. Sheppards, which can only be told apart by their initials!). Christie suggests that there is a special link between twins that result in them experiencing the same awareness of the world in which they live, and she gets Poirot to present her thoughts.
When Poirot is unable to carry out his own investigation into the crime he calls on Mr Goby - in this book a private investigator, but previously a detective at Scotland Yard. Poirot calls on Mr Goby services twice, with great success and timely speed.
Christie states:
Mr Goby was celebrated all over London, indeed possibly all over England and even further, as a great purveyor of information. How he performed these miracles nobody ever really quite knew. He employed a not excessive staff. Sometimes he complained that his legs, as he sometimes called them, were not as good as they used to be. But his results were still able to astonish people who had commissioned them.
Finally, at the end of the story, Poirot calls together a small gathering of people close to the investigation, and standing on the cliff top where the original murders took place, he explains his findings, revealing what happened on that fateful night twelve years previously.
I enjoyed reading the story again, but the long passages without interaction between characters detracts from the plot. Published in 1972, Christie had just turned 83 and I feel that she was reflecting back on her life. Talking through Ariadne Oliver, Christie had some marvellous thoughts, which are well worth reading in their own right. However, I am not a lover of the stories that that use ‘Murder in Retrospect’ as a method of murder mystery investigation, particularly the approach used in this story. In conclusion, this is an Agatha Christie novel and there are very few that will not enjoy another of her tales. Rating: 3 stars
Dr James Sheppard
20 April 2016
