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Elephants Can Remember
by Agatha Christie
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company (1976-10)
ISBN: 0440123291
EAN: 9780440123293
Paperback: 237 pages
SKU: 11308
Condition: Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Good. Slightly creased spine.
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Editorial Reviews
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Book Description
Crime novelist Ariadne Oliver again turns to Hercule Poirot, this time to solve a case the police consider closed. Oliver's interest in the murder-suicide of General and Lady Ravenscroft is more than academic: Celia Ravenscroft is her goddaughter. This is one of Poirot's most daunting cases - even he begins to doubt he can solve it - since the investigation relies on memories from years earlier.
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Download Description
"E-book exclusive extras: 1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on Elephants Can Remember; 2) ""The Poirots"": the complete guide to all the cases of the great Belgian detective.""The Ravenscrofts didn't seem that kind of person. They seemed well balanced and placid."" And yet, twelve years earlier, the husband had shot the wife, and then himself - or perhaps it was the other way around, since sets of both of their fingerprints were on the gun, and the gun had fallen between them. The case haunts Ariadne Oliver, who had been a friend of the couple. The famous mystery novelist desires this real-life mystery solved, and calls upon Hercule Poirot to help her do so. Poirot is now a very old man, but his mind is as nimble and as sharp as ever and can still penetrate deep into the shadows. But as Poirot and Mrs Oliver and Superintendent Spence reopen the long-closed case, a startling discovery awaits them. And if memory serves Poirot (and it does!), crime - like history - has a tendency to repeat itself. "
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Customer Reviews
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ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER (DODD, MEAD, & COMPANY/1972)
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-09-02
REVIEW: Not exactly the best book to start with if you're curious about Christie; and her expertly crafted, wildly plotted crime novels. Still, "ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER" does have its charms and its moments of glory. The story concerns the murder/suicide of General Ravenscroft and his wife Margaret on a lonely cliffside at their house in Cornwall some twenty-odd years before the book's opening scene. Famed mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver (Christie's alter-ego) is approached at a literary luncheon by the overbearing presence of a Mrs. Burton-Cox who wants her to find out the truth behind the tragedy as it involves Mrs. Oliver's goddaughter, Celia Ravenscroft, who just so happens to be engaged to Mrs. Burton-Cox's son, Desmond. The reason why she wants the whole affair dug up is puzzling to Mrs. Oliver, and so she pays a visit to her old friend M. Hercule Poirot who (though at first reluctant) decides to help Ariadne uncover the truth about the deaths. The solution to the killings is sound (if trite), yet no where near as intriguing as Christie's other "murder in retrospect" cases. On top of that: the book rambles on too much and is too leisurely paced for a lengthy novel (as a short story it might have had more success). Still it's hard to dismiss "ELEPHANTS" as an all-out failure. It is flawed yet engaging, and the sheer joy of reading along with such wonderful characters as Ariadne and Poirot makes it all worthwhile. Alas, there is an excuse for Dame Agatha's slightly below par performance: after all the woman was eight-two-years-old and in diminishing health when the book was written. HARSH LANGUAGE: none. VIOLENCE: about 8 instances. SEXUAL REFERENCES: none.
NOTES FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: Agatha Christie will always be known as a treasure trove of first-class entertainment, and as such (and in comparison with her classic detective novels) "ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER" remains a terribly disappointing work. Luckily this was not to be the final Poirot case released before her death in 1976 (the wickedly twisted "CURTAIN" would have that honor). Hoever, if the reader doesn't expect too much from this book then the initial sense of disappointment will be lessened, while the die-hard Christie fan can appreciate the autobiographical asides that she infuses through the character of Mrs. Oliver. It is these little bits of insight into the mind of the author that proves the most amusing thing about "ELEPHANTS". Still, Christie manages to describe a most horrible crime with tact, and the handling of certain "manic" tendencies of the murderer is sympathetic yet not without a sense of Godly righteousness in how to deal with the consequences of such insanity. The use of suicide is also presented as understandable under the circumstances of the story even though it is viewed as wrong in the moral sense. But overrall: the tragedy of General and Molly Ravenscroft is quietly portrayed with taste and dignity, and with no foul language or sexual descriptions. As such the book's content should earn a strong ACCEPTABLE rating from a Christian moral perspective.
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WILL SOMEONE LET THE WOMAN SPEAK?
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-05-30
Whose work are we actually reading at this point? There were major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There were further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the recent Signet, Berkley, and Leventhal and Black editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. Here the publishers at Collins, dissatisfied with their own earlier efforts, put still more distance between author and public with a "New Ed" edition. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.
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What the Dog Noticed
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-07-28
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
"Elephants Can Remember" does not read like a typical Hercule Poirot mystery. Agatha Christie's famed detective is drawn into an old case by his friend, the amateur sleuth and mystery writer Ariadne Oliver. The case involves what was apparently the double suicide of a loving husband and wife, and the concern that these past actions might have left a horrible impact upon their children.
The story switches between the findings of Ariadne Oliver and Hercule Poirot as they each go in search of 'elephants' who might remember what happened around the time of the accident, because after all, an elephant never forgets. While there is no definite evidence as to what happened, there are those who have never accepted the double suicide theory because they couldn't answer the question why. But with Poirot and Mrs. Oliver working together, a long-unspoken truth is certain to be uncovered.
"Elephants Can Remember" is classic Agatha Christie, in terms of mystery. It's central mystery has a unique, if perhaps a little predictable, twist, the denouement of which is quite evenly paced and satisfactory. However, this might be one novel where the time period of the plot is more glaring than others. The prose is heavy-handed at times and one does get a little sick of all the mentions of 'elephants'. The characters are borderline two-dimensional and, therefore, the reader does not care about them, even if they are still interested in the mystery at hand.
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Not Very Good, But Not Horrible Either
Rating  (3)
Date: 2007-07-24
Definitely one of my least favorite Poirot books. As other reviewers have mentioned, the solution to this mystery is quite apparent about halfway through the novel. I sort of wanted to shake Mrs. Oliver and Poirot and ask them how they could be so obtuse and not realize the solution. The quirks our beloved Poirot typically display are all gone here; all that is left is rather dry prose and a mystery that should have been shortened by about sixty pages. Having said all of that, it does make for a quick read that does not require much thinking. If you are looking for a great example of a murder-in-retrospect book by Christie, I would recommend "Five Little Pigs" instead.
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Ariadne Oliver's last case
Rating (4)
Date: 2006-07-21
Detective novelist (and Christie alter ego) Ariadne Oliver has been coaxed into attending a literary party, something she, like Christie, did not enjoy and avoided whenever possible. Mrs. Oliver's experience at this one would ensure that it would be a long time before she attended another. An overbearing woman, Mrs. Burton-Cox manages to corner the author cross examine her about her goddaughter, one of many Mrs. Oliver has managed to acquire through the years. And now that the young woman, Celia, is quite grown up, one with which Mrs. Oliver has quite lost touch. It seems that Celia and Mrs. Burton-Cox's son are engaged, or will soon be, and Mrs. Burton-Cox wants to know if Celia's mother killed her father or did her father kill her mother. Mrs. Oliver was quite shocked by the rudeness of the encounter and troubled about what to do about it so she contacted her friend, Hercule Poirot, for guidance in the matter. Soon the pair, each in their own unique way, begin to tackle the problems, re-establishing contact with Celia, investigating the old tragedy and finding out just why Mrs. Burton-Cox is so insistance on knowing the answer.
For fans of Ariadne Oliver this is a particular treat, giving the reader more information into her (and perhaps Christie's) personal life, than any previous stories. It is interesting to see Oliver's and Poirot's different approaches to investigation, even to the point of different interpretations of what the actual problem is.
This is not the cleverest mystery that Christie ever wrote, nor even the best written but it is a very enjoyable one none the less and is a definite must read for any Poirot or Oliver fan.
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