Ariadne Oliver: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=OctoberMay 20132024}}

| portrayer = [[Lally Bowers]],<br />[[Jean Stapleton]],<br />[[Zoë Wanamaker]],<br />[[Julia McKenzie]],<br />[[Stephanie Cole]]<br />[[Tina Fey]]

| family = Alice (aunt)<br />Celia Ravenscroft (goddaughter)

'''Ariadne Oliver''' is a fictional character in the novels of [[Agatha Christie]]. She (like Christie) is a [[crime fiction|mystery]] novelist, the creator of the fictional Finnish detective Sven Hjerson, and a friend of [[Hercule Poirot]].

In the books, Oliver's most famous works are those featuring her vegetarian Finnish detective Sven Hjerson. Since she knows nothing of Finland, Oliver frequently laments Hjerson's existence. In many of her appearances, Oliver – and her feelings toward Hjerson – reflect Agatha Christie's own frustrations as an author, particularly with the Belgian Hercule Poirot (an example of [[self-insertion]]). The self-caricature has also been used to discuss Christie's own follies in her earlier novels. For instance, in ''[[Mrs McGinty's Dead]]'', Mrs Oliver talks of having made the [[Blowgun|blowpipe]] a foot long (30&nbsp;cm) in one of her novels, whereas the actual length is something like four-and-a-half feet ({{convert|1+1/2|yd|cm}}) – the same mistake Christie made in ''[[Death in the Clouds]]''.

In ''[[The Pale Horse (novel)|The Pale Horse]]'', Mrs Oliver becomes acquainted with the Rev. and Mrs Dane Calthorp, who are friends of [[Miss Marple]] (''[[The Moving Finger]]''), thus establishing that Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot exist in the same world. In ''[[Cards on the Table]]'', there is a reference to Mrs Oliver's book ''[[The Body in the Library]]''; this title was used by Christie six years later, for a novel featuring Miss Marple. Books by Ariadne Oliver and by a number of other fictitious mystery writers are discussed by characters in ''[[The Clocks (novel)|The Clocks]]'' (1963). Like Christie, she is a member of the [[Detection Club]]. Christie even thought of setting a murder at the Club with Oliver being one of the suspects as well as the detective, but it came to nothing.<ref>''Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks'', edited by John Curran.</ref> (Although in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'', Mrs Oliver plays detective in a Poirot mystery of a murder during a bridge game.) A family crisis for Oliver's goddaughter Celia provides the plot in ''[[Elephants Can Remember]]''.

Although Ariadne Oliver is consistently referred to as "Mrs Oliver,", nothing is known about her husband. An offhand reference to her marriage is made in ''[[Elephants Can Remember]]''.

In a short piece in ''[[John Bull (magazine)|''John Bull'' Magazinemagazine]]'' in 1956, Christie was quoted as saying: "I never take my stories from real life, but the character of Ariadne Oliver does have a strong dash of myself." The author of the article went on to state: "It is perfectly true that sometimes she works at her stories in a large old-fashioned bath, eating apples and depositing the cores on the wide mahogany surround."<ref>''John Bull Magazine'', 11 August 1956. Volume 100, Number 2615 (p. 3)</ref>

EvenAriadne inOliver onedoes ofnot thefunction twoas a detective, even in the novelsnovel in which she appears without Poirot (''[[The Pale Horse]]''), Mrs Oliver does not function as a detective, in that she rarely participates in the investigation and contributes only tangentially to the solution. In ''[[Cards on the Table]]'', she does interview some of the suspects, which in turn allows her to discover a hidden motive that even the police were unable to find; in ''[[Elephants Can Remember]]'', she again interviews witnesses, but none of the essential ones. SheOn isthe moresurface, usuallyChristie usedappears to use Oliver mainly for [[comic relief]] or to provide a [[deus ex machina]] through her intuitive or sudden insights, a function that is especially apparentas in ''[[Third Girl]]'', in which she furnishes Poirot with virtually every important clue, or in ''The Pale Horse'', where she inadvertently helpstips the investigators tooff determineabout the type of poison used to kill the murder victims, saving the life of another character.

The first television appearance of Ariadne Oliver on television was in an episode of ''The Agatha Christie Hour'' (1982). In an adaptation of the Parker Pyne story "The Case of the Discontented Soldier", she was portrayed by [[Lally Bowers]].

A 1986 television film adaptation of ''[[Dead Man's Folly (film)|Dead Man's Folly]]'' starred [[Jean Stapleton]] as Ariadne Oliver, opposite [[Peter Ustinov]] as Poirot. This iteration of Oliver is American.

[[Zoë Wanamaker]] played Ariadne Oliver in six television episodes of the series ''[[Agatha Christie's Poirot]]'', starring [[David Suchet]] as [[Hercule Poirot]]. In the last shot episode of the series (but not the finale), Mrs Oliver is helpful to Poirot in an adaptation of ''[[Dead Man's Folly]]'', which was filmed on the Christie Estate.

In the [[BBC Radio 4]] plays, Ariadne Oliver has been played by [[Stephanie Cole]] (''[[The Pale Horse]]'' (1993),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/2826252534f14d6887dc5d9b8514e054|title=Saturday Night Theatre: The Pale Horse|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|accessdateaccess-date=3 April 2020}}</ref> ''[[Hallowe'en Party]]'' (1993),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/d265907af9da46f4bc782d31c2dc4acb|title=Saturday Night Theatre: Hallowe'en Party|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|accessdateaccess-date=3 April 2020}}</ref> and ''[[Cards on the Table]]'' (2002)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/7ae1a2473c3941f382bfb83368abdadc|title=The Saturday Play: Agatha Christie's Cards on the Table|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|accessdateaccess-date=3 April 2020}}</ref>), and by [[Julia McKenzie]] (''[[Elephants Can Remember]]'' (2006),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/4f0d9cc9d3a4470e9df3a451779e3322|title=The Saturday Play: Agatha Christie's Elephants Can Remember|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|accessdateaccess-date=3 April 2020}}</ref> ''[[Mrs McGinty's Dead]]'' (2006),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/dc4e7a64f7d449899081eb3503b738ca|title=Agatha Christie's Mrs McGinty's Dead|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|accessdateaccess-date=3 April 2020}}</ref> and ''[[Dead Man's Folly]]'' (2007)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/93c05021787b4077a01cc498cd9bbc16|title=Agatha Christie's Dead Man's Folly|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|accessdateaccess-date=3 April 2020}}</ref>).

* ''The Clue of the Candle Wax'' (mentioned in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'')

* ''The Body In The Library'' (mentioned in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'')

* ''The Death in the Drain Pipe'' (mentioned in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'')

* ''The Affair of the Second Goldfish'' (mentioned in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'' and ''[[Mrs McGinty's Dead]]'')

* ''The Cat itIt Was Who Died'' (mentioned in ''[[Mrs McGinty's Dead]]'')

* ''Death of a Debutante'' (mentioned in ''[[Mrs McGinty's Dead]]'')

* ''The Tendency of the Criminal'' (mentioned in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'')

* ''Famous Crimes Passionnels'' (mentioned in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'')

* ''Murder for Love vs. Murder for Gain'' (mentioned in ''[[Cards on the Table]]'')

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