Agatha Christie's Foreign Titles Quiz

Answer: Five Little Pigs

It has long been a source of irritation to Agatha Christie fans that the English titles were often changed by American publishers. (There is nothing more annoying than getting excited about finding a "new" book and then realising that you already have it under another title).

There are many reasons why publishers change titles. First and foremost, they want a title that will sell - one that will appeal to readers and give them a clue as to the book's subject matter. Agatha Christie often gave her books titles taken from Shakespeare, the Bible and nursery rhymes and this tended to obscure what the books were about. Often it was a question of cultural references that would be unfamiliar. For example, American publishers were concerned that their readers would not know what a mews was ("Murder in the Mews") or that Paddington was a railway station ("4.50 from Paddington"). So those titles were changed to "Dead Man's Mirror" and "What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw" respectively. They felt that nursery rhyme titles (such as "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" and "Hickory Dickory Dock") may cause readers to think they were children's books. So they were retitled "The Patriotic Murders" and "Hickory Dickory Death" respectively.

Some title changes do not appear to make much sense. Why change a straightforward title like "Murder is Easy" to "Easy to Kill"? The answer to that is quite interesting. American books published during World War 2 often had title changes because they were abridged versions of the originals. Wartime shortages of paper and the metals needed to set up the type to print the books created a demand to condense books to conserve those resources. Another factor was that the books needed to be smaller, thinner and lighter to fit into soldiers' pockets. Typically about 20% of the original text was deleted.

It was normal for American publishers to change the title to include words like murder, kill and death; for example, "The Sittaford Mystery" was retitled "Murder at Hazelmoor" and "Destination Unknown" became "So Many Steps to Death". "Five Little Pigs" was published in the USA as "Murder in Retrospect". It was also published in China as "The Beer Murder Case", in Portugal as "Poirot Unravels the Past", and in Italy as "The Portrait of Elsa Greer" (a bit of a spoiler, don't you think?).

Answer: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" has several alternative foreign titles because English nursery rhymes are not usually known in non-English speaking countries, so the titles do not "translate" or "connect" with those cultures.

Some of the alternative titles for this novel include "Perils of the Dentist's Chair" (Czech Republic/Slovakia), "Heaven and Hell" (Germany), "The Bullet in the Skull" (Greek), "Poirot Doesn't Make Mistakes" (Italy), "Murder in the Dentist's Chair" and "Murder in the Torture Chair" (The Netherlands). In the USA, it was published as "The Patriotic Murders" and "An Overdose of Death".

The Czech/Slovak, Spanish and Dutch titles could put you off going to the dentist!

Answer: Third Girl

In "Third Girl", a young woman, Norma Restarick, visits Poirot to consult him about a murder she thinks she may have committed. Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver need to determine if a murder has actually occurred and, if so, is Norma responsible?

The Italian ("Am I a Murderer?") and German ("The Forgetful Murderess") titles reflect that part of the plot. In Portugal, the book is entitled, "The Suspect". The relevance of the Greek title, "The Smile of Medusa", however, is quite obscure. Most of the international editions utilise a direct translation of the original title.

Answer: The Moving Finger

Agatha Christie took the title "The Moving Finger" from the Persian poem,"Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". In this novel, someone is sending nasty anonymous letters to various residents in the village of Lymstock. This plot point is reflected in some of the various titles for this novel: "The Poison Pen" (Poland), "The Case of the Anonymous Letters" (Spain), "The Shadow Hand" (Germany), "The Hidden Hand" (Romania), "Murder by Correspondence" (Sweden), and "Terror Comes by Post" and "Anonymous Letters" (Italy).

Answer: Crooked House

Internationally, "Crooked House" is mostly known as "The Crooked House" in keeping with the original title, but it is known as "The Strange House" (Sweden), "The Twisted House" (Spain) and "The Leaning/Slanted House" (Arabic). Twisted, leaning and slanted are somewhat synonymous with the word crooked but they do not actually relate to the nursery rhyme from which the original title is derived.

Other foreign titles include "Snakes' Den" (Czech Republic/Slovakia) and "House of Crime" (Poland). The Indonesian title, "Josephine's Notebook", causes one to focus on that clue and character, which is a bit of a spoiler as that is the key to the mystery.

Answer: And Then There Were None

"And Then There Were None" is actually not the original title of this novel. The history of the title changes is interesting. The novel was originally entitled "Ten Little Niggers" because it was based on an old English nursery rhyme of that name. The use of the epithet "nigger" was acceptable in England in 1939 when Agatha Christie wrote it but not so in the USA, so when the American edition was published in 1940, the title was changed to "And Then There Were None". It was also published in the USA as "Ten Little Indians" between 1964 and 1985. By 1985, shifting social mores in the U.K. demanded a title change to "And Then There Were None", which is the title it is mostly known as today. Most foreign language versions retained the original title for decades but eventually they followed suit with a culturally sensitive alternative. For example, it wasn't until 2020 that the French version was renamed "They Were Ten", specifically at the request of Agatha Christie's estate.

In a way, "And Then There Were None" is a bit of an indirect spoiler for the ending, but not half as much as the Finnish and Chinese titles, "And Not a Single One Survived" and "No-one Survived", respectively. In Portugal, it was published as "Invitation to Death" and "The Ten Black Figures".

Answer: A Murder is Announced

In the novel "A Murder is Announced", the story opens with a bizarre newspaper advertisement notifying the residents of Chipping Cleghorn that a murder will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m. A number of the villagers drop by Little Paddocks out of curiosity, assuming it was an invitation to a murder-themed party, and are stunned when a murder does in fact occur.

Most of the foreign titles make reference to the newspaper advertisement: "A Crime Will Take Place" (Italy), "Notice of Murder" (Japan), "Murder Notice" (China), "Forewarned Murder" (Korea), and "Invitation to a Homicide" and "An Announcement of a Crime" (Portugal).

Answer: Sparkling Cyanide

In Agatha Christie's novel "Sparkling Cyanide", a wealthy young woman named Rosemary dies after drinking cyanide-laced champagne at her birthday dinner. Her death was ruled a suicide, but her husband George did not believe that so precisely a year later, he organises another dinner party with the same guests and he too is poisoned.

Rosemary's name is significant because the herb rosemary has represented remembrance since ancient times, which is why it is frequently used at funerals and war memorial services. This is alluded to in the American title, "Remembered Death", and in the Japanese title, "The Unforgotten Death".

Alternative foreign titles for this novel include "Cyanide and Champagne" (Sweden), "Two Corpses at Supper" (Germany), and "Six Suspects" (Greece).

Answer: They Do It With Mirrors

Most of the alternative titles for the novel "They Do It With Mirrors" make reference to mirrors. For example in the USA, the title is "Murder with Mirrors", in Sweden "Tricks with Mirrors" and in Russia "With the Help of a Mirror". It is a reference to how magicians use mirrors and misdirection to perform their magic, which Miss Marple likened to the murderer using misdirection to accomplish the murder.

Other foreign titles include "A Meaningful Murder" (Czech Republic/Slovakia) and "The Murder by Magic" (Korea).

Answer: Evil Under the Sun

"Evil Under the Sun" is a quote from the Bible, but the quote did not translate well in foreign languages so it is known by a variety of other titles, usually referencing the beach as the locale for the murder. In Portugal, it is published as "Death on the Beach" and in Spain as "Death Under the Sun". In Italy it is known as "Bodies in the Sun", which conjures up a mental image of multiple dead bodies but in fact there is only one murder. The Italian title refers to Poirot's observation that people sunbaking on the beach are not recognisable: "Regard them there, lying out in rows. What are they? They are not men and women. There is nothing personal about them. They are just--bodies!"

Other foreign titles include "Holiday Murderers" (Hungary), "The Devil is Everywhere" (Dutch) and "Crime Under the Sunshine" (China).