Subject: Context
Quote: “Has it ever occurred to you…how much we go by what is called…the context? There is a place on Dartmoor called Grey Wethers. If you were talking to a farmer there and mentioned Grey Wethers, he would probably conclude that you were speaking of these stone circles, yet it is possible that you might be speaking of the atmosphere; and in the same way, if you were meaning the stone circles, an outsider, hearing a fragment of the conversation, might think you meant the weather. So when we repeat a conversation, we don’t, as a rule, repeat the actual words; we put in some other words that seem to us to mean exactly the same thing.”
Character: Miss Jane Marple
Chapter/Story: 6—“The Thumb Mark of St. Peter”
Book Title/Copyright: The Tuesday Club Murders, 1928 Subject: Memory and Context
Quote: “Do you know the way that things suddenly come back to you—after years, perhaps…. Somebody told me a story once, when I was eleven. I saw no point in that story whatsoever. I don’t believe I ever…thought of it again. But about two years ago, sitting in the stalls at a review, that story came back to me, and I was so surprised that I actually said aloud, ‘Oh, now I see the point of that silly story about the rice pudding.’ And yet there had been no direct allusion on the same lines—only some fun sailing rather near the wind.”
Character: Angela Warren
Chapter/Story: 6
Book Title/Copyright: Murder in Retrospect, 1941
