Subject: Courtship
Quote: “Well, of course that settles it…. But I don’t see anything to laugh at. There’s nothing funny about a proposal.”
“No, indeed,” said Cynthia. “Somebody might accept you next time. Good-bye, you’ve cheered me up very much.”
And, with a final uncontrollable burst of merriment, she vanished through the trees.
Characters: Captain Arthur Hastings and Cynthia Murdock
Chapter/Story: 9—Dr. Bauerstein
Book Title/Copyright: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920
Subject: Matrimony
Quote: I recognized…the disastrous effects of matrimony. How often have I not heard a perfectly intelligent female say, “Edgar says—“ And all the time you are perfectly aware that Edgar is a perfect fool. Suzanne, by reason of her married state, was yearning to lean upon some man or other.
Character: Anne Beddingfeld
Chapter/Story: 16
Book Title/Copyright: The Man in the Brown Suit, 1924Subject: Fidelity
Quote: “Shall I neglect you a little?” suggested Tommy. “Take other women about to nightclubs. That sort of thing.”
“Useless,” said Tuppence. “You would only meet me there with other men. And I should know perfectly well that you didn’t care for the other women, whereas you would never be quite sure that I didn’t care for the other men. Women are so much more thorough.”
“It’s only in modesty that men score top marks,” murmured her husband.
Character: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford
Chapter/Story: 1 – A Fairy in the Flat
Book Title/Copyright: Partners in Crime, 1929Subject: Husbands and Wives
Quote: “Liar,” laughed Tuppence. “But I always did think I’d rather marry a liar than a fool.”
“I suppose,” said Tommy, “that’s there no absolute necessity for a husband to be either?”
But Tuppence merely threw him a pitying glance and withdrew.
Character: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford
Chapter/Story: 14—The Crackler (continued)
Book Title/Copyright: Partners in Crime, 1929
Subject: Women and Marriage
Quote: “Darling,” said Tuppence, “don’t be foolish. Women are never the wild gamblers they appear. Unless that girl was always perfectly prepared to marry that pleasant but rather empty-headed young man, she would never have let herself in for a wager of this kind. But, Tommy, believe me, she will marry him with more enthusiasm and respect if he wins the wager than if she has to make it easy for him some other way.”
Character: Tuppence Beresford
Chapter/Story: 19—The Unbreakable Alibi
Book Title/Copyright: Partners in Crime, 1929
Subject: Husbands, Choosing One
Quote: “Well—there are two men who—who—want to marry me.”
“The usual story, I suppose? One rich, one poor, and the poor one is the one you like?… That’s a sort of law of Nature,” explained Tuppence. “It happens to everybody. It happens to me…. You can go on telling yourself how good and worthy he is, and adding up his qualities as though they were an addition sum—and it all has a simply refrigerating effect.”
Character: Monica Deane and Tuppence Beresford
Chapter/Story: 22—The Clergyman’s Daughter
Book Title/Copyright: Partners in Crime, 1929
Book Title/Copyright: Partners in Crime, 1929
Subject: Telling the Truth
Quote: “As a matter of fact it wouldn’t be safe to tell any man the truth about his wife! Funnily enough, I’d trust most women with the truth about their husbands. Women can accept the fact that a man is a rotter, a swindler, a drug taker, a confirmed liar, and a general swine without batting an eyelash and without its impairing their affection for the brute in the least! Women are wonderful realists.”
Character: Dr. Giles Reilly
Chapter/Story: 19 – A New Suspicion
Book Title/Copyright: Murder in Mesopotamia, 1935Subject: Husbands
Quote: “It is incredible to me that she has had a husband for many years and that he has not already done so [killed her]. What can he be made of, that husband?”
Sarah laughed. “Oh, he’s the ‘huntin’, fishin’, shootin’ kind,” she explained.
“Psychologically that is very sound! He appeases his lust to kill on the (so-called) lower creations.”
Character: Dr. Gerard and Sarah King
Chapter/Story: 9
Book Title/Copyright: Appointment with Death, 1937 Subject: Marriage
Quote: “It’s always cheering,” said Luke, “to hear someone speak well of the marriage state. Especially in these days of easy divorce.”
“Pah!” said the Major. “Young people make me sick. No stamina, no endurance. They can’t stand anything. No fortitude!” Luke itched to ask why such exceptional fortitude should be needed, but he controlled himself.
Character: Luke Fitzwilliam and Major Horton
Chapter/Story: 11
Book Title/Copyright: Easy to Kill, 1938 Subject: Marriage
Quote: “I haven’t got a husband! I’ve failed there, haven’t I, M. Poirot?”
Poirot said gallantly: “Mademoiselle, if you are not married, it is because none of my sex have been sufficiently eloquent. If is from choice, not necessity, that you remain single.”
Rosamund Darnley said: “And yet, like all men, I’m sure you believe in your heart that no woman is content unless she is married and has children.”
Poirot shrugged his shoulder. “To marry and have children that is the common lot of women. Only one woman in a hundred—more, in a thousand—can make for herself a name and a position as you have done.”
Character: Rosamund Darnley and M. Hercule Poirot
Chapter/Story: 2
Book Title/Copyright: Evil Under the Sun, 1941
Subject: Divorce
Quote: “Yes. Sort of attitude to life there is nowadays. If you take on a thing and don’t like it, then you get yourself out of it as quick as possible! Dash it all, there’s got to be such a thing as good faith. If you marry a woman and engage yourself to look after her, well, it’s up to you to do it. It’s your show. You’ve taken it on. I’m sick of quick marriage and easy divorce. Arlena’s my wife, that’s all there is to it.”
Character: Kenneth Marshall
Chapter/Story: 3
Book Title/Copyright: Evil Under the Sun, 1941Subject: Marriage and Quarrels
Quote: “[T]he kind of quarrels you have—typical of early days of marriage. Quite—quite unlike an illicit relationship. It has been said, you know—and I think quite truly—that you can only really get under anybody’s skin if you are married to them. When there is no—no legal bond, people are much more careful; they have to keep assuring themselves how happy and halcyon everything is. They have, you see, to justify themselves. They dare not quarrel! Married people, I have noticed, quite enjoy their battles and the—er—appropriate reconciliations.”
Character: Miss Jane Marple
Chapter/Story: 18
Book Title/Copyright: The Body in the Library, 1942Subject: Marriage
Quote: “Every woman should make one mistake matrimonially—but there’s no need to dwell on it. Having tried out the show in the provinces, the time has come to bring it to the West End.”
Character: Alex Restarick
Chapter/Story: 16—3
Book Title/Copyright: Murder With Mirrors (They Do It With Mirrors), 1952 Subject: Divorce
Quote: “When I was a girl, these things simply did not happen. Men had their affairs, naturally, but they were not allowed to break up married life.”
Character: Lady Tressilian
Chapter/Story: “Open the Door and Here Are the People”
Book Title/Copyright: Towards Zero, 1944
