Taken at the Flood (0)

Taken at the Flood
“ There is a Tide” redirects here . “ There is a
Tide” is also the name of a short story by Larry
Niven, set in the Known Space universe .
Taken at the Flood is a work of detective fiction by
British writer Agatha Christie , first published in the US by
Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1948 under the title
of There is a Tide...[1] and in the UK by the Collins Crime
Club in the November of the same year under Christie’s
original title.[2] The US edition retailed at $2.50[1] and the
UK edition at eight shillings and sixpence (8/6).[2] It features
her famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot , and
is set in 1946.
1 Plot summary
In a flashback from late Spring to early Spring, Lynn
Marchmont, newly demobilised from the Women ’s Royal
Naval Service , finds difficulty settling into the village life
of Warmsley Vale. She is engaged to Rowley, one of several
members of the Cloade family living nearby. Each of
them grew dependent on money from Gordon Cloade, a
bachelor who was expected to die and leave his fortune
to them. But instead he marries an Irishwoman, Rosaleen
Turner , invalidating his previous will, before being
killed in an explosion at his home, which his new
wife survives. As a result , Rosaleen inherits Gordon’s
fortune and the entire family now faces financial crisis ,
augmented by the poor state of the economy in the aftermath
of World War II. Rosaleen’s fortune is zealously
guarded by her brother , David Hunter , and although various
family members manage to wheedle small sums out
of Rosaleen, David refuses to help Frances Cloade, whose
husband Jeremy is on the brink of ruin.
A man calling himself Enoch Arden arrives in the village,
and attempts to blackmail David by saying he knows how
to find Rosaleen’s first husband, Robert. Their conversation
in Arden’s hotel room is overheard by the landlady ,
who immediately tells Rowley Cloade. Later , Arden’s
body is discovered in his room with his head smashed
in. Rowley Cloade appeals to a detective, Hercule Poirot,
to prove the dead man was Robert Underhay, and Poirot
produces Major Porter , who knew Underhay in Africa .
At the inquest, despite Rosaleen’s protests that the dead
man was not Robert, Porter confirms that Arden was
indeed her first husband. The estate will revert to the
Cloades.
Rosaleen has a strong alibi for the time of the murder
since she was in the London flat that evening . David has
only a weak alibi: down from London for the day, he met
Lynn on his dash to catch the last train to London leaving
at 9:20 pm, and evidently telephoned her from the London
flat shortly after 11 pm. Since the murder is believed
to have taken place shortly before 9 pm, he had enough
opportunity and motive to be arrested.
David’s alibi improves when it is discovered that a heavily
made-up woman in an orange headscarf left Arden’s
room after 10 p.m. The investigation shifts back to the
female Cloades, but Poirot discovers that the immediate
cause of Arden’s death may have been smashing his head
against a heavy marble mantelpiece. The appearance of
a murder may have been created after some form of accidental
death.
Lynn, though engaged to Rowley, seems to love David.
Rowley may be attracted to Rosaleen, who seems to
be consumed with guilt and fear . Major Porter apparently
commits suicide but leaves no note . It comes to
light that Arden was actually Charles Trenton, second
cousin to Frances Cloade. She came up with the plan
to blackmail Rosaleen after hearing Major Porter’s anecdote
from Jeremy. Although this explains Arden’s identity ,
it does not clarify who killed him or who bribed
Porter to falsely identify the corpse.
Rosaleen dies in her sleep from an overdose. Superintendent
Spence, the investigating officer, suggests that perhaps
she was the murderer; the police have so focused on
David’s alibi that they subjected hers to little scrutiny.
Lynn tells Rowley that she wishes to marry David Hunter.
Rowley is strangling Lynn when Poirot stops him. David
arrives and Poirot explains everything. Rowley visited
Arden, and seeing the physical resemblance to Frances,
reacted angrily to the deception that was being played.
Pushed by Rowley, Arden fell against the mantelpiece
and died. Rowley saw the opportunity to incriminate
David. He smashed in Arden’s head with fire tongs and
left David’s lighter at the scene . It was Rowley who persuaded
Porter to give the false identification, carefully
employing Poirot, who would be sure to go to Porter on
the basis of that first scene at the club, which Rowley also
knew of from Jeremy. Porter’s guilt got the better of him
and he committed suicide, leaving a note that Rowley destroyed.
Discovering Arden’s body, David ran for the 9:20 train
but missed it; Lynn actually saw the smoke from the departing
train on the evening, but he convinced her that it
was earlier than it was and that he had time to meet her.
1
2 6 ADAPTATIONS
He then backtracked to The Stag, disguised himself as
a woman, and played out the scene that established the
later time of death. Then he returned to the station and
called Rosaleen, who placed a call to Lynn that was delivered
by the operator but then cut off. Afterward, David
spoke to Lynn from the station, giving the impression that
a single call from London was interrupted. He returned
to London on the milk train the next day.
Of the three deaths, one is accidental, one a genuine suicide.
The only true murder was Rosaleen’s. David had
no apparent motive to kill his own sister , especially when
it would mean depriving himself of the Cloade fortune.
But the woman posing as Rosaleen was not his sister; his
sister was killed during the bombing of Gordon Cloade’s
estate two years earlier. The woman posing as Rosaleen
was one of Gordon’s housemaids, who became David’s
lover and his accomplice in obtaining the Cloade fortune.
Now he could kill this accomplice and marry Lynn,
whom he really loved and who would gain a portion of
the fortune through family connections. In the end, no
one is tried other than David. Rowley is implicated in
the deaths of Trenton (“Enoch Arden”) and Porter, and
he is guilty of misleading the police and assaulting Lynn.
However , Poirot keeps silence about Rowley’s crimes, allowing
Rowley to marry Lynn, who has loved him without
realising it.
2 Characters
• Hercule Poirot, Belgian detective
• Superintendent Spence, investigating officer
• Sergeant Graves , Spence’s assistant
• George, Poirot’s valet
• Rosaleen Cloade, formerly Mrs. Robert Underhay,
a wealthy young widow
• David Hunter, Rosaleen’s brother
• Jeremy Cloade, a solicitor
• Frances Cloade, Jeremy’s wife
• Lionel Cloade, a doctor
• Katherine Cloade, Lionel’s wife
• Rowley Cloade, a farmer
• Lynn Marchmont, a demobbed Wren, fiancée to
Rowley
• Adela Marchmont, Lynn’s mother
• Beatrice Lippincott, pub landlady of The Stag
• Major Porter, the club bore
• “Enoch Arden”, a blackmailer
• Mrs. Leadbetter, a resident of The Stag
3 Explanation of the novel ’s title
The title of the book in both the UK and US markets is
a line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in a speech by
Brutus in Act IV: “There is a tide in the affairs of men,
which taken at the flood leads on to fortune...”. The quotation
is given in full as the epigraph to the novel.
4 Literary significance and reception
No review of this book appeared in the Times Literary
Supplement .
For once , Maurice Richardson, in his review of the 21
November 1948 issue of The Observer was slightly unimpressed:
“Agatha Christie has, if not a whole day off, at
least part of the afternoon. The killing of the blackmailing
Enoch Arden, who puts up at the local to harry the
already embarrassed Cloade family, the murder that follows,
and Poirot’s doubly twisted solution are ingenious
enough, but the characterisation is a little below par. The
quintessential zest, the sense of well-being which goes to
make up that Christie feeling , is missing.”[3]
An unnamed reviewer in the Toronto Daily Star of 10
April 1948 said, “Hercule Poirot, whose eggshaped cranium
is crammed with lively gray cells, proves himself a
bit of a mug before he sorts out all the details of [Enoch
Arden’s] death and other even more baffling mysteries.
But he does it with all the acumen that has endeared him
to Agatha Christie fans . Fantastic and topping.”[4]
Robert Barnard: “Elderly man married to a glamorous
nitwit of dubious social background is a common plotelement
in Christie. Here she is widowed (in an airraid
– this is one of the few Christies anchored to an
actual time), and burdened by financially insatiable relatives,
both of blood and in-law. But who exactly is
dead, and who isn't? And who is what they seem , and
who isn't? Compulsive reworking of Tennysonian and
Christiean themes, and pretty high up in the range of classic
titles. "[5]
5 References to other works
The false alibi used by the murderer of a witness sighting
the missed train smoke was a partial re-use of a plot device
used by Christie in the 1925 short story The Sign in
the Sky, later published in the 1930 collection The Mysterious
Mr. Quin.
6 Adaptations
6.2 Radio 3
6.1 Television
A television film was produced in 2006 with David Suchet
as Poirot in the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot. The
cast included Elliot Cowan as David Hunter, Celia Imrie
as Kathy Cloade, Jenny Agutter as Adela Marchmont
and Tim Pigott-Smith as Dr. Lionel Woodward.The film
made several significant changes to the plot:
• Like almost all episodes of the TV series, the film is
reset in the late 1930s as opposed to the post-World
War II years: as a result of this, the death of Gordon
Cloade was caused not by a German air raid, but an
apparent gas explosion that Poirot later reveals was
a bomb planted by David Hunter.
• Rosaleen was made into a morphine addict.
• Kathy becomes Adela’s sister, whereas in the novel,
it is Lionel who is a Cloade. The credits mistakenly
refer to Lionel as a Cloade – however, his surname
is 'Woodward' (as revealed by Kathy when she visits
Poirot at the beginning of the adaptation ).
• Kathy also repeatedly harasses the false Rosaleen by
calling her “ whore ”, “slut”, “ bitch ” and “bigamist”
through anonymous phone calls, an event not found
in the novel.
• In the film, the false Rosaleen, Eileen Corrigan,
is saved in time ( thanks to Dr. Woodward’s morphine
addiction and his theft of some of her morphine),
and Poirot proves that David, knowing that
she would attempt suicide out of feelings of guilt for
her actions , has set it up so that she would use the
morphine as a means to try to kill herself .
• In the novel, David had no motive for killing his sister,
especially when it would mean depriving himself
of the Cloade fortune. In this adaptation, however,
he is upgraded to a mass murderer who wanted
revenge against his sister for marrying Gordon and
excluding her brother as her “first love”. David plotted
his revenge by raping and impregnating her Irish
Catholic housemaid, Elieen Corrigan, and then performing
an induced abortion on her, breaking her
and forcing her to submit to his will by promising
her heaven if she obeyed him, and threatening eternal
damnation in “the fires of hell" if she refused. He
then took Eileen to a bomb shelter in the basement
and forced her to pose as his own sister, whom he
then slaughtered along with the entire Cloade estate
by a surprise attack of blowing it up with dynamite.
• In the adaptation, after David is denounced as a mass
murderer, he “threatens” to blow up the entire Stag
Inn as he did with the entire Cloade estate, but he
is talked into sparing Poirot’s life and the lives of
everyone in the inn, after which David confesses that
there is no dynamite in the inn, and that the “ threat ”
is nothing more than a cruel joke he has played on
everyone. This event is not present in the novel.
• In the end, after David is hanged , Lynn leaves England
for Africa because she is still in love with David
despite everything. She does not marry Rowley as
implied in the novel.
6.2 Radio
John Moffatt played Poirot in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation
of the novel.
7 Publication history
Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (Book was first
published in the US)
• 1948, Dodd Mead and Company (New York ),
March 1948, Hardcover, 242 pp
• 1948, Collins Crime Club (London), November
1948, Hardcover, 192 pp
• 1949, Pocket Books (New York), Paperback
• 1955, Dell Books, Paperback, 224 pp
• 1961, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins),
Paperback, 192 pp
4 9 EXTERNAL LINKS
• 1965, Pan Books, Paperback, 204 pp
• 1971 , Ulverscroft Large- print Edition, Hardcover,
386 pp ISBN 0-85456-084-X
8 References
[1] American Tribute to Agatha Christie
[2] Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins
Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions. Dragonby Press
(Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
[3] The Observer 21 November 1948 (Page 3)
[4] Toronto Daily Star 10 April 1948 (Page 27)
[5] Barnard, Robert. A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation
of Agatha Christie – Revised edition (Page 206). Fontana
Books, 1990. ISBN 0-00-637474-3
9 External links
• Taken at the Flood at the official Agatha Christie
website
• Taken at the Flood (2006) at the Internet Movie
Database
5
10 Text and image sources , contributors , and licenses
10.1 Text
• Taken at the Flood Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taken_at_the_Flood?oldid=765626854 Contributors: SimonP, Paul A,
OldakQuill, Ary29, Daydream believer2, Istara, Woohookitty, BillC, BD2412, FlaBot, Kystilla, Sordel, [email protected], Attilios,
SmackBot, Kevinalewis, Bluebot, Sadads, Chlewbot, Thomas1974, Ohconfucius, LordRobert, SashatoBot, Ser Amantio di Nicolao,
John, Rigadoun, J 1982, TheFarix, Angeldeb82, CmdrObot, AlbertSM, Cydebot, Playtime, Thijs!bot, Noclevername, Tjmayerinsf, TTN,
Robina Fox, Keith D, MrsPlum, VolkovBot, Orphic, The Duke of Waltham, Lots42, Broadbot, Tantalizing Posey, MarkinBoston, Jtomlin1uk,
Cazza 66, Cliff1911, MystBot, Good Olfactory, Addbot, Prairieplant, LaaknorBot, Zetetos~enwiki, Doniago, RW153, SeymourSycamore,
Goregore~enwiki, Luckas-bot, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Rubinbot, Esperanza19~enwiki, NathanoNL, Fim08, ArthurBot, Obersachsebot,
Xqbot, Sketchmoose, Ringkichardthethird, Khajidha, DSisyphBot, Heslopian, Nedim Ardoğa, LucienBOT, WIlted Youth, A412,
RedBot, Pagony, Wikipelli, ZéroBot, Rangoon11, Chris857, ديرانية عباد ,Kasir, Helpful Pixie Bot, BattyBot, Joyjoy4700, SteenthIWbot,
Alexander K. Cox, Sarahkimct, Marsupialist, MagicatthemovieS, Suelru, Joe Vitale 5, Luyg97, Teddy Bg and Anonymous: 38
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