Talk:The Thirteen Problems

by Agatha Christie (1933)

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The Bloodstained Pavement (ch. 4)

¶ "Aunt Jane," said Raymond, looking at her curiously, "how do you do it? You have lived such a peaceful life and yet nothing seems to surprise you."

"I always find one thing very like another in this world," said Miss Marple.

--Faterson

ib. (= ending)

¶ She [Miss Marple] shook her head.

"There is a great deal of wickedness in village life. I hope you dear young people will never realize how very wicked the world is." ¶

--Faterson

The Thumbmark of St Peter (ch. 6)

¶ "God forbid that I should ever regard village life as peaceful and uneventful," said Raymond with fervour. "Not after the revelations we have heard from you! The cosmopolitan world seems a mild and peaceful place compared with St Mary Mead."

"Well, my dear," said Miss Marple, "human nature is much the same everywhere, and, of course, one has opportunities of observing it at closer quarters in a village."

"You really are unique, Aunt Jane," cried Joyce.

--Faterson

Miss Marple ib.

'There is nothing that you can tell me about people's minds that would astonish or surprise me. [...]' ¶

--Faterson

Miss Marple ib.

¶ "[...] I have had too much experience of life to believe in the infallibility of doctors. Some of them are clever men and some of them are not, and half the time the best of them don't know what is the matter with you. I have no truck with doctors and their medicines myself. ¶ [...]"

--Faterson

Miss Marple ib.

"[...] And I was nearly at my wit's end, I can tell you. Now, I dare say you modern young people will laugh, but when I am in really bad trouble I always say a little prayer to myself – anywhere, when I am walking along the street, or at a bazaar. And I always get an answer. It may be some trifling thing, apparently quite unconnected with the subject, but there it is. I had that text pinned over my bed when I was a little girl: Ask and you shall receive. [...]" ¶

--Faterson

ib.

¶ "Yes, Raymond," said Miss Marple severely, "and there is no need to be profane about it. The hand of God is everywhere. [...]" ¶

--Faterson

ib. (=ending)

¶ "That is where you make a mistake, dear," said Miss Marple. "Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don't realize it." ¶

--Faterson

The Blue Geranium (ch. 7)

¶ "But how extraordinary! Why, dear old Miss Marple has hardly ever been out of St Mary Mead."

"Ah! But according to her, that has given her unlimited opportunities of observing human nature – under the microscope, as it were." ¶

--Faterson

The Companion (ch. 8)

¶ "You surprise me," said Sir Henry Clithering. The ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard turned to Miss Marple. "I always understood from our friend here that St Mary Mead is a positive hotbed of crime and vice."

"Oh, Sir Henry!" protested Miss Marple, a spot of colour coming into her cheeks. "I'm sure I never said anything of the kind. The only thing I ever said was that human nature is much the same in a village as anywhere else, only one has opportunities and leisure for seeing it at closer quarters." ¶

--Faterson

ib.

¶ "The village parallel," murmured Sir Henry softly. ¶

--Faterson

Miss Marple in The Herb of Death (ch. 11)

¶ "Human nature is always interesting, Sir Henry. And it's curious to see how certain types always tend to act in exactly the same way." ¶

--Faterson

Miss Marple ib.

"[...] human nature is much the same everywhere." ¶

--Faterson

(SPOILER) ib.

¶ "You mean [...] poisoned his ward, the charming girl whom he loved?"

"That's just it," said Miss Marple. "Like Mr Badger and his young housekeeper. Don't tell me it's absurd for a man of sixty to fall in love with a girl of twenty. It happens every day – and I daresay with an old autocrat like [...], it might take him queerly. These things become a madness sometimes. [...] It's horrible to think of, but I suppose we must take as merciful a view of it as we can. Gentlemen of that age are sometimes very peculiar indeed where young girls are concerned. Our last organist – but there, I mustn't talk scandal." ¶

--Faterson