Absent in the Spring

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Absent in the Spring
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
Author(s)	Mary Westmacott (pseudonym of Agatha Christie)
Cover artist	Not known
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Tragedy
Publisher	Collins
Publication date	August 1944
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	160 pp (first edition, hardcover)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	Towards Zero
Followed by	Death Comes as the End

Absent in the Spring is a novel written by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons in August 1944 and in the US by Farrar & Rinehart later in the same year. It was the third of six novels Christie wrote under the nom-de-plume Mary Westmacott.

Contents

1 Explanation of the novel's title
2 Plot introduction
3 Literary significance and reception
4 Publication history
5 References
6 External links

Explanation of the novel's title

The title is a quotation from Shakespeare's sonnet 98: "From you have I been absent in the spring,..."

Plot introduction

Stranded between trains, Joan Scudamore finds herself reflecting upon her life, her family, and finally coming to grips with the uncomfortable truths about her life.

Literary significance and reception

The Times Literary Supplement's review of 19 August 1944 by Marjorie Grant Cook stated positively, "The writer has succeeded in making this novel told in retrospect, with its many technical difficulties, very readable indeed. She has not made Joan, with her shallow, scrappy mind, sympathetic, and the other characters in the tale, seen through her eyes, lack the charm they had for each other and withheld from her."^[1]

J. D. Beresford's review in The Guardian of 25 August 1944 concluded, "It is a very clever and consistently interesting study of a character that not even a desert vision could permanently change."^[2]

Publication history

1944, William Collins & Sons (London), August 1944, Hardcover, 160 pp
1944, Farrar & Rinehart (New York), 1944, Hardcover, 250 pp
1967, Dell Books, Paperback, 192 pp
1971, Arbor House, Hardback, 250 pp
1974, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
1978, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 300 pp; ISBN 0-7089-0115-8

The novel was first serialised in the U.S. in Good Housekeeping in two abridged installments from July to August 1944.

References

^ The Times Literary Supplement, 19 August 1944 (p. 401)
^ The Guardian, 25 August 1944 (p. 3)

External links

Absent in the Spring at the official Agatha Christie website

v d e Works by Agatha Christie

Detectives	Hercule Poirot Miss Marple Colonel Race Tommy and Tuppence Ariadne Oliver Arthur Hastings Superintendent Battle Chief Inspector Japp Parker Pyne Mr. Harley Quin

Novels	The Mysterious Affair at Styles The Secret Adversary The Murder on the Links The Man in the Brown Suit The Secret of Chimneys The Murder of Roger Ackroyd The Big Four The Mystery of the Blue Train The Seven Dials Mystery The Murder at the Vicarage The Sittaford Mystery Peril at End House Lord Edgware Dies Murder on the Orient Express Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Three Act Tragedy Death in the Clouds The A.B.C. Murders Murder in Mesopotamia Cards on the Table Dumb Witness Death on the Nile Appointment with Death Hercule Poirot's Christmas Murder Is Easy And Then There Were None Sad Cypress One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Evil Under the Sun N or M? The Body in the Library Five Little Pigs The Moving Finger Towards Zero Death Comes as the End Sparkling Cyanide The Hollow Taken at the Flood Crooked House A Murder Is Announced They Came to Baghdad Mrs McGinty's Dead They Do It with Mirrors After the Funeral A Pocket Full of Rye Destination Unknown Hickory Dickory Dock Dead Man's Folly 4.50 from Paddington Ordeal by Innocence Cat Among the Pigeons The Pale Horse The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side The Clocks A Caribbean Mystery At Bertram's Hotel Third Girl Endless Night By the Pricking of My Thumbs Hallowe'en Party Passenger to Frankfurt Nemesis Elephants Can Remember Postern of Fate Curtain Sleeping Murder

As Mary Westmacott	Giant's Bread Unfinished Portrait Absent in the Spring The Rose and the Yew Tree A Daughter's a Daughter The Burden

Short story collections	Poirot Investigates Partners in Crime The Mysterious Mr. Quin The Thirteen Problems The Hound of Death The Listerdale Mystery Parker Pyne Investigates Murder in the Mews The Regatta Mystery The Labours of Hercules The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories Three Blind Mice and Other Stories The Under Dog and Other Stories The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding Double Sin and Other Stories The Golden Ball and Other Stories Poirot's Early Cases Miss Marple's Final Cases and Two Other Stories Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories The Harlequin Tea Set While the Light Lasts and Other Stories

Plays	Black Coffee And Then There Were None Appointment with Death Murder on the Nile/Hidden Horizon The Hollow The Mousetrap Witness for the Prosecution Spider's Web A Daughter's a Daughter Towards Zero Verdict The Unexpected Guest Go Back for Murder Rule of Three Fiddlers Three Akhnaton Chimneys The Guinea Pig

Radio and television plays	Wasp's Nest The Yellow Iris Three Blind Mice Butter In a Lordly Dish Personal Call

Other books	The Road of Dreams Come, Tell Me How You Live Star Over Bethlehem Poems An Autobiography

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