The Murder at the Vicarage - photo 1
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The Murder at the Vicarage

Sold
£ 34 020
Auction dateClassic
28.09.2023 13:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1016336
Lot 25 | The Murder at the Vicarage
The Murder at the Vicarage

Agatha Christie

CHRISTIE, Agatha (1890-1976). The Murder at the Vicarage. London: for the Crime Club by W. Collins Sons & Co., Ltd., 1930.



The dedication copy of the first edition, inscribed by the author to her daughter: ‘Rosalind from Agatha Christie’, in the rare dust-jacket. This is the first full-length novel to feature Miss Marple, one of Christie’s best-known characters, who had previously appeared in short stories in various magazines in 1927. ‘With the arrival of Miss Marple centre stage […] Agatha found the means to convey a complete world-view […] as real to the author, as the world of Highbury was to Jane Austen […] What interested Miss Marple and her creator was the way in which behaviour relates to normality, even when it is murderous’ (Laura Thompson, Agatha Christie (2007), pp. 278-9).



Murder at the Vicarage was published in October 1930 and marks a transition for the publisher Collins who were moving titles to ‘The Crime Club’ imprint. First printings of this title can be found in either black cloth with the Collins imprint at the foot of the spine, or in orange cloth with ‘The Crime Club’ imprint at the foot of the spine. The black cloth with the Collins imprint is considered the first state binding.



Octavo. 2 pages of publisher’s advertisements at end (light spotting mostly to preliminary and final gatherings). Original orange cloth [see note], upper cover lettered in black with single black fillet border, spine lettered in black with ‘The Crime Club’ imprint at foot (spine slightly sunned, head and foot of spine rubbed, slight staining and soiling to boards, binding slightly rubbed); original pictorial dust-jacket supplied from another copy (jacket slightly worn, price excised from spine, loss at head and foot of spine, frayed at edges and folds with small loss, large repaired tear across upper panel and into spine, some tape repairs). Provenance: Rosalind Hicks (née Christie; 1919-2004, presentation inscription from her mother on preliminary free endpaper, sale at Bearne’s, Exeter, ‘The Greenway Sale’, property from the home of Dame Agatha Christie, 12 September 2006).

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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28.09.2023 – 28.09.2023
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