The Mysterious Affair at Styles - photo 1
The Mysterious Affair at Styles - photo 2

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Sold
£ 5 670
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 1016454
Lot 18 | The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Agatha Christie

Agatha CHRISTIE (1890-1976). The Mysterious Affair at Styles. A detective story. London: John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1921.



The first appearance of the famous detective Hercule Poirot: rare first UK edition of the author’s first book. A Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone of Detective Fiction. This edition was printed on low quality paper stock and bound in a thin cloth binding, as a result of which surviving copies are almost always found in poor condition; the present example is well above the usual condition for this book.



Christie wrote this novel during the First World War in 1916 between her husband Archie’s periods of leave from active service and her hospital work, but the manuscript was turned down by a number of publishers, including Methuen and Hodder & Stoughton. It was not until three years later in 1919, just after the birth of her daughter Rosalind, when Christie had, as she wrote much later, ‘quite given up hope of ever having a book published’ that ‘the letter from the Bodley Head, asking her to visit the office and discuss The Mysterious Affair at Styles, dropped out of the sky as from nowhere […] John Lane did a clever job on Agatha, recognising both a talent and an easy touch when he saw one […] he tied her into a contract for five more books with the Bodley Head, at a royalty rate only slightly above the one being offered for Styles, which was 10 per cent on any English sale of more than 2,000 copies’ (Laura Thompson, Agatha Christie). Christie is now in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Hubin, p. 80.



Octavo. Illustrations in the text (light scattered spotting, more to preliminary and final text leaves). Original tan cloth, lettered and with an ornamental design to upper cover and spine in black (lacking the dust-jacket as usual, splitting at joints as often, spine ends and extremities slightly rubbed).

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.09.2023 – 28.09.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

More from Creator

The Secret Adversary
The Secret Adversary
£100
Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express
£7 000
Partners in Crime
Partners in Crime
£2 500
The Sittaford Mystery
The Sittaford Mystery
£1 200
The Hound of Death and other stories
The Hound of Death and other stories
£1 000
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and 6 others
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and 6 others
£1 600
The Labours of Hercules
The Labours of Hercules
£1 000
12 works, all presentation copies
12 works, all presentation copies
£5 500

Related terms

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.