THIS IS A SUMMARY ABOUT PHILOMEL COTTAGE BY AGATHA CHRISTIE.

1. English Literature
June 4th 2015
SUMMARY ABOUT PHILOMEL COTTAGE
BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Agatha Christie (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime
novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Her literary work is based on detective
novels and fourteen short story collections such as The Murder of Roger Ackryod
(1926) The mystery of the Blue Train (1928), Death in clouds (1935), Unfinished
Portrait (1954), The hollow (1951), the Veredic (1958), and so on.
One of her famous tales is “Philomel Cottage”, that is a suspense and mystery text
in which a narrator tells the story of Alix Martin, a thirty-three years old woman who
has a sort of relationship with his old friend Dick Windyford. Although they have
feelings towards each other, they are never able to express them and decide to
keep them as a secret and ends up marrying a man called Gerald, who changes
the route of the story completely.
One day Alexis meets Gerald Martin, an enthusiastic photographer who manages
to win her heart in a really short period of time and eventually they decide to
engage and get married. It was a big surprise for Dick to hear this news and his
reaction was immediately against it, because they barely know each other and
their love is insufficient to make such an important decision.
As a couple, Alix and Gerald decide to buy a beautiful and big cottage and move
there, however, from the moment they began their life together, strange things
begin to happen. First, she dreams of Dick killing his husband and moreover, she
discovers from a talk with the gardener some lies about his husband and the sum
of money he paid for the house. This sequence of events cause uncertainty and
make Alix doubt of her husband’s intentions but also because of his sudden
change of attitude, he was not the spontaneous and sweet man she had known
but instead he was a man who wanted everything done as he demanded it. That’s
why she decides to look for information into his husband’s personal things where
she finds some newspapers that showing the story of a murderer; Charles

2. Lemaitre, who had killed his ex wives and that was really Gerald. Besides this
discovering, she finds her husband’s diary in which he stated several dates and
suspicious appointments.
All these clues made her realize that she could be in serious danger of being
murdered so she decides to call Dick looking for help. Additionally, this day was
marked as an important event in Gerald’s diary, which called Alix’s attention. His
husband arrives from work and starts acting a little strange, telling Alix to enter in
the dark photography room and talking to her in a rude and imperative way.
Suddenly, she decides to react and tell an apparent secret to her husband. She
tells him that she had killed her ex husbands by poisoning their coffee, then she
tells him the effects of the poison in a very detailed way with the purpose of
making him believe he had been poisoned too with the coffee he had drank
before. This last scene makes readers believe that Alix kills the man just by
playing with his mind and making him believe all she tells him so he finally dies.
Lately, Dick and some police officers arrive to the house and find the dead body
sitting in a chair and this is how the story concludes.