In comparing Christie's writing with that of her contemporary, Baroness Emma Orczy, one thing I found interesting was the number of words I stumbled over in the latter's novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. Many times these were French words in use during that country's revolution, such as Ci-Devant, which meant "former," and was commonly associated with the aristocrats the revolutionaries killed, arrested, or otherwise stripped of land, title, and power. But other words also tripped me up, and these were English words, not French. Many of these were swear words.
Although spoken in English, these words and phrases communicated nothing to me. Here's one for you: Odd's fish. Say it with feeling: "Odd's fish!" Feel better? Good, because I've got a few more to consider: "Zooks" and "Zounds." I especially like these last two, because they start with "Z", one of the most underutilized letters in the English alphabet. These three words and phrases, along with equally mystifying others, are readily and repeatedly expounded by the Scarlet Pimpernel and his associates. "Odd's Fish!" "Zooks!" "Zounds!" It's a fair bet you haven't heard anyone using words and phrases like that recently.
These swear words are abbreviations, or short-hand for invoking the name of the Divine. Thus, when someone snapped "Odd's Fish!" what he really meant was "God's Fish!" Zooks and Zounds are even more evocative. Zooks is short for Gadzooks, which apparently meant God's Hooks, or the nails used to impale Jesus to the cross. Zounds was short for wounds, or more specifically God's Wounds, such as those Christ received from the nails driven into him on the cross. Such abbreviations are called minced oaths, in which a blasphemous or taboo term is replaced by one less objectionable. Still, everyone then knew what the speaker was referring to.
Beginning authors often salt their characters' dialogue with swear words. It's an easy way to reveal a character's anger, sadness, or disgust. As an author matures, he or she may find more sophisticated ways of revealing emotions and turmoil without resorting to such crassness. This takes work and skill, as it involves the author striving to widen his readership to entertaining without offending his readers. To me this seems a worthy, and perhaps even noble, goal.
I have no idea how Baroness Emma Orczy portrayed herself in the media. By all accounts The Scarlet Pimpernel caused a sensation in the early 20th Century. Yet I'm sure we can agree that, a hundred years later, that novel, and those that followed in the series, are not read as often, or as widely, and certainly are not loved and taught and adapted and discussed as much as those of Agatha Christie. What strikes me as even more notable is that Baroness Emma Orczy was a deposed aristocrat. Given her upbringing, I have to wonder: did she swear in public like her characters?
Unlike Orczy's character Sir Percy Blakeney, Hercule Poirot is a humble Belgian policeman. Whereas Blakeney was born to power, Poirot must earn his place in society. While Blakeney hangs out with the English aristocracy, including the British royal family, Poirot must impress them with his conduct, as well as his little grey cells. So it makes sense that, while Poirot often flaunts expectations by his conclusions and actions, he doesn't flaunt others' expectations of proper conduct by using words and phrases that others may find offensive. Not even in Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Perhaps that's part of the secret to Hercule Poirot's enduring popularity, and an example of the wisdom contained in Agatha Christie's little grey cells.
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