Absent in the Spring

infobox Book |
name = Absent in the Spring
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
author = Mary Westmacott (pseudonym of Agatha Christie)
illustrator =
cover_artist = Not known
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Tragedy
publisher = Collins
release_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.

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 August 19, 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." ["The Times Literary Supplement" August 19, 1944 (Page 401)]

J. D. Beresford's review in "The Guardian" of August 25, 1944 concluded, "It is a very clever and consistently interesting study of a character that not even a desert vision could permanently change." ["The Guardian" August 25, 1944 (Page 3)]

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 0-70-890115-8

The novel was first serialised in the US in "Good Housekeeping" in two abridged instalments from July to August 1944.

References

External links

* [http://us.agathachristie.com/site/find_a_story/stories/Absent_in_the_Spring_and_other_Stories.php "Absent in the Spring"] at the official Agatha Christie website