Talk:The Moving Finger

message: My copy (British Fontana paperback) says "First published by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1934" but "(C) 1942 by Agatha Christie Mallowan."  I don't know the explanation of the discrepancy, but the book is clearly set pre-1939
The difference is terribly significant.  The book ends with the brave but not terribly bright flying enthusiast settling down to live happily ever after with his new bride.  In 1934, that's unintentional tragedy - in 1942 it's fantasy.
Amcguinn 09:04, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Or fiction suited for a story released in the midst of war. The publication history section shows 1942 as the earliest publication, first by serialization, then the novel complete in the next year. Collins published in 1943 -- could you have transposed the numbers for Collins date of first publication? Perhaps the printer did, as 1934 makes no sense for this novel. --Prairieplant (talk) 11:17, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Setting in time

message: Of contemporary reviewers, the Times Lit makes some sound practical points.
I almost feel that the writer in The Observer ought to be answered within the article. He finds "an atmosphere of perpetual after-breakfast well-being".  What I read is a carefully built-up sense of unease, a building feeling that the poison pen letters will lead to tragedy.  Also, although as the above section in Talk brings out, the War and its societal traumas were ignored as in much wartime fiction, we  notice the decay of previous certainties in this changing twentieth century world.  There is incomprehension of the old norms between younger and older people, and - as my mother and her mother experienced in this period - between Londoners and country dwellers.
The Observer piece (uncaring of 'spoilers') also talks carelessly about adulterous solicitors.  The solicitor is not adulterous - he is aiming at re-marriage. Two different things. Arguably, if the object of his feelings had been less respectable and conventional, none of the story would have happened!
My own problem with the plot is: by taking Megan back to stay with them, do the Burtons not make it impossible for (respectable) Elsie to stay in Symmington's home after the wife's death?  I wonder if my mother's, or Dame Agatha's, generation might have answered this with "This wasn't 1900!  Someone had to care for the boys."  But it seems clumsy of Gerry and Joanna.
Rogersansom (talk) 10:24, 31 March 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Literary Reception quoted in the article 

message: Judging by recent edits, there seems to be some argument about whether Jerry was injured in a motorcycle crash or a plane crash. In my own copy (the Fontana books edition) Miss Emily Barton refers to "a flying accident" on the third page, which should be clear enough - unless this is one of those differences between the UK and US editions? I'm going to delete the word "motorcycle" from the main plot summary for now, but if anyone has a different version then they could perhaps add a clarification. Roundabout dog (talk) 16:11, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  The crash 

message: This was filmed in the village of Hoxne, Suffolk 2601:1C0:5E81:30C0:D030:3572:986C:E0BD (talk) 07:16, 31 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hickson version