Kathryn HarkupBesprekingen

A selection of the poisons Agatha Christie used in her novels and short stories. For each poison Harkup describes the biological action, the visible symptoms, how to test for it, where to obtain it (fortunately most poisons are not nearly as easy to find these days), and real-life crimes it has been used in. She refers to the stories and novels and, when there are spoilers, warns the reader and gives the option of moving past them. She comments on Christie's scientific accuracy, which turns out to be, within the limitations of the scientific knowledge of the times, mostly excellent. The account of thallium poisoning in The Pale Horse has even saved lives.

Some knowledge of biology and chemistry is an advantage because even though the author's explanations are clear enough they make only superficial sense.½

ideale per gli amanti del genere

Lo dico subito: non è il tipo di libro per me: il voto non altissimo dipende da questo, perché il libro di per sé è fatto molto bene. Io sono un tipo molto impressionabile, e leggere tutti i modi in cui si può morire, e soprattutto cosa succede mentre si muore in quei modo, spesso era davvero troppo. Se però non avete lo stomaco debole questo libro è davvero una miniera di informazioni su tante cose. La vita di Shakespeare, per quel poco che ne conosciamo; la vita in Inghilterra e soprattutto a Londra a cavallo del XVII secolo, con le epidemie di peste che sconquassavano la vita cittadina; ma principalmente come funzionava il mondo delle compagnie teatrali e come si potevano mettere "in scena" tutti questi tipi di omicidio (non lo si faceva: dopo le ultime battute l'attore usciva di scena e il pubblico sapeva per convenzione cosa succedeva). Harkup mi pare davvero infatuata di Shakespeare, dandogli molti più crediti sulla conoscenza della fisiologia umana di quanti egli probabilmente avesse, anche tenuto conto che suo genero era un medico; ma a parte questo, il suo lavoro di ricerca è davvero completo. La traduzione di Davide Fassio è scorrevole.

This is an enjoyable and informative read. It takes 14 of the poisons used by Agatha Christie in her books and looks at them in more detail. This covers the origin of the poison, how is it extracted and made and how it works on the body to cure (if it has therapeutic use) and kill. All of which is told in down to earth language such that the non technical specialist can follow what is being described, although not so much that you could necessarily extract the poison yourself!
From there is looks at cases involving the poison that occurred before and after the relevant books' publication. Some of them were inspired by a case, in others the book may have inspired use. The most interesting one from this perspective was where the book helped solve a poisoning case, as the nurse recognised the symptoms of her patient from the description in Christie's book. At times she was following old paths, at times her use of the poison was contemporary and in other quite novel.
There are 14 different poisons in here, and that felt like about enough.

Um livro muito bom para os fãs de Agatha Christie. Ele esmiúça todos os casos apresentados quanto à sua plausibilidade e aponta os pontos onde Agatha acertou e errou.

Cada capítulo segue o mesmo padrão: é apresentado um pouco da história do veneno, a forma como ele mata, se existe antídoto, um ou dois casos reais e como Agatha o utilizou nos seus livros. Dá para perceber que a autora colocou um esforço de pesquisa imenso nesse livro e conseguiu escrever uma obra muito boa.

I was really hoping for more background into Agatha Christie's own research and history regarding her stories and the chapters (drugs). However it was just using drugs from Agatha Christie's writings to discuss chemistry, not as it regards her fiction. Very dry and boring.

Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings, and Broken Hearts by Kathryn Harkup is a 2020 Bloomsbury SIGMA publication.

Incredibly Fascinating!

I am nowhere close to being an expert on Shakespeare, knowing the bare basics at best. Yet, when this book popped up on my radar, I thought it sounded interesting.

This book is a well-researched, detailed study of the various means in which Shakespeare killed off his characters, and how historically and scientifically authentic those death scenes were, compared to the knowledge we have at our disposal today.

While Shakespeare is known for both comedies and tragedies, high drama, intrigue, romance and heartbreak, as we well know, death sells, and Shakespeare provided plenty of it. There were executions, battles, poisonings, plagues, and suicides, to name a few.

I’m not sure how often the authenticity or accuracy of Shakespeare’s death scenes have been questioned or scrutinized over the years, but this author has taken the Herculean task to heart, and her findings are quite surprising.

So, how well did the Bard do? Was he way of course, or astonishingly close to the mark?

Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out. I will give you a few hints, though. Shakespeare did have a few sources at his disposal, providing him with inside information on various subjects, which did help add legitimacy to his writing.

On the other hand, he was woefully off base in some cases- but one also should consider that some scenes were embellished upon by the stage performers, more for dramatic effect than for accuracy.

I’m wondering how many people are taught this information when studying Shakespeare. If they are not, they are missing out on some of the finer points of his writing. People living in the 1500s may have taken things at face value, but they did have the advantage of fully understanding some of the little inside jokes- and I’m not sure how aware the modern student might be of the full context of those nuances.

Overall, trust me, you don’t have to know a lot about Shakespeare, or even like Shakespeare to enjoy this book. The science is a big promotional point, I’ve noticed, and I agree the author really did pay attention to detail and it is obvious she knows her stuff. For me, though, the history is what appealed to me the most.

Because of the subject matter one might think this book is a bit morbid, and yes, there are some pretty lurid and gross descriptions and details included in the book. Despite that, I learned a great many things I might never have discovered otherwise, and the presentations was actually quite entertaining!

I don’t recall how I stumbled across this book, but I’m very glad I did!

4 stars

Making the Monster is spectacular. Harkup has clearly done an immense amount of research, and also clearly knows how much detail is enough to inform without overloading the reader.

This book follows not only the tragic story of Mary Shelley's life, but also discusses the greatest scientific advances of the time. Harkup covers how Shelley would have known, as most of the public would have known, about all of the latest discoveries. We find out how certain of these discoveries came about and how they were shown off to great crowds. And so it makes perfect sense how these marvels capture the public's imagination so vividly when Shelley uses them in Frankenstein. Reading the descriptions of great bolts of electricity being shown off or great tubes being connected to show off gas (or ‘vital air’) is truly awe inspiring.
Science wasn't the only field to experience huge change during this period. The social landscape was also changing dramatically. Harkup explores this with the same level of expertise, detailing how the public's fear of change began to boil over.

Harkup combines an obvious love of literature with scientific discipline in an engaging and delightful exploration of science, sci-fi and personal tragedy.

In this mix of history, science, and literature, Kathryn Harkup takes us on a tour of Shakespeare's works focusing entirely on the deaths and the science behind them. After a brief introduction to Shakespeare and his times, she explores the familiar relationship people of the Elizabethan era had with death in its many forms and then delves into the major types of death in Shakespeare's works. Whether she's exploring the explosion of syphilis in the 1500s, what actually kills someone when they're strangled, or if it's possible for someone to die of grief, Harkup's writing is understandable for the layperson and downright fascinating if you're into slightly macabre facts. For those people who find themselves at the centre of the Venn diagram of Shakespeare fans and fans of Mary Roach's Stiff. Also, if you're looking for a table outlining every character who dies and how in Shakespeare's works, you're going to love the appendix to this book.

[A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie] is fascinating. The author goes through each of the poisons, in alphabetical order, that Christie used in her novels, and the format is excellent. First she gives the history of the drug, and any of its derivatives. Then she explains how the drug interacts with the body. Next she discusses antidotes and detection. Finally she talks about real life cases of using it as a poison and how Christie incorporated some of these into her novels. She does reveal which poisons are used in which novels and who the victims are, but she does not spoil the endings - she never reveals the murderer or how they are caught. The exception to this is the chapter on Opium, but she warns you first and tells you where to turn to if you want to skip the spoilers - hard to argue with that! The chemistry nerd in me is loved it, but you don't have to have a background in chemistry to appreciate and understand the material presented. Definitely highly recommended.

Rating of 4.95. Excellent discussion of Death in the Context of Shakespeare's plays and what his fellow citizens experienced living in Tudor London. The only thing missing, for me at least, was photos of staged plays to accompany discussion of the various types of death.

"Death By Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts," by Kathryn Harkup, is what it says it is: a book about all the ways in which William Shakespeare killed off characters in his plays and sonnets. Ms. Harkup, a chemist, first describes the Bard’s life and times, and then moves on to how he could have come to know about the effects of certain types of death (i.e., how some poisons work, or what kinds of methods the state used to execute people - something everyone in his time would have known because executions were common and public) and whether some of his more fanciful killings could be effective. Ms. Harkup writes in a lively style, bringing in quotes from the plays and then dissecting them. There are extensive bottom-of-the-page notes to add more context to the main text, as well as a useful appendix in which she lists all of the killed characters in each play and the means of their deaths. There are no academic notes, but she does include a very extensive bibliography that includes material from Shakespeare’s own time right up through to our present, with particular emphasis on medical discoveries made in the 1800s. I found the book a fascinating read, but must warn that it is full of graphic descriptions of gory, disgusting deaths, so it is definitely not for the faint of heart!

Magnificent attention to detail! This book offers an amazing look at the science behind the deaths in Shakespeare’s plays.

But let’s start at the beginning. Before even going into Shakespeare’s literary treatment of death, this book explores the idea of death as it would have been understood in Shakespeare’s day. This was a time when public executions were common occurrences, and theatre-goers who would watch Romeo and Juliet die on the stage might just as easily have witnessed actual deaths on a scaffold. Death was present, and talked about, and seen all around. It wasn’t something that was only ever euphemistically referred to in hushed tones—it was part of the fabric of society, and a deeply personal part of everyone’s life. Shakespeare’s very profession had been shaped by death. He was a playwright struggling to support himself and his family during at time when going to the theatre was often illegal. Due to the large numbers of people dying from the plague, all sorts of public gatherings, including theatres, were banned. This was the time when Shakespeare would turn to writing poetry to support himself and his family. Then the disease would die down, he’d return to London, and he’d continue to write plays until the next major outbreak. And the disease didn’t just shape his profession: it also killed his only son when he was only 11 years old. Death was a very intimate part of Shakespeare’s life. No wonder it turned up so often in his plays.

In describing his plays, the scope and the depth of this book surprised me immensely. It covers all the deaths that Shakespeare used in all his plays, and it divides them into chapters based on type, such as poison, execution, war, bear attack, etc. (And yes, I’m serious about those bears.) Everything is grounded in context: the death-related excerpts of Shakespeare’s plays are given in context of the larger plot, and, in the case of the histories, Shakespeare’s details are compared with those of the historical record. Then, the death, as described by Shakespeare, is given a very thorough scientific analysis. How many of Shakespeare’s deaths are realistic? (Quite a lot, it seems.) How about when he’s vague: what are the different possible explanations? (Did I mention that this book has a lot of fascinating conjecture? So many possibilities!) Can Claudius really have poisoned his brother by pouring it in his EAR? Do poisons even work that way? (No spoilers here. You’ll have to read the book to find this one out!) Parts of this book are morbid and gruesome, but mostly it’s a highly readable and clear scientific analysis. It makes connections to modern cases and treats the deaths, as much as possible, with dignity and respect. All in all, a compelling look at the many ways to shuffle off this mortal coil.

Kathryn Harkup has written a lovely book that explores the poisons used by Agatha Christie in her novels. The introductory chapter provides some interesting biographical material of Christie and why she knew so much about poisons. Harkup then dedicates the next 14 chapters to a specific poison, such as arsenic, belladonna, cyanide, digitalis, eserine, hemlock, monkshood, nicotine, opium, phosphorus ricin, strychnine, thallium and veronal (a type of barbiturate). Each chapter describes how Christie used the poison in her novels, how the poison works, if there is an antidote, and examples of the poison used in real life.

I am not an Agatha Christie fan so found the sections describing Christie's novels and their plot summaries didn't particularly appeal to me, and also became tedious after a while. Reading several plot summaries does not make for thrilling reading. Harukp managed to avoid spoilers for the most part, or at least warned of spoilers before discussing pertinent Christie novels. This will no doubt be appreciated for Christie fans who haven't read all of her novels.

The sections that describe how each poison effects the body were more interesting to me. Harkup provided enough science to understand why substances were toxic without bogging the lay reader down with irrelevant detail. Many poisons have similar effects on the body (i.e. they impair nerve functioning), so some sections were a bit repetitive by necessity. Appendix 2 provides structures of a few of the chemicals described in the book, which was a nice addition.

The real life poisoning attempts were also interesting, especially the manner in which the poisoners were eventually caught.

This book would appeal to fans of Agatha Christie and for those who would like to know how a variety of poisons work. There is no overall narrative, and each chapter can be read separately and out of order. None the less, this is an interesting, informative and enjoyable book.

This is a nonfiction book that covers some of the poisons that Agatha Christie used over the years in her books. The chapters cover a poison and talk about the book that it was in without giving away the murder and tell you if there was a real life case that might have inspired her to use it. The neat part is the author goes into excellent detail in the science on each poison on how it kills, if there was an antidote to it, and did Agatha Christie give all the correct symptoms and dosages in her books. I didn’t know that Agatha Christie worked in a pharmacy during both World Wars and this is where she got the knowledge to use these poisons so well in her books. I enjoyed the book and it will be a fun read for a big mystery fan.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

Overall entertaining, educating and just a little enervating. There’s a lot of chemistry and biology in the explanations of how each poison kills that it can be a little overwhelming to read the book in long sessions. Broken up in smaller bits it works better. In addition to explaining how each poison kills, the writer describes how Christie used it in a particular book, how accurate she was about dosing and symptoms (she was!) and whether there were any real-life murders with that poison. Readers will especially like that there are no spoilers in most of the explanations, and where there are they are forewarned. Nice!

Although I learned a lot from the book, there were some things that I felt didn’t need explaining. Like how heroin is cut to maximize profits. Haven’t we all seen Dirty Harry, Miami Vice and a million other cop dramas to understand that this is the norm? Jeez. But on to the good stuff -

Arsenic is known to retard decomposition. Arsenic eating became a fad … yeah, I know … weird. But this fad may have contributed to the vampire myth. Bodies found long after death or disinterred may have shown little signs of decay. Where’s my stake?

Belladonna’s active component is atropine from the latin atropa which comes from Atropos, the aspect of fate responsible for cutting the cords of life. That is just so cool.

Hemlock has been mentioned in fiction for thousands of years - in plays, poetry and even used in the name of a Sesame Street character, the detective Sherlock Hemlock. Hemlock decreases in potency as the plant ages. I did not know that and will only use young hemlock. Kidding.

The term cold turkey comes from morphine withdrawal symptoms. Getting chilled and having goosebumps is very common when coming off opioids and people looked like cold turkeys. Why not cold geese is anybody’s guess.

One thing that I didn’t need to learn from a book because I already know it to be true is this - “The interaction of morphine with opioid receptors in the cerebral cortex, the higher functioning part of the brain, modifies our perception of pain. A person under the influence of morphine may continue to be aware of pain, but is no longer concerned about it.” p 183

Right on. I’ve said it in other reviews and places - vicodin (et al) doesn’t do anything for pain, it just makes you not care.

Overall an interesting book and one that if you are a person of large fortune with unscrupulous relatives, will make you want to hire a food taster.

This one is for all the Agatha Christie fans out there who also love science.

Harkup devotes a chapter to each of the 14 poisons Christie used to eliminate so many of her victims over the course of 56 years writing mysteries. In each chapter she discusses the history of each poison's discovery, its use in real crimes throughout history, its antidotes (if any), how its tested for, and how Christie used each poison in her books (as well as how accurate her knowledge was - hint: very).

I found the writing compelling and incredibly interesting, but this is not a book for people bored by, or disinterested in, chemistry and anatomy. Harkup knows her stuff both as a chemist and as a Christie fan. She gets into the nitty gritty details about how each poison wreaks its havoc in the human body; this might cause some eyes to glaze over. In almost every chapter, she manages to discuss Christie's books and plots without revealing the killer, and when she can't avoid it, she clearly warns the reader upfront that there are spoilers ahead, offering "go to page xx" to readers wanting to avoid knowing whodunnit. Some might still find her discussions too revealing, so be warned; if you want to know as little as possible about the books, save this one for later.

At the end, she offers a fascinating appendix of every book and short story Christie wrote, with each US/UK title and a list of all the ways people die, a more esoteric appendix illustrating most of the chemical structures discussed in the text (the rest are on her website), a select bibliography and a comprehensive index.

I came away from this book having learned a lot, but possibly the two most important things: strychnine is just about the last way I'd want to go, and that Christie would have been the last person I'd ever want to piss off.½

This is a fantastic insight into Frankenstein, as well as scientific advancements at the time.

Whether or not you’ve read or liked Frankenstein, this is an extremely interesting book about Mary Shelley, her life, and the science of her time. I enjoyed the detail Harkup went into and how she was able to make it so informative while keeping it interesting.

I own Harkup’s other novel (A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie) and it will be moving up on my tbr after reading this.

This is an encyclopaedic work written authoritatively by a scientist who obviously loves her Agatha Christie novels. I have to admit to getting a bit lost in some of the more technical/scientific sections but really enjoyed the analysis in each chapter of whether Agatha Christie got it right.

Each chapter is headed with the name of a poison (Arsenic, Thallium, Veronal etc) attached to the plot of a particular novel. We get the historiography of the poison, how it works on the human body, real-life examples of its use, whether there is an antidote, and then an in depth treatment of the way it is used in the novel. Quite often the sleuth is Hercule Poirot.

Of interest too will be Appendix 1: Christie's Causes of Death, a table listing all of the Agatha Christie novels and short stories in order of publication, and the cause of death in each of them. My Kindle Paper White didn't handle this graphic all that well, but my iPad reader does better.
For the technically minded there is Appendix 2: structures of some of the chemicals in this book.

By no means a quick read, but an interesting one from many points of view.½

I received a copy of book from NetGalley and Bloomsbury Sigma in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you! 😃

This was an excellent look at the novel of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It examines the procedures carried out by Victor and then finds real world examples. The book is really well written and keeps the reader interested. A really great book and well researched.

I soon noticed that each of the fourteen chapters of A is for Arsenic was based on a specific Christie book or short story collection and, because I wanted comfort reads this season, this project quickly formed in my head -- read or reread a classic mystery before each chapter of non-fiction. It turned out to be a wonderful idea. I loved reading the novel or stories and then delving into why the poison of choice was used and if Christie made any errors, the science of what it is and how it kills, how/if it would have been detected at the time, and some real life poisoning cases/influences. I loved the science, the history, and, yes, the Poirot (and Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, Ariadne Oliver, and even Mr. Satterthwaite). I was shocked as I reached book ten or eleven and found that I wasn't at all tired of Dame Agatha's stories. Each one was unique, with a wide variety of settings, characters, and even points of view.

I want to point out too that Harkup's book has the most amazing appendix -- a list of every Agatha Christie story and how all of the people die in them! I still have a few Agatha books that I haven't read (I own 66 of her books, not counting her autobiography and her travelogues) but when I'm done, I'll really dive into that appendix.

http://webereading.com/2017/10/ripxii-3-17-agathas-poisons.html

Kathryn Harkup’s excellent volume, A is for Arsenic. is a presentation of the various poisons that Agatha Christie used in her novels, and how those poisons affect human biological processes to the point of death. The author has a doctorate in chemistry, so you might understand how I’d fear (as a humanities person) that I wouldn’t be up to the challenge of grasping the actual science contained in Harkup’s work. That proved to be true to some extent but my own dim grasp of science was to blame rather than Harkup’s work. As a matter of fact, she did manage to educate me a little bit about toxins and their impact. It might well be a useful one to keep on the shelf, just in case someone you love is hit by either digitalis or ricin. (Did you know Christie used ricin in one of her books? I didn’t. I’d always thought it was one of those new drugs developed in the age of bio-chemical warfare but ricin is rather older than that.)

Each chapter deals with a different poison and contains a series of sub-sections. These are:
-- The _____ story where she gives you some historical background on the specified poison;
-- How the particular poison kills;
-- Any available antidotes;
-- Some real-life cases of the poison’s use for purposes of murder;
-- Agatha Christie’s inclusion of the poison in a particular novel, including where she had errors in understanding.

The author’s professional expertise is used in discussing chemical structures and the ways in which the poison might short-circuit the body’s operation. The chapter on digitalis includes an excellent set of pages explaining how the heart works (including diagrams). To relieve the nerves of some, I can assure potential readers that the information specified by Harkup is never so detailed as to actually allow the text to serve as a DIY handbook.

A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie
Author: Kathryn Harkup
Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma
Published In: New York City
Date: 2015
Pgs: 320

REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
Christie’s chemical knowledge is the backdrop. The author investigates the poisons used by the murderer in 14 mysteries. Why do these chemicals kill? What physiologic effects are there? Were these based on real world poisonings? What are the procedures for obtaining, administering, and detecting these poisons? A is for Arsenic looks at the science behind Agatha Christie’s poisons.

Genre:
Academics
History
Mystery
Non-fiction
Science and nature

Why this book:
Agatha Christie and Science!!!
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Favorite Character:
Agatha’s use and knowledge of actual real world poisons that were used in her stories.

The science itself is a character in this document.

The Feel:
Very informed. Tells how Agatha got her knowledge. Gives a good history of her life without being a biography.

Favorite Scene:
The fascinating stories of actual crimes and poisoners. The ones that she may or may not have based some of her characters on. And the ones that happened after her novels who may have gotten their ideas from her work.

Pacing:
Well paced for nonfiction.

Hmm Moments:
Never knew that Dame Agatha was a pharmacist’s assistant in the World Wars.

Surprising that there weren’t more arsenic issues in that late 1800s early 1900s era with it being as omnipresent as it seems to have been. A jurisprudence defense arose in this era centered on the Styrian Defense. The Styrian people birthed a custom wherein people were in the habit of taking increasing amounts of arsenic to combat complexion issues and increase respiration. This spread beyond Styria and became widespread despite the obvious drawbacks. Once lethal doses were met, the results were the same as if a malicious poisoning had taken place. In the short term, the arsenic would kill off bacteria, but in the longer run as levels in the bloodstream rose, the more lethal effects would manifest. Arsenic has massive preservative qualities. In some cases, corpses exhumed 15 years after burial were still recognizable by family members. This preservative effect may have fed the vampire ideal.

The real world monkhood incident where Dr Meyer had prescribed a dose for a young boy who became ill. And when his mother came to question him about it, became incensed that she would dare question him and took a dose from the child’s medicine bottle and, five hours later, died. All doctors should have to take medicines that they prescribe.
______________________________________________________________________________

Last Page Sound:
Aaaarrggghhhh! THUMP! Loved it.

Author Assessment:
Well done bit of infortainment.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
real genre classic

Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
South Campus
Irving, TX

Dewey Decimal System:
615.9
HAR

Would recommend to:
genre fans
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This is a really interesting book for fans of Agatha Christie who also enjoy a spot of science. Each chapter covers a different poison and explains how it was discovered, its chemical structure, and how it acts on the body, describes how the poison is used in a specific Agatha Christie novel (and how accurate her portrayal is), then discusses real-life cases that occurred before and after publication of the novel. Each novel discussed is clearly highlighted in the chapter titles, and the book is structured so that you can read only the chapters for which you've read the corresponding novel (if you're afraid of spoilers). And even if you haven't read the novel, for the most part Harkup is able to dance around the actual identity of the murder. Where she is not able to (namely in the Sad Cypress and Partners in Crime chapters), she warns the reader that heavy spoilers lie ahead.

Of the poisons discussed in this book, the chapters on arsenic and strychnine were the most grimly fascinating. I did find the arsenic one a bit repetitive, because I've already read The Arsenic Century, by James Whorton (also cited in the bibliography to this book), but the facts are no less interesting. The strychnine chapter, meanwhile, reaffirmed my horror of Mrs Inglethorp's death scene in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It is truly a terrifying poison.

Recommended if you want to know more about Agatha Christie novels from the chemistry perspective.