Foreword

Foreword
There are certain clichés belonging to certain types of fiction. The “bold bad baronet” for melodrama¹, the “body inthe library” for the detective story. For several years I treasured up the possibility of a suitable “Variation on a well-known Theme.” I laid down for myself certain conditions. The library in question must be a highly orthodox andconventional library. The body, on the other hand, must be a wildly improbable and highly sensational² body. Suchwere the terms of the problem, but for some years they remained as such, represented only by a few lines of writing inan exercise book. Then, staying one summer for a few days at a fashionable hotel by the seaside I observed a family atone³ of the tables in the dining room; an elderly man, a cripple, in a wheeled chair, and with him was a family party ofa younger generation. Fortunately they left the next day, so that my imagination could get to work unhampered by anykind of knowledge. When people ask “Do you put real people in your books?” the answer is that, for me, it is quiteimpossible to write about anyone I know, or have ever spoken to, or indeed have even heard about! For some reason, itkills them for me stone dead. But I can take a “lay figure” and endow it with qualities and imaginings of my own.
So an elderly crippled man became the pivot⁴ of the story. Colonel and Mrs. Bantry, those old cronies of my MissMarple, had just the right kind of library. In the manner of a cookery recipe add the following ingredients: a tennis pro,a young dancer, an artist, a girl guide, a dance hostess, etc., and serve up à la Miss Marple!

Agatha Christie

1 melodrama   

n.音乐剧；情节剧

参考例句：

• We really don't need all this ridiculous melodrama!别跟我们来这套荒唐的情节剧表演！
• White Haired Woman was a melodrama,but in certain spots it was deliberately funny.《白毛女》是一出悲剧性的歌剧，但也有不少插科打诨。

2 sensational   

adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的

参考例句：

• Papers of this kind are full of sensational news reports.这类报纸满是耸人听闻的新闻报道。
• Their performance was sensational.他们的演出妙极了。

3 atone   

v.赎罪，补偿

参考例句：

• He promised to atone for his crime.他承诺要赎自己的罪。
• Blood must atone for blood.血债要用血来还。

4 pivot   

v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的

参考例句：

• She is the central pivot of creation and represents the feminine aspect in all things.她是创造的中心枢轴，表现出万物的女性面貌。
• If a spring is present,the hand wheel will pivot on the spring.如果有弹簧，手轮的枢轴会装在弹簧上。