A Daughter's a Daughter and Other Novels: A Daughter's a Daughter / The Burden / Unfinished Portrait

by Mary Westmacott (Pseudonym), Agatha Christie

Finally Available Again--Three Classic Novels by Agatha Christie writing as Mary Westmacott

First published between 1930 and 1956, the six novels written by Agatha Christie under the name Mary Westmacott, regarded by some as the writer's finest work, show a very different side of her talent. What they share with her other fiction is Christie's gift for sharp observations about people, the ambitions that drive them, their relationships, and the conflicts that erupt between them. This omnibus edition brings together three of the Westmacott novels:

A Daughter's Daughter: A daughter's opposition to her mother's plan to remarry threatens to destroy their relationship

Unfinished Portrait: Bereft of three people she has held most dear, Cecilla must decide if she has the strength to come to terms with the past.

The Burden: The burden of one sister's love for her younger sister--whom she's sworn to protect--has a drmatic effect on both their lives.

Genres: Fiction, Agatha Christie, Mystery

617 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Pseudonym used by Agatha Christie to write her dramatic novels about relationships.

Associated Names:
Мэри Вестмакотт (Russian)
Мері Вестмакотт (Ukrainian)

Reviews

[Gail Sacharski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume contains the three Westmacott novels of Agatha Christie that I hadn't read yet. In her autobiography, she said A Daughter's a Daughter had been written for her best friend (& brother-in-law's sister, Nan Watts & her daughter). A widowed woman & her daughter have a very close relationship. However, when the mother meets a man, falls in love, & decides to marry, the daughter (returning from a ski trip) takes an instant dislike to him & tries to undermine the relationship, forcing her mother to choose between them. This changes their own relationship & the course of both their lives. In The Burden, Laura's older brother dies as a young child from polio. Since he was the favored child, Laura now feels that her parents will transfer all that love & favoritism to her as the sole remaining child & is devastated to discover that her mother is expecting a baby. With hateful feelings toward this new usurper, Laura wishes her baby sister to die, but when an accidental fire occurs in the nursery, Laura suddenly realizes she loves her sister & saves her life. She appoints herself as baby Shirley's protector, especially after their parents' deaths in a plane crash. This overwhelming love, however, has consequences that affect both girls' lives & futures. I was the most eager to read Unfinished Portrait as Agatha's husband, Max Mallowan, had said it was the book that was the closest to being Agatha. This book was a revelation; having just read her autobiography, it was like reading it all over again. The story is told by a man who was a painter, but due to war injuries, he no longer paints. While traveling, he comes across a woman sitting near a sea cliff, & as he's departing the area, suddenly realizes she's meaning to throw herself into the sea. He quickly returns to her & speaks to her, finally convincing her to return to her hotel where he plans to stay near her to be sure she doesn't try another way to kill herself. During their time together, she tells him the story of her life & what brought her to this moment in time. This story is Agatha's life from childhood through her divorce & mysterious disappearance. Everyone has said, including Agatha herself, that there was never a satisfactory explanation of the reason for her "loss of memory" disappearance; she never mentioned it, or her heartbreaking divorce, in her autobiography. Many theories abound--a publicity stunt, revenge on her cheating husband, depression after her mother's death, a nervous breakdown, temporary amnesia--but never a word of explanation from Agatha herself. This story is her explanation; it gives the complete history of her life, sometimes nearly word for word from her autobiography, & the extreme sense of loss she suffered at the death of her beloved mother followed swiftly by the horrifying discovery of her husband's affair & request for divorce. These two events overwhelmed & devastated her as well as the character in the story. This story describes the despair, the wandering, senseless, through a black tunnel with no light at the end & wanting to stop the terror & sorrow in any way possible. I loved all the Westmacott books once I adjusted to not expecting a murder & Poirot or Marple to pop up to solve it. These stories are so different, so much deeper, & so much more revealing of the writer who is Agatha Christie & any of her true fans will love & admire them in their own right.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 4 1/2. Great work by Agatha Christie. All of her Westmacott novels (6 of them) are character studies. Wonderfully well done, and a very interesting change from her murder mystery format.

[bluerose]

Unfinished Portrait is a VERY thinly veiled fictional version of Agatha Christie's own life, which makes it a much more fascinating read than it might otherwise be.

[Elizabeth Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agatha Christie is known for her mystery stories, which contain amazing plots and cardboard, characterless characters. She wrote tons of these books, and you have to be careful at the bookstore since most have two or three published titles- you'll easily buy multiple copies and not even know it until you start reading.

However, her books written under the pen name of "Mary Westmacott" are very different. She probes deeply into the inner life of these characters, and plot takes a backseat to the motivations, fears, griefs and joys of her book people. Christie really pours her soul out(in a blessedly non-sentimental way)into her work here. I think her mysteries were done to satisfy other people, and these stories under her pen name were written to to "write out" her questions with and observations about life. In "A Daughter's Daughter" she deals with the question of how much a woman should live in, and through, her daughter, and how deep love can turn to hatred. No murders here, but perhaps these stories are the other side of the coin to her mysteries; humanity dealt with in her supremely inimitable writing. I really love these, but they can be tricky to find if you don't order them.

[Jimmie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting character study. Very different from Christie's crime literature.

[Tinquerbelle]

1) A Daughter's a Daughter
2) Unfinished Portrait
3) The Burden

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Daughter's A Daughter is a sad tale. Lives so messed up. I wonder what Agatha Christie was going through.
Reading Unfinished Portrait now.
Will read The Burden next.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

so perceptive. the human nature she used in her mysteries writ large.