Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Published 1934 · 268 pages · 58,365 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Mystery & Crime

How hard is Murder on the Orient Express to read?

Murder on the Orient Express scores 34 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 40 out of 100
Agatha Christie employs a generally accessible vocabulary, typical of classic detective fiction, with few truly rare or archaic words. While some French phrases appear (e.g., 'mon cher,' 'Mais oui,' 'Précisément'), they are either common or immediately contextualized, posing minimal difficulty. The language remains elegant but clear, similar to 'The Great Gatsby' (45) but slightly less elevated.
Sentence structure: 45 out of 100
The novel features clear, well-structured sentences that are generally easy to follow, avoiding the extreme hypotaxis or lengthy unpunctuated passages found in higher-scoring works like 'Ulysses' (98). While some sentences contain multiple clauses, they maintain a balanced and rhythmic flow, making the prose more demanding than '1984' (35) but less intricate than 'The Great Gatsby' (52).
Abstraction: 35 out of 100
The narrative remains firmly grounded in a concrete murder mystery, focusing on plot, character interactions, and the physical investigation. While Poirot occasionally reflects on human nature or psychology, these moments are brief and directly tied to the immediate events, preventing the text from veering into sustained philosophical or theoretical abstraction like 'Waiting for Godot' (85).
Information density: 42 out of 100
The text presents a moderate information density, requiring readers to track numerous characters, their alibis, and evolving clues to solve the central mystery. While it demands attention to detail, the information is delivered sequentially and clearly, without the overwhelming layers of historical detail or multiple meanings per word found in works like 'War and Peace' (80) or 'Finnegans Wake' (95).
Narrative indirection: 30 out of 100
The narrative is largely straightforward, presenting events and character statements directly. While Poirot himself engages in significant inference to solve the crime, the reader is guided through his process, with the narrative explicitly revealing clues and character backgrounds rather than forcing the reader to construct meaning from ambiguous or fragmented information. This is much lower than 'Lolita' (72) where an unreliable narrator requires constant reading against the text.
Symbolic density: 20 out of 100
The narrative prioritizes plot and character interactions over symbolic depth, focusing on the mechanics of the crime and its solution. Elements like the train or the snowdrift serve primarily as practical plot devices to create a closed-circle mystery, rather than functioning as rich allegories or pervasive motifs carrying meaning beyond their literal roles. This is significantly lower than 'The Great Gatsby' (75) with its prominent symbols like the green light.
Ironic distance: 25 out of 100
The narrative maintains a largely direct and earnest tone, with minimal ironic distance between what is stated and what the author intends. While characters like Mrs. Hubbard provide comic relief through their direct dialogue and mannerisms, this humor is straightforward and does not require the reader to constantly re-evaluate the text's underlying meaning or the narrator's reliability. This is similar to 'It Ends with Us' (35) in its direct emotional engagement.
Resolution withholding: 35 out of 100
As a classic detective novel, the narrative is fundamentally driven towards a definitive resolution of the central mystery. While Poirot ultimately presents two possible solutions, the story provides clear explanations for the crime, offering narrative closure rather than sustained ambiguity or an open ending. This is a much lower score than 'The Crying of Lot 49' (75) where reality remains uncertain to the last page.
Structural complexity: 30 out of 100
The novel employs a largely linear and chronological narrative structure, following Poirot's investigation in a straightforward manner. While character testimonies recount past events (e.g., the Armstrong case details), these are presented clearly within the present narrative frame, without complex timeline jumps, significant POV shifts, or formal experiments that would challenge reader comprehension. This is comparable to 'Beach Read' (28) in its conventional structure.

How Murder on the Orient Express is regarded

Murder on the Orient Express holds a literary regard score of 70 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Where Murder on the Orient Express sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (112 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Murder on the Orient Express scores 62 out of 100. A second mythos, tragedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.2. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
All around us are people, of all classes, of all nationalities, of all ages.
Symbol: Formal
I saw it as a perfect mosaic, each person playing his or her allotted part.
Mythos: Ironic Comedy i (comedy i)
having placed my solution before you, I have the honour to retire from the case
Genre: Novel + Romance
A big swarthy Italian was picking his teeth with gusto.

Where the story of Murder on the Orient Express takes place

  • Taurus Express and Simplon Orient Express, Aleppo-Stamboul-Balkans snowdrift, early 1930s (1930 to 1934), the main setting
  • Armstrong household, New York: kidnapping of Daisy Armstrong (backstory) (1927 to 1931)

6 things that are true of Murder on the Orient Express, with the passage for each

  1. The Orient Express is stopped by a snowdrift between Vincovci and Brod.

    Between Vincovci and Brod.

  2. The doctor counts twelve stab wounds on Ratchett's body.

    I make it twelve. One or two are so slight as to be practically scratches.

  3. A charred scrap of paper, revealed by heating, names Daisy Armstrong and exposes Ratchett's past.

    -member little Daisy Armstrong

  4. Poirot reasons that the twelve passengers form a jury and that Ratchett was stabbed twelve times.

    A jury is composed of twelve people-there were twelve passengers-Ratchett was stabbed twelve times.

  5. Mrs Hubbard turns out to be the actress Linda Arden, who admits she enjoyed the part.

    I always fancied myself in comedy parts.

  6. M. Bouc rules that the first of Poirot's two solutions will be given to the Yugoslav police.

    the first theory you put forward was the correct one-decidedly so.

Scenes in Murder on the Orient Express that Frye would name

25 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Anagnorisis, untitled
-member little Daisy Armstrong The burnt note recovered by heat reveals Ratchett's true identity and pivots the investigation.
Anagnorisis, untitled
A jury is composed of twelve people-there were twelve passengers-Ratchett was stabbed twelve times. The pivotal insight that reorders all the evidence: the crime is collective.
Sparagmos, untitled
Does a man who commits suicide stab himself in ten-twelve-fifteen places? The frenzied mutilation of the victim is the book's tearing-apart image.
Sparagmos, untitled
Someone must have stood there and stabbed him again and again. Poirot's examination of the body confirms the repeated wounds.
Pathos, untitled
the child’s dead body was discovered; it had been dead for at least a fortnight. The earlier pathos, Daisy's death, is the origin of the avenging plot.
Agon, untitled
A defiance. Very well, I take it up. The contest between the detective and the conspirators is declared when the kimono is planted.

Books that share these scenes with Murder on the Orient Express

About the author

Agatha Christie