The Mysterious Affair at Styles. by CHRISTIE, Agatha - 1921: A Detective Story.

London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; John Lane Company, New York,, 1921. An uncommonly bright copy of Christie's first novel and Poirot's debut Octavo. Original brown cloth, titles and art nouveau decorations to spine and front cover in black, top edge black. Housed in a red quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Slight wear to extremities, small repair to foot of front joint, partial split to rear joint but holding, minor abrasions to covers, faint foxing to endpapers and edges, a very good, remarkably fresh, copy. First UK edition, first impression, of Christie's first novel and Poirot's debut. Inspired by the refugees she saw in Torquay, the poisons she encountered whilst working in a local hospital for the Voluntary Aid Detachment, and "challenged by her sister Madge, Agatha embarked on a detective story" in 1914. "Rejected by two publishers The Mysterious Affair at Styles went on to John Lane at the Bodley Head, who acknowledged its receipt but, for the next two years, said no more" (ODNB). It was eventually published by Lane in the US in 1920, and in the UK in 1921, and was printed on cheap, poor quality stock, and bound in thin cloth, meaning copies in such good condition are highly uncommon. Christie went on to be the best-selling novelist of all time, as listed by the Guinness World Records.