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Quotes from Death on the Nile
With its atmospheric setting, twisted love triangle, colourful characters, and deadly plot, it's no wonder Death on the Nile is one of Christie's most popular mysteries. Here, we will explore some of the best quotes from this story. Please proceed with caution though as there might be some minor spoilers!
Our first victim in the novel is the beautiful socialite Linnet Ridgeway who inherited a fortune from her family. She is caught in the love triangle between her best friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort and her new husband, Simon Doyle.
On the captivating star, Linnet
The combined effect of money and charm. Everything goes down before you. What you can't buy with cash you buy with a smile. Result: Linnet Ridgeway, the Girl Who Has Everything.
Love is at the forefront of this novel: its beauty, its bitterness, its danger. We see how love can be fuelled by jealousy and how it can turn deadly.
On love and its complexities
Look at the moon up there. You see her very plainly, don't you? She's very real. But if the sun were to shine you wouldn't be able to see her at all. It was rather like that. I was the moon... When the sun came out, Simon couldn't see me anymore... He was dazzled. He couldn't see anything but the sun - Linnet.
Love can be a very frightening thing.
Almost a character in itself, the setting for this novel adds another dimension to the story. Confined to the boat as it sails down the river Nile, there is no escaping the dangers that take place onboard.
On the magnificent backdrop, Egypt
Four colossal figures, hewn out of the cliff, look out eternally over the Nile and face the rising sun.
Death on the Nile, whilst beautiful in its depiction of Egypt and centred around love, has an ominous undertone from the start. Nothing feels quite right and Linnet knows she is not safe. There is sense of danger, always.
On danger and enemies
You have chosen, Mademoiselle, the dangerous course... As we here in this boat have embarked on a journey, so you too have embarked on your own private journey - a journey on a swift moving river, between dangerous rocks, and heading for who knows what currents of disaster...
Except for Simon, I'm surrounded by enemies... It's terrible to feel - that there are people who hate you....
I've gone on the principle that it's better not to trust anybody.
Throughout the novel, we are always reminded that perfect timing was required to perfect the crimes. Rarely do we have a tangible clue, unlike in one of Christie's other classics from the 1930s, Murder on the Orient Express. Here, Poirot must analyse the psychology of the crime in order to discover the murderer.
On the crime and the culprit
My friend, we have not been fortunate. The murderer has not been obliging. He has not dropped for us the cuff link, the cigarette end, the cigar ash - or, in the case of a woman, the handkerchief, the lipstick, or the hair slide.
Pardon me if I have been impertinent, but the psychology, it is the most important fact in a case.
Our favourite Belgian detective is modest as ever in this story, ever confident that he will come to the correct solution in the end.
On the detective
I am not a middle man. I am a top man
I like an audience, I must confess. I am vain, you see. I am puffed up with conceit. I like to say: 'See how clever is Hercule Poirot!'
Do you have a favourite quote that we've missed from the story? Send it to us on social media.
