imported>ManuelKomnenos: Added preceding and succeeding Christie publications to infobox

2025-04-15T12:44:53Z

Added preceding and succeeding Christie publications to infobox

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{{Short description|Novel by Agatha Christie}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox book | 
| name = Absent in the Spring
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Absent in the Spring First Edition Cover 1944.jpg
| caption = First American edition
| author = Mary Westmacott (pseudonym of [[Agatha Christie]])
| illustrator =
| cover_artist = Not known
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series =
| genre = [[Tragedy]]
| publisher = [[William Collins, Sons|Collins]] (UK)<br />[[Farrar & Rinehart]] (US)
| release_date = August 1944
| media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages = 160 pp.
| preceded_by = [[Towards Zero]]
| followed_by = [[Death Comes as the End]]
}}

'''''Absent in the Spring''''' is a novel written by [[Agatha Christie]] and first published in the United Kingdom by [[William Collins, Sons|Collins]] in August 1944 and in the United States by [[Farrar & Rinehart]] later in the same year. It was the third of six novels Christie wrote under the [[pen name]] Mary Westmacott.

==Explanation of the novel's title==
The title is a quotation from [[William Shakespeare]]'s [[sonnet 98]]: "From you have I been absent in the spring,..."

==Plot introduction==
Stranded between trains, Joan Scudamore finds herself reflecting upon her life, her family, and finally coming to grips with the uncomfortable truths about her life.

==Literary significance and reception==
''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'''s review of 19 August 1944 by Marjorie Grant Cook stated positively, "The writer has succeeded in making this novel told in retrospect, with its many technical difficulties, very readable indeed. She has not made Joan, with her shallow, scrappy mind, sympathetic, and the other characters in the tale, seen through her eyes, lack the charm they had for each other and withheld from her."<ref>''The Times Literary Supplement'', 19 August 1944 (p. 401)</ref>

[[J. D. Beresford]]'s review in ''[[The Guardian]]'' of 25 August 1944 concluded, "It is a very clever and consistently interesting study of a character that not even a desert vision could permanently change."<ref>''The Guardian'', 25 August 1944 (p. 3)</ref>

==Publication history==
* 1944, William Collins & Sons (London), August 1944, Hardcover, 160 pp.
* 1944, Farrar & Rinehart (New York), 1944, Hardcover, 250 pp.
* 1967, [[Dell Books]], Paperback, 192 pp
* 1971, [[Arbor House]], Hardback, 250 pp.
* 1974, Fontana Books (Imprint of [[HarperCollins]]), Paperback, 192 pp.
* 1978, Ulverscroft [[Large-print]] Edition, Hardcover, 300 pp.; {{ISBN|0-7089-0115-8}}

The novel was first serialised in the United States in ''[[Good Housekeeping]]'' in two abridged instalments from July to August 1944.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://archive.today/20130116081748/http://us.agathachristie.com/christies-work/stories/absent-in-the-spring/ ''Absent in the Spring''] at the official Agatha Christie website

{{Agatha Christie}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Absent In The Spring}}
[[Category:1944 British novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Agatha Christie]]
[[Category:Novels first published in serial form]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Good Housekeeping]]
[[Category:Works published under a pseudonym]]
[[Category:William Collins, Sons books]]

Absent in the Spring - Revision history

imported>ManuelKomnenos: Added preceding and succeeding Christie publications to infobox