105 pages • 3 hours read
Agatha ChristieDeath On The Nile
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1937A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary
Mrs. Allerton tells Tim she has invited Poirot to join them for dinner, and Tim reacts with uncharacteristic shock and irritation. Poirot appears to sense Tim’s reluctance to dine with him but says nothing. Mrs. Allerton attempts, with Poirot’s help, to identify everyone on the passenger list. When she comes to Poirot’s name, she remarks that his talents are being wasted and jokes that Tim ought to commit a crime in order to give Poirot something to do. Tim responds with annoyance.
Mrs. Allerton, noting Miss Van Schuyler’s snobbishness, conceives a plan to manipulate the latter into speaking with her: she will mention, as if by accident and within earshot of Miss Van Schuyler, that the Duke of Glasgow is one of her relations.
After an evening on board that gives him ample opportunity to observe the social dynamics among the passengers, Poirot runs into Jackie on the way back to his room. Her face wears a “look of acute misery” lacking any trace of “insouciance...malicious defiance...[or] dark flaming triumph” (129). Poirot tells Jackie that he is sorry to see her on the boat, since it means that she has chosen a course of action that will lead to disaster: “You have cut the bonds that moored you to safety. I doubt now if you could turn back if you would” (130). Jackie agrees that it is too late for her to turn back, and that she must accept her fate and “follow [her] star, wherever it leads” (130).
As Poirot falls asleep, he hears Simon Doyle’s voice repeating the same phrase he had used when the steamer was leaving Shellal: “We’ve got to go through with it now” (130).
Chapter 9 Summary
The next morning, the Karnak arrives at Ez-Zebua. Cornelia Robson runs into Poirot and the two discuss Linnet Doyle, whom Cornelia admires unreservedly.
Cornelia, Poirot, Dr. Bessner, Mrs. Allerton, Rosalie, Mr. Fanthorp, Linnet, and Pennington take a tour of a local temple before rejoining the Karnak and sailing up river. On the boat, Pennington approaches Linnet with a stack of documents to sign. Linnet begins to read and sign each of the documents in turn; Pennington tells her there is no need to read them because they are completely straightforward, and Simon urges her not to spend so much time on the process. However, Linnet says that she always reads a document before signing in case it contains a clerical error. Mr. Fanthorp, standing nearby, suddenly interrupts the conversation to tell Linnet, “You must let me say how much I admire your businesslike capacity...[n]ever to sign a document unless you read it through is admirable—altogether admirable” (137), then turns away red-faced. Pennington appears “decidedly ruffled” (137) and proposes putting off the rest of the signing for later.
Poirot and Mr. Ferguson witness Miss Van Schuyler speaking rudely to Cornelia and Miss Bowers, and Ferguson remarks that Miss Van Schuyler is “a parasite” (140) who has never worked, and one of the many people on the boat without whom the world would be a better place. He adds that Linnet is another such person: “Ought to be shot—the lot of them!” (141). Ferguson reveals that he is not on holiday, but rather “studying conditions” (141).
As Poirot makes his way down the starboard deck, he runs into “a woman who turn[s] a startled face towards him—a dark, piquant, Latin face” (142). She has been talking to one of the ship’s engineers, “a big burly man in uniform,” and both wear expressions of “guilt and alarm” (142).
Poirot leaves this scene and encounters Mrs. Otterbourne, who stumbles out of her open cabin dressed only in a nightgown. She apologizes, blaming the ship’s motion for her clumsiness, then begins to speak of Rosalie’s neglect and lack of sympathy for her. Mrs. Otterbourne begins to weep and threatens to tell everyone on the boat how unkind Rosalie is. Poirot urges her back into her cabin and sends for Rosalie. Mrs. Allerton, who has been speaking with Rosalie, remarks about Rosalie’s moodiness.
That night, Poirot observes that Mrs. Allerton has succeeded in getting Miss Van Schuyler to talk to her. Cornelia listens attentively to Dr. Bessner as he lectures her on Egyptology. Tim and Rosalie discuss how unfair it is that some people have everything, and Poirot reflects that he is happy not to be young anymore.
Chapter 10 Summary
Monday morning finds the Karnak moored near an impressive temple overlooking the Nile. The travelers, even Linnet, are all in a good mood; however, the mood will not last, as someone makes an attempt on Linnet’s life.
At the beginning of the chapter, Simon remarks to Poirot that Linnet has finally “got her nerve back”; the couple has decided not to try to avoid Jackie anymore, but rather to demonstrate to her that they “aren’t rattled any more” (146). Mrs. Allerton remarks that Linnet has changed a great deal since Assuan: “Today she looks so happy that one might almost be afraid she was fey” (147). (Later, Mrs. Allerton explains to Poirot that “fey” is a Scottish term describing a person who experiences extreme happiness before undergoing a severe reversal of fortune.)
Poirot initiates a conversation with Pennington, who tells Poirot that he sailed on the Carmanic. Poirot asks about Linnet’s fortune, which Pennington confirms is considerable, and asks whether a recent slump on the stock market might have diminished her finances. Pennington hesitates before saying that Linnet’s fortune has suffered to a certain extent. Poirot responds, “I should imagine, however, that Madame Doyle has a keen business head” (148), and Pennington agrees.
As the party enters the temple, Bessner mentions to Poirot how attractive Cornelia is and how enjoyable it is to teach her. Linnet and Simon leave the temple quickly, since Simon finds the statues “uncanny” (150). They sit in the sunlight. Simon is absorbed in thought: “Simon’s eyes were open. They too held contentment. What a fool he’d been to be rattled that first night…[t]here was nothing to be rattled about…[e]verything was all right…[a]fter all, one could trust Jackie” (152).
Simon is roused by shouts. He moves aside, dragging Linnet with him, moments before an enormous boulder rolls onto the spot where they had been sitting: “If Linnet had remained where she was she would have been crushed to atoms” (152). Simon initially blames Jackie, but as he and Linnet make their way back to the boat, they see Jackie, who has gotten a late start, leaving the boat—she could not possibly have tried to kill Linnet with the boulder. Poirot notes that he can account for the whereabouts of only Miss Bowers, Miss Van Schuyler, Mrs. Allerton, and Mrs. Otterbourne; the rest of the party is nowhere to be seen.
Chapters 8-10 Analysis
Mrs. Allerton’s joke that Tim should commit a crime in order to give Poirot something to do, and his obvious irritation, are yet further hints that Tim is involved in something underhanded.
Poirot’s interactions with an obviously drunk Mrs. Otterbourne serve to shed light on Rosalie’s moodiness; later in the novel, this episode will help Poirot to eliminate Rosalie as a murder suspect.
The episode involving Linnet, Pennington, Doyle, and Fanthorp turns out to be of key importance: it establishes that Linnet does, indeed, have a keen business mind; that Simon is much simpler-minded and willing to sign any paper he is given; that Pennington has some reason for not wanting Linnet to read over the documents thoroughly; and that Fanthorp thinks urging Linnet to remain vigilant is important enough to warrant interrupting her conversation with Pennington (clearly an action he finds embarrassing and uncomfortable, since he flushes red after speaking).
This set of chapters contains the first attempt on Linnet’s life, which could not have been made by Jackie (who was on board the Karnak at the time). The people whose whereabouts Poirot knows can be immediately eliminated as suspects; since that list includes both Jackie and Simon, the episode directs attention away from them as suspects and makes others, including the aggressive young Mr. Ferguson, seem like persons of interest. Moreover, Simon’s behavior—swiftly guiding Linnet out of danger when the boulder is heading toward her—both supports the image of him as a caring husband and establishes him as someone who can act swiftly and with physical adeptness. (In light of the revelations at the end of the book, it also suggests that his presence of mind is not equal to his physical prowess: if only he had allowed the boulder to crush Linnet, he could have inherited her money without having to murder anyone or involve Jackie in a deadly plot.)
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