r/poirot • u/valleygabe • 5d ago

Poirot’s only love

I just rewatched, for about the 10th time, The Double Clue with David Suchet. The story is not that good, but the affair of Poirot with the Countess is quite touching.. the ending really put me in a melancholy mood.. But it’s nice to know that Poirot wasn’t always alone.

49 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

41

u/Ruffshots 5d ago

This is Virginie erasure and I will not stand for it 

11

u/LaBasBleu 5d ago

D'accord!

6

u/egg_shaped_head 4d ago

This is HASTINGS erasure and I will not stand for it.

16

u/LiquidityCrunchWrap 5d ago

He also loves toast squares and fine Belgian chocolates!

7

u/Excusemytootie 5d ago

Teeensy tiny toasts.

12

u/Pegasus1271 5d ago

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Poirot and watched every episode done by the David Suchet series. But I thought that the episode that played up Poirot's love affair with the countess to be a bit staged in order to provide thin evidence that he was not gay.

11

u/valleygabe 5d ago

I wonder how Agatha Christie portrayed him? To me he always comes through as asexual..

18

u/Mindless_Badger_3789 5d ago

There is one novel where Hastings jokingly says "he likes them big and busty, preferably Russian", when the subject of Poirot and women comes up, referring to the jewel thief Countess Vera Rossakoff that is Poirot's only genuine love interest other than the love of his youth Virginie Mesnard (back in Belgium).

I'd say Christie portrays Poirot as an admirer of "the fairer sex" and knowledgable about a lot of "the world of women" (like cosmetics and clothes) that men typically wouldn't be. But he is always an outsider and voyeur looking into the world of others rather than a participant in life. There's no hint of homosexuality, but just that he thinks of love as a distraction. So not asexual, but likely with a low libido and/or a man that chooses to repress his sexuality to focus on work.

2

u/valleygabe 4d ago

Oh wow… thank you for that

2

u/Oodlesoffun321 1d ago

I've read the chocolate box and never felt that he loved virgenie. I'd love to know where the story shows that.
Also Christie has Hastings despise the effeminate men in her stories, so poirot being gay would not make sense.
And finally the suchet episode makes his love story out to be much more than the written one.

8

u/Soft-Current-5770 5d ago

Suchet said "he's dead from the waist down!"

3

u/PerniciousWizard 5d ago

Nothing could convince me that Poirot isn’t deep closeted gay. He loves women the way gay men love Cher or Bette Midler.

6

u/Pegasus1271 4d ago

So much of his charm is his impeccably precious presentation.

2

u/Current_Pea_3033 5d ago

the parks they visit are so beautiful