How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was five o'clock on a winter's morning in Syria. Alongside the platform at Aleppo stood the train grandly designated in railway guides as the Taurus Express. It consisted of a kitchen and dining car, a sleeping car and two local coaches. (1.1.1)
The first line of the novel announces the setting: the thoroughly modern luxury train. We're not in a country house or an old castle. This plot depends on trains, the most comfortable and fastest way to travel at the time.
Quote #2
"The train is due in at 6:55 and one has to cross the Bosporus and catch the Simplon Orient Express the other side at nine o'clock. If there is an hour or two of delay we shall miss the connection." (1.1.102)
A lot of the tension in the plot revolves around the train's schedule – more specifically, that it might not reach its destination on time. Here, Mary expresses impatience.
Quote #3
There were three waiting for him and a telegram. His eyebrows rose a little at the sight of the telegram. It was unexpected. (1.2.2)
The telegram, a newer and more immediate form of communication than the standard mail (though certainly not brand-new by the time this book is set), calls Poirot back to London.
Quote #4
"All around us are people, of all classes, of all nationalities, of all ages. For three days these people, these strangers to one another are brought together. They sleep and eat under one roof, they cannot get away from each other. At the end of three days they part, they go their several ways, never, perhaps, to see each other again." (1.3.7)
The train brings together people of all classes and nationalities, creating a melting pot sorts. In this way, "modern" technology brings people together.
Quote #5
"No fingerprints at all," he said. "That means it has been wiped. Well, if there had been fingerprints it would have told us very little. They would have been those of M. Ratchett or his valet or the conductor. Criminals do not make mistakes of that kind nowadays." (1.7.13)
Fingerprint technology exists, but Poirot doesn't think it would help. He knows he must rely on the age-old tools of logic, reason, and psychology.
Quote #6
"See you, my dear doctor, me, I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash. But in this case I would welcome a little scientific assistance. This compartment is full of clues, but can I be sure that those clues are really what they seem to be?" (1.7.112)
Poirot is not immune to scientific intervention. He relies on the Doctor's medical examination for evidence, and also uses a spirit stove and hat mesh to reveal the writing on a discarded scrap of paper.
Quote #7
The doctor watched him with great interest. He flattened out the two humps of wire, and with great care wriggled the charred scrap of paper on to one of them. He clapped the other on top of it and then, holding both pieces together with the tongs, held the whole thing over the flame of the spirit lamp. (1.7.119)
Not one to stick only to old-fashioned methods, Poirot ingeniously sets up a makeshift crime lab to illuminate the script on the scrap.
Quote #8
"I thought there were no detectives on the train when it passed through Yugo-Slavia – not until one got to Italy."
"I am not a Yugo-Slavian detective, Madame. I am an international detective."
"You belong to the League of Nations?"
"I belong to the world, Madame," said Poirot dramatically. (2.7.78-81)
Poirot is a truly modern detective in that he belongs not to one nation, but to the world, as he tells Countess Andrenyi. In that sense, he's a lot like the train itself, traveling across many nations.
Quote #9
Poirot shook his head violently.
"That is just it – it is impossible – quite impossible – that an honourable, slightly stupid, upright Englishman should stab an enemy twelve times with a knife! Do you not feel, my friends, how impossible it is?"
"That is the psychology," said M. Bouc.
"And one must respect the psychology. This crime has a signature and it is certainly not the signature of Colonel Arbuthnot." (2.8.118-121)
Poirot's reliance on psychology also has a modern flair to it.
Quote #10
"I see, nebulously as yet, a certain explanation that would cover the facts as we know them. It is a very curious explanation, and I cannot be sure as yet that it is the true one. To find out definitely, I shall have to make certain experiments." (3.3.21)
Poirot tests his hypothesis methodically – one might even say, according to the scientific method.