{{Short description|Close friend of Hercule Poirot}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox character | name = Arthur Hastings | image = Hugh Fraser - Poirot.png | caption = Hugh Fraser as Hastings | first = ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (1920) | last = ''Curtain'' (1975) | creator = Agatha Christie | portrayer = Richard Cooper<br />Robert Morley<br />Jonathan Cecil<br />Dmitry Krylov<br />Hugh Fraser<br />Jeremy Clyde<br />Simon Williams<br />Himesh Patel | occupation = Army Captain (ex), secretary, rancher | spouse = Dulcie Duveen (1923–unknown; her death) | children = Two unnamed sons<ref name="Curtain: Poirot's Last Case">''Curtain: Poirot's Last Case''</ref><br />Grace<ref name="Curtain: Poirot's Last Case"/><br />Judith | relatives = A sister<br />Two grandsons | nationality = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} British | lbl21 = Birth date and place | data21 = 1886<ref>{{cite book |last1=Christie |first1=Agatha |title=The Mysterious Affair at Styles |pages=6-7 |ref="He was a good fifteen years my senior...though he hardly looked his forty-five years."}}</ref><br />United Kingdom }}
'''Captain Arthur J. M. Hastings''', OBE, is a fictional character created by Agatha Christie as the companion-chronicler and best friend of the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. He is first introduced in Christie's 1920 novel ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (originally written in 1916) and appears as a character in seven other Poirot novels, including the final one ''Curtain: Poirot's Last Case'' (1975), along with a play and many short stories. He is also the narrator of several of them.
==Biography== The reader is able to pinpoint Hastings's approximate birthdate as 1886 from the first chapter of ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (set in 1916), as he mentions that John Cavendish was 'a good fifteen years [his] senior' though hardly looking 'his forty-five years'.<ref name="Christie-1920">{{Cite book |last=Christie |first=Agatha |title=The Mysterious Affair at Styles |year=1920 |pages=}}</ref>{{Reference page|pages=6-7}} He was educated at Eton.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christie |first=Agatha |title=Dumb Witness |pages=81}}</ref>
Prior to his service in World War I, Hastings was employed at Lloyd's of London.<ref name="Christie-1920" />{{Reference page|page=14}}
Hastings meets Poirot in Belgium during the war several years before their meeting on 16 July 1916,<ref>''Curtain: Poirot's Last Case'', Chapter 1.</ref> at Styles Court, Essex, in the first of Christie's novels.<ref>''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'', Chapter 2.</ref> Hastings was a Captain.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Christie |first=Agatha |title=Curtain: Poirot's Last Case |year=1975}}</ref>
Hastings married Dulcie Duveen sometime after the events of 1923's ''The Murder on the Links''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christie |first=Agatha |title=Murder on the Links |year=1923}}</ref> The couple moved to Argentina, where they ranched.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Christie |first=Agatha |title=The Big Four |year=1927}}</ref> They had several children, two sons and two daughters.<ref name=":1" /> One son joined the Navy, the other married and took over the running of the ranch.<ref name=":1" /> Grace married a soldier who during the events of Curtain was stationed in India. Judith was the child he "secretly..always loved best, though [he] had never for one moment understood"; she attended university and worked for a research scientist.<ref name=":1" /> Hastings returned to England on several occasions for business purposes.<ref name=":0" />
By the 1930s, Hastings wore a moustache.<ref>''Peril at End House'', Chapter 6.</ref>
By the events of ''Curtain'', Hastings has been widowed.<ref name=":1" />
==Portrayals== Hastings has been portrayed on film and television by several actors, Richard Cooper in ''Black Coffee'' (1931) and ''Lord Edgware Dies'' (1934); Robert Morley in ''The Alphabet Murders'' (1965); Jonathan Cecil in three TV films – ''Thirteen at Dinner'' (1985), ''Dead Man's Folly'' (1986) and ''Murder in Three Acts'' (1986); Dmitry Krylov in the Soviet film ''Mystery Endhauz'' (1989, directed by Vadim Derbenyov); and Hugh Fraser, who portrayed Hastings alongside David Suchet's Poirot in 43 of the 70 episodes of ''Agatha Christie's Poirot''. He is also a main character in the anime ''Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple''.
In the BBC Radio 4 dramatisations starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot, Captain Hastings was played by Jeremy Clyde in ''Murder on the Links'' (1990),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/68aec82fd39e45f0bf80c081b829b3b1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141023194140/http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/68aec82fd39e45f0bf80c081b829b3b1|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 October 2014|title=Saturday-Night Theatre: Agatha Christie's Murder on the Links|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|access-date=31 March 2020}}</ref> and by Simon Williams in ''Lord Edgware Dies'' (1992), ''The ABC Murders'' (2000), ''Peril at End House'' (2000), ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (2005), and ''Dumb Witness'' (2006).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/756c9643f82f4ebcae9809155e5d528f|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726210034/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/756c9643f82f4ebcae9809155e5d528f|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 July 2020|title=Afternoon Play: Agatha Christie's Dumb Witness|website=BBC Genome: Radio Times|publisher=BBC|date=2020|access-date=31 March 2020}} See also ''Lord Edgware Dies'', ''The ABC Murders'', ''Peril at End House'', and ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles''.</ref>
Himesh Patel voiced Hastings in Audible's adaptation of ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' and ''The ABC Murders''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2024/digital/global/peter-dinklage-jessica-gunning-himesh-patel-audible-agatha-christie-mysterious-affair-at-styles-1236161466/|title=Peter Dinklage, Jessica Gunning, Himesh Patel and More to Star in Audible Adaptation of Agatha Christie's 'The Mysterious Affair at Styles' (EXCLUSIVE)|website=Variety|first=Ellise|last=Shafer|date=October 2, 2024|access-date=October 3, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.agathachristie.com/en/audio/the-abc-murders-an-audible-original|title=The ABC Murders, An Audible Original |access-date=October 27, 2025}}</ref>
==The Hastings novels== Hastings narrates the majority of the short stories featuring Poirot, but appears in only eight of the novels, seven of which were written before 1940:
* ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles'' (1916 but published in 1920) * ''The Murder on the Links'' (1923) * ''The Big Four'' (1927) * ''Peril at End House'' (1932) * ''Lord Edgware Dies'' (1933) – published in the U.S. as ''Thirteen at Dinner'' * ''The A.B.C. Murders'' (1936) * ''Dumb Witness'' (1937) – published in the U.S. as ''Poirot Loses a Client'' * ''Curtain: Poirot's Last Case'' (written in the early 1940s, published in 1975)
Hastings is the narrator of all stories in ''Poirot Investigates'' (1924), a collection of short stories. Hastings is also present in Christie's play ''Black Coffee'' (1930) and its novelisation alongside Poirot.
== See also ==
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hastings, Arthur}} Category:Characters in 20th-century British novels Category:Characters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction Category:Fictional British Army officers Category:Literary characters introduced in 1920 Category:Fictional farmers Category:Fictional army captains Category:Fictional World War I veterans Category:Agatha Christie characters Category:Hercule Poirot characters Category:Sidekicks in literature Category:Fictional English people Category:Male characters in literature {{Hercule Poirot}} {{Agatha Christie}} {{Authority control}}