And Then There Were None
 Cover of |
|
| Author | Agatha Christie |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Not known |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
| Publication date | November 1939 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | The Regatta Mystery |
| Followed by | Sad Cypress |
And Then There Were None is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in November 1939 under the title of Ten Little Niggers [1] and in US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1940 under the title of And Then There Were None. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6d). The novel has also been published and filmed under the title Ten Little Indians. It is Christie's best-selling novel with 100 million sales to date.
Plot introduction
Ten people, each with a deadly secret, find themselves trapped on an island where they become the subjects of a cruel game played by a figure styling himself Mr. U. N. Owen ("Unknown"). They are killed according to an old nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians.
Characters
- Anthony James Marston. An almost perfect specimen of a man born to a wealthy family. Amoral, vain and self-absorbed, with no time for worrying about those whom he may have harmed, intentionally or otherwise.
- Mrs. Ethel Rogers, the nervous housekeeper and cook. She is a pale-faced, ghostlike woman with shifty light eyes, who is scared easily. One of the first people to come to the island; respectable and efficient but seems scared of something and is always looking over her shoulder. She may have a good reason for this fear.
- General John Gordon Macarthur, a retired World War I hero. Now a lonely but still proud man who has lost contact with his old friends in the military and has, according to the rumors, more than a few skeletons in his closet.
- Mr. Thomas Rogers, the butler, Mrs. Rogers' husband. One of the first people to come to the island; respectable and efficient but with no imagination. He is a very hard worker even in his old age.
- Emily Caroline Brent, an elderly spinster and a religious zealot. A woman of unyielding principles who uses the Christian Bible to justify her inability to show compassion or understanding for others, which may have caused suffering in the past.
- Justice Lawrence Wargrave, a wealthy and sadistic retired judge, famous for the many death sentences he pronounced in his career: he may have used the letter of the law to evade the spirit of the law on occasions.
- Dr. Edward George Armstrong, a Harley Street surgeon. Worked his way up the social ladder but lately he has become tired with the long working hours and little reprieve. Has an extremely addictive personality which may have got him into trouble in the past.
- William Henry Blore, a retired police inspector, now a private investigator. A big, hulking and bullying man who solved a series of robberies during his police days but may not have been entirely honest about his methods. Known to his friends as "Bill".
- Philip Lombard, a soldier of fortune. Traveled most of the world and has a reputation of being a good man in a tight spot: he has apparently "sailed very near the wind" on occasion due to shady activities. Literally down to his last square meal, he comes to the island with a loaded revolver.
- Vera Elizabeth Claythorne, a young teacher, secretary, and ex-governess. She is forced to take mostly secretarial jobs since her last job as a governess ended in the death of her charge.
Plot summary
As the novel opens, ten people journey to a house on a fictitious island off the coast of Devon. Upon arriving, each person finds a slightly odd bit of bric-a-brac in his or her room and a framed copy of a nursery rhyme, Ten Little Indians hanging on the wall:
Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were Nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were Eight.
Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there
were Seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped his own self in halves and then there were Six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were Five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law; One got into Chancery and then there were Four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then
there were Three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo; A big bear
hugged one and then there were Two.
Two little Indian boys were out in the sun; One got all frizzled up and then there was
one.
One little Indian boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.
Ten figurines of little Indians can be found in the dining-room.
When the guests gather in the parlor after dinner the first night, a mysterious gramophone recording bearing the label Swan Song informs them that all ten of them have been found guilty of murder, although in each case the killings could not be dealt with by the law:
- Anthony Marston ran over and killed John & Lucy Combes while driving recklessly. Due to his wealth and position in society, he was never properly prosecuted and simply had his driver's license withdrawn.
- Mr. and Mrs. Rogers let their invalid employer, Jennifer Brady, die by withholding her medicine.
- General MacArthur sent his wife's lover, Lt. Arthur Richmond, on a suicidal mission during World War I.
- Miss Brent dismissed her maid, Beatrice Taylor, after she became pregnant. The maid later committed suicide.
- Wargrave gave the death penalty to a defendant, Edward Seton, despite the evidence supporting his innocence.
- Armstrong performed an operation while drunk and thereby killed Louisa Mary Clees.
- Blore planted false evidence in the trial of a bank robber named James Landor, who later died in prison.
- Lombard abandoned a party of 21 native retainers to die in the African bush.
- Vera Claythorne purposefully let a small boy in her care named Cyril Hamilton swim out to sea and drown, but was cleared by a coroner's inquest.
The characters realize they have all been tricked into coming to the island, but now have no way to get back to the mainland. The guests are then murdered, one by one, with each murder referring to a verse of the poem found in their rooms. First to die is Anthony Marston, who dies from cyanide in his drink (Verse #1). The next morning, Mrs. Rogers never wakes up and is assumed to have received a fatal overdose of sleeping drugs (Verse #2). At lunchtime, General MacArthur is found dead from a blow to the back of his head (Verse #3). In growing panic, the survivors search the island for the murderer or possible hiding places, but find nothing. They then realize that the murderer must be one of them, and is playing a sadistic game, killing them in a manner paralleling the nursery rhyme, and also removing one of ten little figurines in the dining room after each murder. The survivors have a meeting and discover that none of them has an alibi for any of the deaths.
They conclude that the murderer is dispensing his own form of justice. Each of them have been responsible for a tragic death or deaths but in such a way that the law cannot touch them.
The next morning Rogers is found dead in the woodshed, having been hit in the head with a large axe (Verse # 4). Later that day, Emily Brent dies from an injection of potassium cyanide – the injection mark on her neck is a parody of a bee sting. (Verse # 5). The five remaining – Dr. Armstrong, Justice Wargrave, Philip Lombard, Vera Claythorne, and Inspector Blore – become increasingly paranoid. Wargrave announces that anything on the island that could be used as a weapon should be locked up. They lock up Wargrave's sleeping pills and Armstrong's doctor equipment, but Lombard's revolver has gone missing. They spend the afternoon sitting around, watching each other.
Later that evening, Vera goes to her room, and feels a cold hand touch her neck. She screams, and the others come running to her aid. They find that someone had dangled seaweed from a hook on her ceiling, apparently trying to scare her to death. After a short period of time, they realize that Wargrave wasn't with them. They return to the sitting room, and find him still sitting in his chair. But now he is fully clothed in his judge attire, with a red mark on his forehead. After a close examination, Dr. Armstrong declares him dead; he was shot through the head (Verse # 6). That night, Dr. Armstrong leaves the house, and when the other three survivors search for him, all they can find is a smashed window and yet another figurine missing from the table (Verse # 7).
Vera, Inspector Blore, and Lombard think it best to go outside when morning arrives. Blore later returns to the house to get some sustenance, and a dull thud is heard. When Vera and Philip come to see what happened, they find Blore dead, his head crushed by a heavy marble clock shaped like a bear (Verse #8). Not knowing if Armstrong is dead or alive, they assume that he did it and decide to stay out of the house.
The pair then walk along the cliffs, finding in the process Armstrong's drowned body. Vera and Lombard then realize that they are the only two left. Even though neither could possibly have murdered the Inspector, their mutual suspicion has driven them to a breaking point and each of them assumes the other to be the murderer.
Vera tricks Lombard into helping her lift Armstrong's body out of reach of the water, and while Lombard is busy, snatches his revolver. Lombard then reaches for his revolver, only to discover that Vera has taken it. She shoots him dead on the beach (i.e. "out in the sun". Thus fulfiling verse # 9). Vera then returns to the house, thinking she is finally safe. But when she gets to her room, she discovers a noose hanging there, with a chair under it. Having finally been driven mad by the entire experience (or "hypnotically suggestible") and experiencing horrible feeling of latent guilt for her crimes; Vera hangs herself in the room, kicking the chair out from under her, fulfilling the final verse of the rhyme (Verse #10).
Epilogue
The epilogue to the novel consists of a conversation concerning the unsolved mystery. Inspector Maine, who is in charge of the
case, is making his report to the Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard. The police are
baffled, although a chance comment made by one of them could give the clue they need to solve the mystery, but to no avail.
(Oddly they take no notice of the rhyme on the victims' wall.)
They have concluded from the physical evidence and various characters' diaries and journal entries that Blore, Armstrong, Lombard, and Claythorne were definitely the last to die.
Blore could not have died last, as the clock was definitely dropped onto him from above, and it would have been impossible for
him to have it fall on him. Armstrong could not have been last: his drowned body was dragged above the high-tide mark by someone
else. Lombard could not have, since he was shot on the beach and the revolver was found upstairs in the hallway, outside the door
of Wargrave's room. That left Vera (whose fingerprints were on the
The man who made all the arrangements for the island was Isaac Morris, a shady dealer known to efficiently cover his tracks when doing business. He was also the one who got Lombard to go to the island. However, he cannot tell the police anything: he died of an overdose the day the party set sail.
During the period when the killings were taking place and immediately after, no-one could have gotten onto or left the island without being seen and the weather was too bad anyway. This rules out the possibility of some unknown person having committed the caper.
Hence, although one of the guests must have been the killer, none of them could have been.
Postscript
A letter in a bottle is found floating by fishermen and sent to Scotland Yard. The document explains everything. The late Judge Lawrence Wargrave wrote the letter to explain that he had planned the killings because, as explained in the letter, ever since he was a child, he had been prone both to sadism and to fascination with the legal system. Wargrave first freely divulges his own hunger for blood, combined with his desire for strict justice (he never was able to punish someone whom he honestly thought as innocent) and his delight in seeing the guilty punished. When Wargrave was told by his Harley Street physician that he (Wargrave) was terminally ill, Wargrave decided to go out in a blaze of drama which would satiate his inner urges, rather than just letting his life slowly trickle away.
Thereafter, he details how he picked his victims, including a drug-dealing hypochondriac, Isaac Morris, whose drugs led to the death of a daughter of friends of Wargarve. Wargrave mostly heard about the cases in the course of his work, and even met the man whose life was ruined after Vera Claythorne, his lover, caused the death of his beloved nephew, wanting to make him the inheritor of the boy's fortune. Wargrave explains how he murdered Morris, Marston, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, Macarthur, and Emily Brent. He then deceived Dr. Armstrong into pronouncing him "dead", thus allowing the two to meet by the cliffs to discuss a strategy for determining the killer's identity. When Armstrong arrived, Wargrave tricked him into peering over the edge and shoved him over, then went back to the house and pretended to be dead. His trick made it possible for him to kill Blore and orchestrate the deaths of Lombard and Vera.
After Vera (the guiltiest of the "condemned" according to the judge, since she deliberately allowed a child to drown but managed to pass herself off as a heroine who tried to rescue the boy) hanged herself, Wargrave, who had been watching from the bedroom closet, pushed the chair against the wall. He then wrote out his final message, putting the message in a bottle and casting the bottle into the sea. He states that his only regret is that it was not enough to invent an insoluble mystery – he craves posthumous recognition of his brilliant scheme – therefore he explains three clues which should point to him as the killer, in case his letter is not found:
- Wargrave mentions in the letter that Edward Seton's death was justified because Seton, despite his charm and excellent performance on the witness stand, was genuinely guilty of the crime of which he was accused, proof of which the police now have. Therefore, Wargrave was the only guest who did not murder or cause the death of anyone (before coming to the island).
- The "red herring" line in the poem suggests the fact that Armstrong was tricked into his death - and that the respectable Justice Wargrave is the only other person in whom Armstrong would have been likely to confide.
- The bullet would leave a red mark in Wargrave's forehead similar to the mark of Cain, the first murderer described in the Biblical Old Testament.
The conclusion of the judge's letter indicates that he planned to shoot himself while sitting on his bed, so that his body would fall onto the bed as if it had been laid there. He fastened the gun to the doorknob with a piece of elastic cord in such a way that the recoil would snap the gun out into the hallway as the door to his room closed. Thus the police found ten dead bodies and an unsolvable mystery on Indian Island.
Publication history
The novel was originally published in Britain under the title Ten Little Niggers in 1939.[1][2] All references to "Indian" in the story were originally "Nigger": thus the island was called "Nigger
Island"[1] rather than "Indian Island"
and the poem found by each murder victim was also called Ten Little Niggers[1] rather than Ten Little Indians.
For the United States market, the novel was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1939 and then published separately in 1940. Both publications used the less inflammatory title And Then There Were None. The 1944 play and the 1945 motion picture also used this title. In 1946, the play was published under the new title Ten Little Indians, and in 1964 an American paperback edition also used this title.
British editions continued to use the work's original title until the 1980's and the first British edition to use the alternative title "And Then There Were None" appeared in 1985 with a reprint of the 1963 Fontana Paperback.[3] Today And Then There Were None is the title most commonly used. However, the original title survives in many foreign-language versions of the novel: for example, the Spanish title is Diez Negritos while the French title is Dix petits nègres[4]. A Dutch translation available as late as 1981 even used the work's original English title Ten Little Niggers. The 1987 Russian film adaptation has the title Десять негритят (Desyat' negrityat). In addition, the 2003 Harper Collins edition changes the name of the island to "Soldiers Island" and the nursery rhyme is changed to "Ten Little Soldiers", while the computer adventure game based on the novel uses "Ten Little Sailor Boys."
Notable editions of the novel
- Christie, Agatha (November 1939). Ten Little Niggers. London: Collins Crime Club. OCLC 152375426. Hardback, 256 pp. (First edition)
- Christie, Agatha (1940). And Then There Were None. New York: Dodd, Mead. OCLC 1824276. Hardback, 264 pp. (First US edition)
- 1944, Pocket Books, 1944, Paperback, 173 pp
- 1947, Pan Books, 1947, Paperback, 190 pp
- 1958, Penguin Books, 1958, Paperback, 201 pp
- Christie, Agatha (1963). And Then There Were None. London: Fontana. OCLC 12503435. Paperback, 190 pp. (The 1985 reprint was the first UK publication of novel under title "And Then There Were None"[5])
- Christie, Agatha (1964). Ten Little Indians. New York: Pocket Books. OCLC 29462459. (First publication of novel under title "Ten Little Indians")
- 1964, Washington Square Press, 1964, (Paperback - teacher's edition)
- 1964, Washington Square Press, 1964, (Paperback - teacher's edition)
- Christie, Agatha (1977). Ten Little Niggers, Greenway edition, London: Collins Crime Club. ISBN 0002318350. Collected works, Hardback, 252 pp (Except for reprints of the 1963 Fontana paperback, this was one of the last English-language publications of novel under the title "Ten Little Niggers"[6])
- Christie, Agatha (1980). The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Ten Little Niggers; Dumb Witness. Sydney: Lansdowne Press. ISBN 0701814535. Late use of the original title in an Australian edition.
- Christie, Agatha; N J Robat (trans.) (1981). Ten Little Niggers, Third edition (in Dutch), Culemborg: Educaboek. ISBN 9011851536. (Late printing of Dutch translation preserving original English title)
- Christie, Agatha (1986). Ten Little Indians. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0671552228. (Last publication of novel under title "Ten Little Indians")
Notable editions of the play based on the novel
- Christie, Agatha (1944). And Then There Were None: a Play in Three Acts. New York: Samuel French. OCLC 52528030. (First publication of play)
- Christie, Agatha (1946). Ten Little Indians: a Mystery Play in Three Acts. New York, London: Samuel French. OCLC 364920. (First publication of play under "Ten Little Indians" title)
Film, TV and theatrical adaptations
In 1943, Agatha Christie adapted the story for the stage. In the process of doing so, she realized that the novel's grim conclusion would not work dramatically on stage as there would be no one left to tell the tale, so she reworked the ending for Lombard and Vera to be innocent of the crimes of which they were accused, survive, and fall in love. Some of the names were also changed with General Macarthur becoming General McKenzie (this was most likely done to avoid legal issues or confusion regarding General Douglas MacArthur).
The story was adapted for the cinema and television movies, with the action sometimes taking place in locations other than an island:
- And Then There Were None (1945). Directed by René Clair; screenplay by Dudley Nichols. USA. Set on an island.
- Ten Little Niggers (1949). UK. BBC TV adaptation.
- Ten Little Indians (1959). Directed by Paul Bogart, Philip F. Falcone, Leo Farrenkopf and Dan Zampino; screenplay by Philip H. Reisman Jr. USA. Truncated TV adaptation of the play.
- Ten Little Indians (1965). Directed by George Pollock; screenplay by Peter Yeldham. UK. Set in the Austrian Alps.
- Gumnaam. (1965). Directed by Raja Nawathe; screenplay by Dhruva Chatterjee. India. Uncredited adaptation; set in a remote Indian location by the sea; many elements added to Christie's play.
- Five Dolls for an August Moon (1969) (uncredited giallo adaptation)
- Dix petits nègres (1970). Directed by Pierre Sabbagh; screenplay by Pierre Brive. French TV adaptation..
- And Then There Were None (1974). Directed by Peter Collinson; screenplay by Peter Welbeck. France / Spain / West Germany / Italy. Set in the Iranian desert.
- Desyat Negrityat ("Ten Little Negroes") (1987). Directed and written by Stanislav Govorukhin. USSR. Uses the novel's original setting and ending.
- Ten Little Indians (1989). Directed by Alan Birkinshaw. UK. Set on an African safari.
Many of the films follow the play's humorous tone and more optimistic ending. A newer version of the play was adapted for stage in October 2005, which followed the book a bit more closely.
The K.B.S. Productions Inc. film, A Study in Scarlet (1933), predates the publication of Ten Little Niggers and follows a strikingly similar plot. It is a Sherlock Holmes movie but bears no resemblance to Arthur Conan Doyle's original story of the same name. In this case, the rhyme refers to "Ten Little Black Boys".
Video game adaptations
- Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (2005). Directed by Scott Nixon. USA.
References/Echos in popular culture
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under
Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- And Then There Were None was adapted from Agatha Christie's book into a video game in 2005 by The Adventure Company. The game changes some of the details of the novel, adds characters, landscape and history, and changes the ending completely.
- "Ten Little Indians" is a song by Harry Nilsson along the same lines with the rhyme, although more dismal. In the song, the death of each "Indian" is related to breaking one of the Ten Commandments.
- "Zehn Kleine Jägermeister" (Ten Little "Jägermeister") is a song by the German band Die Toten Hosen, along the same lines as the rhyme, but with funny or satirical things happening to the characters (taking drugs, being arrested for tax evasion, dying of mad cow disease, etc.)
- A musical comedy spoof of the novel, titled Something's Afoot, enjoyed a brief run on Broadway.
- "Ten Little Indians" is the first phrase and recurring theme of the lyric to the song "Only One Woman", written by Reinhold Bilgeri, which was a UK hit in 1969 for Graham Bonnet and Trevor Gordon under the name of The Marbles.
- The Ben 10 episode name "And Then There Were 10" is a parody of the novel.
- An episode of Spiderman and His Amazing Friends called '7 Little Superheroes' derives its plot from Christie's book.
- A quest in the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC game, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is based on the novel.
- An episode of The Avengers titled "The Superlative Seven" (1967, season 5, episode 12) resembles The Magnificent Seven not at all, rather follows the now familiar plot of strangers (including the intrepid Steed) invited to a party, taken to an island, and killed off one by one, all the while knowing that their killer is amongst them.
- Grant (Invisibles) Morrison-written and JH (Promethea) Williams painted Batman storyline "Club of heroes" (a part of a continuing story Morrison was telling since Batman#655) taking place in Batman#667-669 parallels the novel plot melded with a post-modern sensibility, while also inspired by a 1955's Golden age Batman comic Detective comics#215's lead story "the Batman of all nations". The plot is based on the same premise with the mysterious millionaire John Mayhew summoning Batman and his imitators to a small island with a house on it. Revisiting the forgotten Golden age story, Morrison expands on the events that took place between the events and present continuity, his new story being a murder mystery that takes place on the island when Batman's second meeting ever with Batman imitators takes place.
References
- ^ a b c d
- ^ http://us.agathachristie.com/site/find_a_story/stories/And_Then_There_Were_None.php?type=fromsearch&pagetype=find }}
- ^ British National Bibliography for 1985. British Library. 1986. ISBN 0-7123-1035-5
- ^ http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/2013220626/
- ^ British National Bibliography. British Library. 1986. ISBN 0-7123-1035-5
- ^ Whitaker's Cumulative Book List for 1977. J. Whitaker and Sons Ltd. 1978. ISBN 0-85021-105-0
External links
- http://www.all-about-agatha-christie.com/and-then-there-were-none.html
- http://www.bookscans.com/Oddities/worst_title.htm
- Blog entry with links about the Gielgud production of the play (2005/2006)
- Spark Notes for book
- The Rhyme
- Early (presumably unauthorised) game on World of Spectrum
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
