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And Then There Were None

Overview

And Then There Were None is a detective fiction

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club

Collins Crime Club

The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...

on 6 November 1939 under the title Ten Little Niggers which was changed by Dodd, Mead and Company

Dodd, Mead and Company

Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...

in January 1940 because of the presence of a racial epithet to the title And Then There Were None. In the novel, ten people, who have previously been complicit in the deaths of others but have escaped notice or punishment, are tricked into coming onto an island. Even though the guests are the only people on the island, they are all mysteriously murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

ed one by one, in a manner paralleling, inexorably and sometimes grotesquely, the old nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...

, "Ten Little Niggers"

Ten Little Indians

"Ten Little Indians" is a children's rhyme. The song is usually performed to the Irish folk tune "Michael Finnegan". It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13512.-Lyrics:The modern lyrics are believed to be public domain and are as follows:...

. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence

British sixpence coin

The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....

(7 ⁄ 6) and the US edition at $

Dollar sign

The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various peso and dollar units of currency around the world.- Origin :...

2.00. The novel has also been published and filmed under the title Ten Little Indians.

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Where does this story take place? Describe the primary setting of And Then There Were None with as much detail as possible. How and why is Indian Isla...

How and why is indian island so important to the narrative

Encyclopedia

And Then There Were None is a detective fiction

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

novel

Novel

by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club

Collins Crime Club

on 6 November 1939 under the title Ten Little Niggers which was changed by Dodd, Mead and Company

Dodd, Mead and Company

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

ed one by one, in a manner paralleling, inexorably and sometimes grotesquely, the old nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

, "Ten Little Niggers"

Ten Little Indians

. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence

British sixpence coin

The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....

(7 ⁄ 6) and the US edition at $

Dollar sign

The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various peso and dollar units of currency around the world.- Origin :...

2.00. 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, making it the world's best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time (Publications International lists it as 7th best-selling). It has been adapted into several plays, films, and a video game.

Plot summary

Eight people, Lawrence Wargrave, Vera Claythorne, Philip Lombard, General Macarthur, Emily Brent, Anthony "Tony" Marston, Doctor Armstrong, and William Blore have been invited to a mansion on the fictional Soldier Island ("Nigger

Nigger

Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...

Island" in the original 1939 UK publication, "Indian Island" in the 1964 US publication), which is based upon Burgh Island

Burgh Island

Burgh Island is a small tidal island off the coast of South Devon in England near to the small seaside village of Bigbury-on-Sea. There are several buildings on the island, the largest being the Art Deco Burgh Island Hotel...

off the coast of Devon. Upon arriving, they are told that their hosts, a Mr. and Mrs. U.N. Owen (Ulick Norman Owen and Una Nancy Owen), are currently away, but the guests will be attended to by Thomas and Ethel Rogers. Each guest finds in his or her room an odd bit of bric-a-brac

Bric-a-brac

Bric-à-brac , first used in the Victorian era, refers to collections of curios such as elaborately decorated teacups and small vases, feathers, wax flowers under glass domes, eggshells, statuettes, painted miniatures or photographs, and so on...

and a framed copy of the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Soldiers" ("Niggers" or "Indians" in respective earlier editions) hanging on the wall.

The currently published, not the original version, of the rhyme goes:

Ten little Soldier boys went out to dine;

One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little Soldier boys sat up very late;

One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little Soldier boys traveling in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

;

One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little Soldier boys chopping up sticks;

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six little Soldier boys playing with a hive;

A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Five little Soldier boys going in for law;

One got in Chancery

Court of Chancery

The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...

and then there were four.

Four little Soldier boys going out to sea;

A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little Soldier boys walking in the zoo;

A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two Little Soldier boys sitting in the sun;

One got frizzled up and then there was one.

One little Soldier boy left all alone;

He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.

Before dinner that evening, the guests notice ten soldier boy figurines on the dining room table. During their meal, a gramophone

Phonograph

The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...

record plays, accusing each of the ten of murder. Each guest acknowledges awareness of (and in some cases involvement with) the deaths of the persons named (except Emily Brent, who tells only Vera, who later tells the other guests), but denies any malice and/or legal culpability, except for Lombard.

The guests now realize they have been tricked into coming to the island, but find that they cannot leave: the boat which regularly delivers supplies has stopped arriving. They are murdered one by one, each death paralleling a verse of the nursery rhyme, with one of the figurines being removed after each murder.

First to die is the spoiled Anthony Marston, who chokes to death when his drink is poisoned with cyanide

Cyanide

A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....

("one choked his little self"). That night, Thomas Rogers notices that a figurine is missing from the dining table. Mrs. Rogers dies in her sleep that night, which Dr. Armstrong attributes to a fatal overdose of sleeping draught ("one overslept himself"). General Macarthur fatalistically predicts that no one will leave the island alive, and at lunch, is indeed found dead from a blow to the back of his skull ("one said he'd stay there"). Meanwhile, two more figurines have disappeared from the dining room. In growing panic, the survivors search the island in vain for the murderer. Justice Wargrave establishes himself as the decisive leader of the group and asserts one of them must be the murderer playing a sadistic game with the rest. The killer's twisted humor is evidenced by the names of their "hosts": "U.N. Owen" is a pun and a homophone for "unknown". The next morning, Rogers is missing, as is another figurine. He is found dead in the woodshed, struck in the back of the head with an axe ("one chopped himself in halves"). Later that day, Emily Brent is killed in the kitchen by an injection of potassium cyanide

Potassium cyanide

Potassium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline compound, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include jewelry for chemical gilding and...

that leaves a mark on her neck ("A bumblebee stung one"), which at first appears to be a sting from a bumble bee placed in the room. The hypodermic needle is found outside her window next to a smashed china figurine. The five survivors — Dr. Armstrong, Justice Wargrave, Philip Lombard, Vera Claythorne, and William Blore — become increasingly frightened and almost frantic.

Wargrave suggests they lock up any potential weapons, including Armstrong's medical equipment and the judge's own sleeping pills. Lombard admits to bringing a revolver to the island, but says it has gone missing. Resolved to keep the killer from catching anyone alone, they gather in the drawing room and only leave one at a time. Vera goes up to her room and discovers a strand of seaweed: an allusion to the boy the gramophone alleged that she had drowned. Her screams attract the attention of Blore, Lombard, and Armstrong, who rush to her aid. When they return to the drawing room, they find Wargrave in a mockery of a judicial wig and gown with a gunshot wound in his forehead ("one got into Chancery"). Armstrong confirms the death, and they lay Wargrave's body in his room and cover it with a sheet. Shortly afterward, Lombard discovers his revolver has been returned.

That night, Blore hears someone sneaking out of the house. He and Lombard investigate and, discovering Armstrong missing, assume the doctor is the killer. They wake Vera and the three spend the night outdoors. In the morning, Blore leaves for food and does not return. Vera and Lombard soon discover his body on the terrace, skull crushed by a bear-shaped clock ("a big bear hugged one")—-and on the shore, Armstrong, drowned ("a red herring swallowed one"). Paranoid, each assumes the other is the murderer. In the tense standoff that follows, Vera feigns compassion and has Lombard help her move Armstrong's body out of the water, using the opportunity to pick his revolver from his pocket. She kills Lombard with a shot through the heart on the beach ("one got frizzled up") and returns to the house. Dazed and disorientated with relief and drowsiness, Vera Claythorne is unsurprised to find a noose

Noose

A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot slides to make the loop collapsible. Knots used for making nooses include the running bowline, the tarbuck knot, and the slip knot.-Use in hanging:...

prepared in her room. In a trance of exhaustion, guilt, and relief, she hangs herself, fulfilling the final verse of the rhyme.

Epilogue

Inspector Maine, the detective in charge of the Soldier Island case, discusses the mystery with his Assistant Commissioner, Sir Thomas Legge, at Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

. There are no clues on the mainland—the man who arranged "U.N. Owen's" purchase of the island covered his tracks well, and was killed the day the party set sail—and while guests' diaries establish a partial timeline, the police cannot determine the order in which Blore, Armstrong, Lombard, and Vera were killed. Blore could not have dropped the clock on himself; Armstrong's body was dragged above the high-tide mark; Lombard was shot on the beach, but his revolver was found outside Wargrave's room. Lombard's pistol having Vera's fingerprints and the clock that killed Blore coming from her room both point to Vera as "U.N. Owen"--yet that someone was alive after Vera's suicide is obvious since the chair Vera used to hang herself had been righted and replaced against the wall.

Inclement weather would have prevented the murderer from leaving or arriving separately from the guests: he or she must have been among them. Yet all the murders appear to be accounted for, and the inspectors are confused, leaving them asking - Who killed them, and why?

Postscript

A fishing trawler finds a letter in a bottle just off the Devon

Devon

coast; it contains the confession of the late Justice Wargrave. He reveals a lifelong sadistic temperament juxtaposed uneasily with a fierce sense of justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

: he wanted to torture, terrify, and kill, but could never justify harming an innocent person. As a judge, he directed merciless summations and guilty verdicts, but limited himself to those cases in which he had satisfied himself of the guilt of the defendant(s), thrilling at the sight of the convicted person crippled with fear, facing their impending death. But the proxy of the bench was unsatisfying: Wargrave longed to commit murder by his own hand. Prompted to action by the discovery that he was terminally ill

Terminal illness

Terminal illness is a medical term popularized in the 20th century to describe a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and that is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as...

, he sought killers who had committed murder but escaped justice. He lured them to the island. As he killed them one by one, he revelled in the mounting terror of those who remained, their reactions to the murders confirming their guilt. He decided to start with the less serious offenders (i.e. those who either killed with carelessness or felt the greatest remorse) and save "the prolonged mental strain and fear" for the most cold-blooded killers. (He didn't realize Vera's concern for her crime, and saved her for last.)

Wargrave arrived to the island with two drugs: potassium cyanide

Potassium cyanide

and chloral hydrate

Chloral hydrate

Chloral hydrate is a sedative and hypnotic drug as well as a chemical reagent and precursor. The name chloral hydrate indicates that it is formed from chloral by the addition of one molecule of water. Its chemical formula is C2H3Cl3O2....

. After the gramophone recital, Wargrave slipped cyanide and chloral into the drinks of Marston and Mrs. Rogers respectively. Marston choked to death, and Mrs. Rogers was given another sleep medication, leading to death by overdose. The next day, after Macarthur made his fatalistic prediction, Wargrave snuck up on him and killed him. The next morning, he killed Rogers in the woodshed as he was cutting firewood. During breakfast, he slipped the rest of his chloral into Miss Brent's coffee, and after she was abandoned at the table, Wargrave injected her with the rest of his cyanide using Armstrong's syringe.

Having disposed of the first five guests, the judge then persuaded the trusting Armstrong to fake Wargrave's own death, "the red herring", under the pretext that it would rattle or unnerve the "real murderer". That night, he met Armstrong on the cliffs and pushed him into the sea, knowing the doctor's disappearance would provoke the suspicions of the others. From Vera's room, Wargrave pushed the stone bear-shaped clock onto Blore, crushing his skull. After watching Vera shoot Lombard, he then set up a noose and a chair in her bedroom assuming she would hang herself. He was right and watched Vera hang herself from the shadows. Wargrave pushed the chair she had stood on against the wall, wrote out his confession, put the letter in a bottle and tossed it out to sea. Wargrave admits to craving posthumous

Posthumous

Posthumous or Posthumus may refer to:People* Ladislaus the Posthumous, 15th-century monarch in Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria* Posthumus, a character in Shakespeare's play, Cymbeline* Dick Posthumus, Michigan politician...

recognition of his scheme. Even if his letter is not found (he decides there is about a 1 in 100 chance of it being found), he felt that three clues exist implicating him, although he surmises (correctly) that the mystery will not have been solved:

Wargrave was the only one invited to the island who had not wrongfully caused someone's death. Edward Seton, whom the gramophone accused Wargrave of wrongfully sentencing to death, was, in fact, guilty of the murder for which he was convicted, and overwhelming proof emerged, albeit posthumously, of this. Thus, ironically, the only innocent guest must be the murderer.
The "red herring" line in the poem suggests that Armstrong was tricked into his death by someone he trusted. Of the remaining guests, only the respectable Justice Wargrave would have inspired the doctor's confidence.
The red mark on Wargrave's forehead that Armstrong confirmed as a bullet wound is similar to the one God bestowed
Curse and mark of Cain
In Christianity and Judaism, the curse of Cain and the mark of Cain refer to the passages in the Biblical Book of Genesis where God declared that Cain, the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, was cursed for murdering his brother, and placed a mark upon him to warn others that killing Cain would provoke...

upon Cain as punishment for killing his brother Abel. He says the brand of Cain would make the investigators realize he was the murderer.

Wargrave describes how he planned to kill himself: he will loop an elastic cord through the gun, tying one end of the cord to his eyeglasses, and looping the other around the doorknob of an open door. He will then wrap a handkerchief around the handle of the gun and shoot himself in the head. His body will fall back as though laid there by Armstrong. The gun's recoil will send it to the doorknob and out into the hallway, detaching the cord and pulling the door closed. The cord will dangle innocuously from his glasses, and the stray handkerchief should not arouse suspicion.

Thus the police will find ten dead bodies and an unsolvable mystery on Soldier/Indian Island.

Characters

The following details of the characters are based on the original novel. Stage and film adaptations have often varied with names and backgrounds, such as Judge Wargrave being renamed Cannon and Lombard accused of causing the death of his pregnant girlfriend.

Anthony James "Tony" Marston, a rich, spoiled, good-looking man with a well-proportioned body, crisp hair, tanned face and blue eyes known for his reckless driving. Mr. Owen accused Anthony of running over and killing two children, while drunk, for which Marston felt no remorse. Marston was the first of Owen's victims, choking to death on potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline compound, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include jewelry for chemical gilding and...

slipped into his drink while Marston was gathered in the drawing room with the others.
Mrs. Ethel Rogers, the cook and Mr. Rogers's wife. She is described as a pale-faced, ghostlike woman with shifty light eyes, who is very scared of something. Despite her respectability and efficiency, she was obliged to help her domineering husband, Thomas, to kill their former employer, the elderly Miss Jennifer Brady, by withholding her medicine, in order to inherit her money. She was Owen's second victim, dying in her sleep from an overdose of chloral hydrate
Chloral hydrate
Chloral hydrate is a sedative and hypnotic drug as well as a chemical reagent and precursor. The name chloral hydrate indicates that it is formed from chloral by the addition of one molecule of water. Its chemical formula is C2H3Cl3O2....

, which she did not self-administer.
General John Gordon Macarthur, a retired World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

hero, who sent his wife's lover (a younger officer named Arthur Richmond) to his death by assigning him to a suicide mission
Suicide mission
The term suicide mission commonly refers to a task which is so dangerous for the people involved that they are not expected to survive. The term is sometimes extended to, but is not limited to, suicide attacks such as kamikaze and suicide bombings, where the people involved actively commit suicide...

. MacArthur fatalistically accepts that no one will leave the island alive, which he confides to Vera. Shortly thereafter, he becomes Owen's third victim, his head being crushed in as he sat along the shore.
Thomas Rogers, the butler and Mrs. Rogers's husband. He and his weak-willed wife, whom he dominated, killed their former elderly employer by withholding her medicine, causing the elderly woman to die from heart failure, in order to inherit the money she had left them in her will. He was Owen's fourth victim, being struck in the head with an axe as he cut firewood in the woodshed.
Emily Caroline Brent, a rigid and repressed elderly woman of harsh moralistic principles who uses The Bible to justify her inability to show compassion or understanding for others. She firmly believes in racial equality, stating "Black or white, they are our brothers.". She dismissed her maid, Beatrice Taylor, as punishment for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. As a result, Beatrice, who had also been rejected by her own family, threw herself into a river and drowned. She initially denies any awareness of the event, but privately tells the story to Vera, who tells the remaining guests after Miss Brent's death. Miss Brent became Owen's fifth victim after being injected with a dose of potassium cyanide into her neck as she sat alone at the dining table after being drugged with chloral hydrate.
Dr. Edward George Armstrong, a Harley Street
Harley Street
Harley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...

surgeon, blamed for the death of his patient, Louisa Clees, while operating under the influence of alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

. Armstrong became Owen's seventh victim after being pushed off a cliff into the sea. His body goes missing for a while, leading others to think he is the killer, but his corpse washes up at the end of the novel, leading to the climax.
William Henry Blore, a retired police inspector and now a private investigator, accused of having an innocent man, James Landor, sentenced to life imprisonment as a scapegoat after having been bribed. The man later died in prison. He initially denies the accusation, but he later privately admits the truth to Lombard. Blore became Owen's perceived eighth victim, having his skull crushed by a bear-shaped clock, dropped from Vera's bedroom.
Philip Lombard, a soldier of fortune. Literally down to his last square meal, he comes to the island with a loaded revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...

. Though he is reputed to be a good man in a tight spot, Lombard is accused of causing the deaths of a native African tribe when he stole food from the tribe, thus causing their starvation and subsequent death. Lombard is the only character to admit openly that the accusations against him are true, but feels no remorse for his actions. Though not an actual victim of Owen's, Lombard fulfilled the ninth referenced verse of the rhyme, shot to death on the beach by Vera, who at the time believed him to be the murderer.
Vera Elizabeth Claythorne, a young teacher, secretary, and ex-governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...

, who takes mostly secretarial jobs since her last job as a governess ended in the death of her charge, Cyril Hamilton. She let young Cyril swim out to sea and drown so that his uncle, Hugo Hamilton, could inherit his money and marry her. However, the plan backfired, as Hamilton abandoned her when he suspected what she had done. Of all the "guests" Vera is the one most tormented by latent guilt for her crime, yet is made to suffer the most, being the last survivor. She eventually meets her demise when she walks back to her room after shooting Lombard. There she finds a readied noos
Noos
Noos may refer to* The French TV station see Numericable* North West Shelf Operational Oceanographic System* Never-out-of-Stock...

e, complete with chair beneath it, suspended from her ceiling. Again, not technically a victim of Owen's, but guilt-ridden and delusional, Vera climbs the chair, adjusts the noose round her neck, and kicks the chair away, fulfilling the rhyme's final verse as the tenth and final victim.
Justice Lawrence John Wargrave, a retired judge, well known as a "hanging judge
Hanging Judge
"Hanging judge" is an unofficial term for a judge who has gained renown for punishment by sentencing convicted criminals to death by hanging.More broadly, the term is applied to judges who have gained a reputation for imposing unusually harsh sentences, even in jurisdictions where the death penalty...

" for liberally awarding the death penalty in murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

cases. He himself is suspected of murder because of his summation and jury directions during the trial of an accused murderer named Edward Seton, despite doubts about Seton's guilt during the trial. He fakes his own death with a "gunshot wound" on his forehead as the sixth victim with Armstrong's help. After Vera commits suicide, he does so as well in a manner to avert suspicion.
Sir Thomas Legge and Inspector Maine, two detectives who discuss the case in the epilogue.
Isaac Morris, a man hired by Mr. Owen who arranges for Phillip Lombard to come to the island and meet Mr Owen for a later payment of 100 guinea
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...

s (105 GBP) to Lombard. In the book's postscript, the detectives discuss Morris' death, caused by a medication given to him by Mr. Owen, apparently to help with his "gastric juices." Morris' crime was having supplied a young woman with illegal drugs that led to her suicide by overdose.
Fred Narracott, the boatman who delivered the guests to the island. After doing so he does not appear again in the story, although Inspector Maine notes that it was Narracott who found the bodies.

Publication history

The novel was originally published in Britain under the title Ten Little Niggers in 1939. All references to "Indian" in the US version of the story were originally "Nigger": thus the island was called "Nigger Island" rather than "Indian Island" and the rhyme found by each murder victim was also called Ten Little Niggers rather than Ten Little Indians. Modern printings use the rhyme Ten Little Indians and "Indian Island" for reasons of political and ethnic sensitivity.

The UK serialisation was in twenty-three parts in the Daily Express

Daily Express

The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

from Tuesday, June 6 to Saturday, July 1, 1939. All of the installments carried an illustration by "Prescott" with the first installment having an illustration of Burgh Island

Burgh Island

in Devon which inspired the setting of the story. This version did not contain any chapter divisions.

For the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

market, the novel was first serialised in the Saturday Evening Post in seven parts from 20 May (Volume 211, Number 47) to 1 July 1939 (Volume 212, Number 1) with illustrations by Henry Raleigh and then published separately in book form in January 1940. Both publications used the less inflammatory title And Then There Were None. The 1945 motion picture also used this title. In 1946, the play was published under the new title Ten Little Indians (the same title under which it had been performed on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

), and in 1964 an American paperback edition also used this title.

British editions continued to use the work's original title until the 1980s 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. Today And Then There Were None is the title most commonly used. The original title survives in many foreign-language versions of the novel: for example, the Spanish title is"Diez negritos", the Greek title is Δέκα Μικροί Νέγροι, the Bulgarian title is Десет малки негърчета, the Romanian

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

title is Zece negri mititei, the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

title is Dix petits nègres and the Hungarian

Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....

title is Tíz kicsi néger, while the Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

title, Dieci piccoli indiani, mirrors the "Indians" title. The Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

18th edition of 1994 still used the work's original English title Ten Little Niggers. The 1987 Russian film adaptation has the title (Desyat Negrityat

Desyat Negrityat

Desyat Negrityat is a 1987 Soviet film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None . It was directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, who also penned the script...

). The computer adventure game based on the novel uses "Ten Little Sailor Boys". Hardback, 256 pp. (First edition) Hardback, 264 pp. (First US edition)

1944, Pocket Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...

, 1944, Paperback, 173 pp (Pocket number 261)
1947, Pan Books
Pan Books
Pan Books is an imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....

, 1947, Paperback, 190 pp (Pan number 4)
1958, Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

, 1958, Paperback, 201 pp (Penguin number 1256) Paperback, 190 pp. (The 1985 reprint was the first UK publication of novel under title And Then There Were None). (first publication of novel as Ten Little Indians)
1964, Washington Square Press (paperback – teacher's edition) 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" Late use of the original title in an Australian edition. (Late printing of Dutch translation preserving original English title) (Last publication of novel under the title "Ten Little Indians")

Literary significance and reception

And Then There Were None is one of Agatha Christie's best-known mysteries. Writing for The Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...

of 11 November 1939, Maurice Percy Ashley stated, "If her latest story has scarcely any detection in it there is no scarcity of murders." He continued, "There is a certain feeling of monotony inescapable in the regularity of the deaths which is better suited to a serialized newspaper story than a full-length novel. Yet there is an ingenious problem to solve in naming the murderer. It will be an extremely astute reader who guesses correctly." Many other reviews were complimentary; in The New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Book Review

The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...

of 25 February 1940, Isaac Anderson detailed the set-up of the plot up to the point where 'the voice' accuses the ten people of their past misdemeanors and then said, "When you read what happens after that you will not believe it, but you will keep on reading, and as one incredible event is followed by another even more incredible you will still keep on reading. The whole thing is utterly impossible and utterly fascinating. It is the most baffling mystery that Agatha Christie has ever written, and if any other writer has ever surpassed it for sheer puzzlement the name escapes our memory. We are referring, of course, to mysteries that have logical explanations, as this one has. It is a tall story, to be sure, but it could have happened."

Such was the quality of Christie's work on this book that many compared it to her 1926 novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons in June 1926 and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company on the 19th of the same month. It features Hercule Poirot as the lead detective...

. For instance, an unnamed reviewer in the Toronto Daily Star

Toronto Star

The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

of 16 March 1940 said, "Others have written better mysteries than Agatha Christie, but no one can touch her for ingenious plot and surprise ending. With And Then There Were None... she is at her most ingenious and most surprising... is, indeed, considerably above the standard of her last few works and close to the Roger Ackroyd level."

Other critics laud the use of twists, turns, and surprise endings. Maurice Richardson wrote a rhapsodic review in The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

s issue of 5 November 1939 which began, "No wonder Agatha Christie's latest has sent her publishers into a vatic trance. We will refrain, however, from any invidious comparisons with Roger Ackroyd and be content with saying that Ten Little Niggers is one of the very best, most genuinely bewildering Christies yet written. We will also have to refrain from reviewing it thoroughly, as it is so full of shocks that even the mildest revelation would spoil some surprise from somebody, and I am sure that you would rather have your entertainment kept fresh than criticism pure." After stating the set-up of the plot, Richardson concluded, "Story telling and characterisation are right at the top of Mrs. Christie's baleful form. Her plot may be highly artificial, but it is neat, brilliantly cunning, soundly constructed, and free from any of those red-herring false trails which sometimes disfigure her work."

Robert Barnard

Robert Barnard

Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....

, a recent critic, concurred with the reviews, describing the book as "Suspenseful and menacing detective-story-cum-thriller. The closed setting with the succession of deaths is here taken to its logical conclusion, and the dangers of ludicrousness and sheer reader-disbelief are skillfully avoided. Probably the best-known Christie, and justifiably among the most popular."

Recently, critics have attacked the book on political correctness grounds, finding that Christie's original title and the setting on "Nigger Island" are integral to the work. These aspects of the novel, argues Alison Light, "could be relied upon automatically to conjure up a thrilling 'otherness', a place where revelations about the 'dark side' of the English would be appropriate." Unlike novels such as Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles...

, "Christie's location is both more domesticated and privatised, taking for granted the construction of racial fears woven into psychic life as early as the nursery. If her story suggests how easy it is to play upon such fears, it is also a reminder of how intimately tied they are to sources of pleasure and enjoyment."

Adaptations

And Then There Were None has had more adaptations than any other single work of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

. They often used Christie's alternative ending from her 1943 stage play, with the setting often being changed to locations other than an island.

Stage

In 1943, Agatha Christie adapted the story

And Then There Were None (1943 play)

And Then There Were None is a 1943 play by crime writer Agatha Christie. The play, like the 1939 book on which it is based, was originally titled and performed in the UK as Ten Little Niggers...

for the stage. In the process of doing so, she and the producers agreed that audiences might not flock to such a grim tale and it would not work well dramatically as there would be no one left to tell the tale. Thus, 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, perhaps because of the real-life General Douglas MacArthur playing a prominent role in the ongoing World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. On 14 October 2005, a new version of the play, written by Kevin Elyot and directed by Steven Pimlott, opened at the Gielgud Theatre

Gielgud Theatre

The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...

in London. For this version, Elyot returned to the book version of the story and restored the original ending where Lombard is killed and Vera commits suicide.

Film

There have been several film adaptions of the novel. The first was adapted for the cinema screen in René Clair

René Clair

René Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...

's successful 1945 US production

And Then There Were None (1945 film)

And Then There Were None is a 1945 film adaption of Agatha Christie's best-selling mystery novel And Then There Were None directed by René Clair....

. The second cinema adaptation

Ten Little Indians (1965 film)

The 1965 version of Ten Little Indians is the second film version of Agatha Christie's detective novel And Then There Were None . Although its background story is the same as the 1945 version , this one takes place on an isolated snowy mountain...

of the book was directed by George Pollock in 1965; Pollock had previously handled the four Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford

Margaret Rutherford

Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford DBE was an English character actress, who first came to prominence following World War II in the film adaptations of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...

. This film transferred the setting from a remote island to a mountain retreat in Austria. Another variant of And Then There Were None made in 1974

And Then There Were None (1974 film)

And Then There Were None is a 1974 film version of the Agatha Christie mystery novel of the same name. Two previous theatrical adaptations were released in 1945 and 1965, and a videotaped made-for-television version was broadcast in 1959...

was the first colour English-language film version of the novel, directed by Peter Collinson from a screenplay by Peter Welbeck (who co-wrote the screenplay for the 1965 film). This version was set at a grand hotel in the Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian desert. A version from the USSR

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, Desyat' negrityat

Desyat Negrityat

Desyat Negrityat is a 1987 Soviet film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None . It was directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, who also penned the script...

( "Ten Little Negroes") (1987) was written and directed by Stanislav Govorukhin

Stanislav Govorukhin

Stanislav Sergeyevich Govorukhin has been one of the most popular Soviet and Russian film directors since the 1960s...

and is the only cinema adaptation to use the novel's original ending. The most recent film, Ten Little Indians

Ten Little Indians (1989 film)

Ten Little Indians is a 1989 mystery film, and the fifth screen adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous novel. It was the third version to be produced by Harry Alan Towers, following his 1965 and 1974 adaptations...

, directed by Alan Birkinshaw

Alan Birkinshaw

Alan Birkinshaw, FRGS, born in Auckland, New Zealand on 15 June 1944, is a British film director, writer, and producer in the arena of television and feature films....

, was made in 1989 and is set on safari

Safari

A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...

in the African savannah

Savannah

Savannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-People:* Savannah King, a Canadian freestyle swimmer* Savannah Outen, a singer who gained popularity on You Tube...

Television

Several variations of the original novel were adapted for television. For instance, there were two different British adaptions, the BBC adaption in 1949 and ITV adaptation in 1959. In addition, there was an American version, Ten Little Indians, directed by Paul Bogart, Philip F. Falcone, Leo Farrenkopf and Dan Zampino with the screenplay by Philip H. Reisman Jr., that was a truncated TV adaptation of the play. A West German

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

adaptation Zehn kleine Negerlein was directed by Hans Quest for ZDF

ZDF

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

in 1969. A year later in 1970, Pierre Sabbagh directed Dix petits nègres for the French television adaption. In Cuba the novel was adapted in 1981 in a black and white six parts series starring Yolanda Ruiz as Vera Claythorne, Miguel Navarro as Philip Lombard and Fernando Robles as Lawrence Wargrave.

The season 9 premiere of Family Guy

Family Guy

Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

adapted the story under the title And Then There Were Fewer

And Then There Were Fewer

"And Then There Were Fewer" is the first episode of the ninth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on September 26, 2010. The episode follows the citizens of Quahog, Rhode Island, after they are invited by actor James Woods to his stately...

; the episode followed the basic tenets of the novel's plot structure.

Radio

On 13 November 2010 as part of its Saturday Play series, BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

broadcast a ninety-minute adaptation written by Joy Wilkinson. The production was directed by Mary Peate and featured Geoffrey Whitehead

Geoffrey Whitehead

Geoffrey Whitehead is an English actor. He has appeared in a huge range of television, film and radio roles. In the theatre, he has played at the Shakespeare Globe, St...

as Justice Wargrave, Lyndsey Marshal

Lyndsey Marshal

Lyndsey Marshal is an English actress best known for her performance in The Hours as the recurring character Cleopatra on HBO's Rome, and as Lady Sarah Hill in BBC period drama Garrow's Law.-Biography:...

as Vera Claythorne, Alex Wyndham

Alex Wyndham

Alex Wyndham is an English actor, best known for his role as Gaius Cilnius Maecenas in the HBO television series Rome .-Biography:...

as Captain Lombard, Sean Baker as Dr. Armstrong, John Rowe

John Rowe (actor)

-TV:*BBC Television Shakespeare - Henry VIII *Juliet Bravo *When the Boat Comes In *Chambers *Agatha Christie's Poirot...

as General Armstrong, Sam Dale as Mr. Blore, Joanna Monro

Joanna Monro

Joanna Monro is a British actress and former TV presenter who, in the 1980s, appeared on the BBC show That's Life! with Esther Rantzen....

as Emily Brent and Harry Child as Cyril/the Narrator. In this production, which is extremely faithful to the novel, the rhyme is "Ten Little Soldier Boys".

Other media

In 2005, The Adventure Company

The Adventure Company

The Adventure Company, is a publishing label of Nordic Games. It is formally a division of DreamCatcher Interactive but was sold to Nordic Games in 2011 following DreamCatcher's parent JoWooD Entertainment being sold after entering administration.-History:...

released the video game Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, the first in a series of PC games based on Christie novels

Agatha Christie (video game series)

The Agatha Christie series is a series of adventure games developed by AWE Games and published by The Adventure Company, based on the works of the English mystery writer Agatha Christie.-Profile:...

. In February 2008 it was ported to the Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

console.

And Then There Were None was released by HarperCollins

HarperCollins

HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...

as a graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

adaptation on 30 April 2009, adapted by François Rivière and illustrated by Frank Leclercq.

In the 2006 video game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, there is a quest done for an assassin's guild based on "And Then There Where None". The quest's objective is to eliminate the house guests one by one at an old mansion without the other guests realizing the player as the culprit. The player can choose to kill all the other house guests senselessly or can choose to talk with the other guests and find out about what they think of other house guests and even take advantage of relationships to have the other guests kill each other off.

Related works

The K.B.S. Productions Inc.

Sono Art-World Wide Pictures

Sono Art-World Wide Pictures was an American film distribution and production company that existed from 1927 to 1933. Among their feature films was The Great Gabbo starring Erich von Stroheim and directed by James Cruze for James Cruze Productions, Inc...

film, A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet (1933 film)

A Study in Scarlet is a drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes and Anna May Wong as Mrs. Pyke. The title comes from Arthur Conan Doyle's novel of the same name, the first in the Holmes series, but the screenplay by Robert Florey was original.Despite her...

(1933), predates the publication of Ten Little Indians and follows a strikingly similar plot. Though it is a Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

movie, the movie bears no resemblance to Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...

's original story of the same name

A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new character of Sherlock Holmes, who later became one of the most famous literary detective characters. He wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year...

. In this case, the rhyme refers to "Ten Little Fat Boys". The author of the movie's screenplay, Robert Florey

Robert Florey

Robert Florey was a French screenwriter, director of short films, and actor who moved to Hollywood in 1921. In 1950, Florey was made a knight in the French Légion d'honneur....

, "doubted that [Christie] had seen A Study in Scarlet but he regarded it as a compliment if it had helped inspire her".

Gumnaam

Gumnaam

Gumnaam is a 1965 Indian horror thriller film directed by Raja Nawathe, starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran, Helen and Mehmood. The film became a box office hit...

is a 1965 uncredited Indian film adaptation set in a remote Indian location by the sea. Many elements, including musical dance numbers and a comic relief butler, were added to Christie's story in a film directed by Raja Nawathe from a screenplay by Dhruva Chatterjee.

The 1985 film Clue

Clue (film)

Clue is a 1985 comedy mystery film based on the board game of the same name . The film is a murder mystery set in a Gothic Revival mansion, and is styled after Murder by Death and other various murder/dinner parties of mystery...

, based on the famous board game, bears many similarities with And Then There Were None, as does the 1986 film April Fool's Day.

Several parodies have been made. One, the 1976 Broadway musical Something's Afoot

Something's Afoot

Something's Afoot is a murder mystery musical that spoofs detective stories, mainly the works of Agatha Christie, and especially her detective novel And Then There Were None . The book, music, and lyrics were written by James McDonald, David Vos, and Robert Gerlach, with additional music by Ed...

, stars Tessie O'Shea

Tessie O'Shea

Teresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea was a Welsh entertainer and actress.Born in Cardiff to Nellie Theresa and James Peter O'Shea, a soldier who was the son of Irish emigrants, Tessie was reared in the British music hall tradition, appearing on stage as "The Wonder of Wales" as early as the age of six...

as a female sleuth resembling Christie's fictional Miss Marple. Something's Afoot takes place in a remote English estate, where six guests have been invited for the weekend. The guests, as well as three servants and a young man who claims to have wandered innocently onto the estate, are then murdered one by one, several in full view of the audience, with the murderer's surprise identity revealed at the end. For an encore, the murdered cast members perform a song, "I Owe It All to Agatha Christie".

On TV, the story was spoofed in the 1966 Get Smart

Get Smart

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

episode "Hoo Done It", which featured guest star Joey Forman

Joey Forman

Joey Forman was an American comedian and comic actor. He first attracted attention in Las Vegas as the opening act for Mickey Rooney...

as detective Harry Hoo, a parody of Charlie Chan

Charlie Chan

Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...

. An episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends is an animated series produced by Marvel Productions starring established Marvel Comics characters Spider-Man and Iceman and an original character, Firestar...

titled "7 Little Superheroes" is, being a children's show, a murder-free adaptation of the story. The Family Guy

Family Guy

episode "And Then There Were Fewer

And Then There Were Fewer

", the Remington Steele

Remington Steele

Remington Steele is an American television series, co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from 1982 to 1987. The series blended the genres of romantic...

episode ""Steele Trap" and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., often referred to as just Brisco or Brisco County,The series is referred to as just Brisco or by Brisco County by the creator and executive producer Carlton Cuse, actors involved with the show, and by many critics. Some examples include:* Cuse, Carlton, DVD extra...

episode "Bounty Hunters Convention" were among the other television episodes inspired by the story.

International titles

Catalan: Deu negrets (Ten Little Niggers)
Czech: Deset malých černoušků (Ten Little Niggers)
Danish: En af os er morderen (One of Us is the Killer)
Dutch: En niemand woonde (And Then There Were None)
Finnish: Eikä yksikään pelastunut (And None of Them Survived)
French: Dix Petits Nègres (Ten Little Niggers)
German: Und dann gabs keines mehr (And Then There Were None)
Hungarian: Tíz kicsi néger (Ten Little Niggers)
Indonesian: Sepuluh Anak Negro (Ten Little Niggers)
Italian: Dieci piccoli indiani (Ten Little Indians)
Japanese: そして誰もいなくなった (And Then There Were None)
Korean: 그리고 아무도 없었다 (And Then There Were None)
Romanian: Zece negri mititei (Ten Little Niggers)
Polish: Dziesięciu Murzynków (Ten Little Niggers)
Portuguese (European): As Dez Figuras Negras (Ten Black Figures)
Portuguese (Brazilian): O Caso dos Dez Negrinhos (The Case of the Ten Little Niggers )
Spanish: Diez Negritos (Ten Little Niggers)

External links

And Then There Were None at the official Agatha Christie website
Spark Notes for novel

And Then There Were None

Plot summary

Epilogue

Postscript

Characters

Publication history

Literary significance and reception

Adaptations

Stage

Film

Television

Radio

Other media

Related works

International titles

See also

External links