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Source: Wikipedia, Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None
Plot summary
Justice Wargrave, Vera Claythorne, Philip Lombard, General Macarthur, Emily Brent,
Anthony Marston, Doctor Armstrong and William Blore have been invited to a mansion
on the fictional Soldier Island ("Nigger Island" in the original 1939 UK publication,
"Indian Island" in the 1964 US publication), which is based upon Burgh Island off the
coast of Devon.[6] Upon arriving, they are told 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 and a framed copy of the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Soldiers" ("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;
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 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.[7]
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 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, 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 Anthony Marston, whose drink is poisoned with cyanide ("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 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 bearshaped 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 ("sitting in the sun")
and returns to the house. Dazed and disoriented with relief and drowsiness, Vera
Claythorne is unsurprised to find a noose prepared in her room. In a trance of exhaustion,
guilt, and relief, she hangs herself, fulfilling the final verse of the rhyme.[8]
[edit] 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. 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?
[edit] Postscript
A fishing trawler finds a letter in a bottle just off the 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: 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, he sought killers who had committed murder but
escaped justice. He lured them to the island. As he killed them one by one, he reveled in
the mounting terror of those who remained, their reactions to the murders confirming
their guilt. He also murdered the guests by order of their level of guilt, first killing those
whose crimes were caused by carelessness, or who felt some level of remorse, so that
"...they not suffer the prolonged mental strain and fear that the more cold-blooded
offenders were to suffer", and saving the most cold-blooded killers for last. (He seems to
have been mistaken where Vera is concerned, however, since Vera feels the most guilt
throughout the novel, though she does not show it to Wargrave)
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 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:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. The red mark on Wargrave's forehead that Armstrong confirmed as a bullet
wound is similar to the one God bestowed upon Cain as punishment for killing his
brother Abel.
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.
[edit] 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.
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Anthony James Marston, a rich, spoiled, good-looking man with a wellproportioned 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,
poisoned by potassium cyanide slipped into his drink while gathered in the drawing
room with the others.
Mrs. Ethel Rogers, the cook and Mr. Rogers's wife. She is described as a palefaced, 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, which she did not
self-administer.
General John Gordon Macarthur, a retired World War I hero, who sent his
wife's lover (a younger officer named Arthur Richmond) to his death by assigning
him to a suicide mission. 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. However, 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. 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.
Dr. Edward George Armstrong, a Harley Street surgeon, blamed for the death
of his patient, Louisa Clees, while operating under the influence of alcohol.
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-although he later privately admits the truth to Lombard. Blore became
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Owen's perceived eighth victim, having his skull crushed by a bear-shaped clock,
dropped from a window above outside the house.
Philip Lombard, a soldier of fortune. Literally down to his last square meal, he
comes to the island with a loaded revolver. 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.
Unlike the other characters, he admits 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, 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 noose,
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" for liberally awarding the death penalty in murder 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.
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 guineas (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.
[edit] Publication history
Cover of first US 1940 edition with the title currently used in all English-language
versions
The novel was originally published in Britain under the title Ten Little Niggers in
1939.[2][3] All references to "Indian" in the US version of the story were originally
"Nigger": thus the island was called "Nigger Island" [3] rather than "Indian Island" and the
rhyme found by each murder victim was also called Ten Little Niggers [3] 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 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 in Devon which inspired the
setting of the story. This version did not contain any chapter divisions.[9]
For the United States 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), 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.[10] Today And Then There Were None is
the title most commonly used.[citation needed] However, 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 title is Zece negri mititei,[11] the French title is Dix petits nègres[12] and the
Hungarian title is Tíz kicsi néger, while the Italian title, Dieci piccoli indiani, mirrors the
"Indians" title. The Dutch 18th edition of 1994 still used the work's original English title
Ten Little Niggers. The 1987 Russian film adaptation has the title Десять негритят
(Desyat Negrityat). The computer adventure game based on the novel uses "Ten Little
Sailor Boys".
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Christie, Agatha (November 1939). Ten Little Niggers. London: Collins Crime
Club. OCLC 152375426. Hardback, 256 pp. (First edition)
Christie, Agatha (January 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 (Pocket number 261)
1947, Pan Books, 1947, Paperback, 190 pp (Pan number 4)
1958, Penguin Books, 1958, Paperback, 201 pp (Penguin number 1256)
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).[13]
Christie, Agatha (1964). Ten Little Indians. New York: Pocket Books.
OCLC 29462459. (first publication of novel as Ten Little Indians)
1964, Washington Square Press (paperback – teacher's edition)
Christie, Agatha (1977). Ten Little Niggers (Greenway edition ed.). London:
Collins Crime Club. ISBN 0-00-231835-0. Collected works, Hardback, 252 pp
(Except for reprints of the 1963 Fontana paperback, this was one of the last Englishlanguage publications of novel under the title "Ten Little Niggers"[14]
Christie, Agatha (1980). The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Ten Little Niggers;
Dumb Witness. Sydney: Lansdowne Press. ISBN 0-7018-1453-5. Late use of the
original title in an Australian edition.
Christie, Agatha; N J Robat (trans.) (1981) (in Dutch). Ten Little Niggers (Third
edition ed.). Culemborg: Educaboek. ISBN 90-11-85153-6. (Late printing of Dutch
translation preserving original English title)
Christie, Agatha (1986). Ten Little Indians. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0671-55222-8. (Last publication of novel under the title "Ten Little Indians")
[edit] Literary significance and reception
And Then There Were None is one of Agatha Christie's best-known mysteries. Writing
for The Times Literary Supplement 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."[15] Many other reviews were complimentary; in The
New York Times Book Review 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."[16]
Such was the quality of Christie's work on this book that many compared it to her 1926
novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. For instance, an unnamed reviewer in the Toronto
Daily Star 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."[17]
Other critics laud the use of twists, turns, and surprise endings. Maurice Richardson
wrote a rhapsodic review in The Observer'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."[1]
Robert Barnard, 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."[18]
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."[19] Unlike novels such as Heart of Darkness, however, "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."[19]
[edit] Film, TV, Radio and theatrical adaptations
And Then There Were None has had more adaptations than any other single work of
Agatha Christie. However, they often used Christie's alternative ending from her 1943
stage play, with the setting often being changed to locations other than an island.
[edit] Stage
In 1943, Agatha Christie adapted the story 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. On
14 October 2005, a new version of the play, written by Kevin Elyot and directed by
Steven Pimlott opened at the Gielgud Theatre 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.
[edit] Film
There have been several film adaptions of the novel. The first was adapted for the cinema
screen in René Clair's successful 1945 US production. The second cinema adaptation of
the book was directed by George Pollock in 1965; Pollock had previously handled the
four Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford. 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 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 Iranian desert.
A version from the USSR, Desyat' negrityat (Десять негритят "Ten Little Negroes")
(1987) was written and directed by Stanislav Govorukhin and is the only cinema
adaptation to use the novel's original ending. The most recent film, Ten Little Indians,
directed by Alan Birkinshaw, was made in 1989 and is set on safari in the African
savannah.
[edit] 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
adaptation Zehn kleine Negerlein was directed by Hans Quest for ZDF in 1969. A year
later in 1970, Pierre Sabbagh directed Dix petits nègres for the French television
adaption.
In 2010, an episode of Fox's Family Guy episode titled, And Then There Were Fewer was
based on And Then There Were None where most of the people from Quahog are invited
to a dinner that's in all of their honor. Some characters die such as Diane, Murial, Derek,
James Woods, etc.
[edit] Radio
On 13 November 2010 as part of its Saturday Play series, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a
ninety-minute adaptation written by Joy Wilkinson. The production was directed by Mary
Peate and featured Geoffrey Whitehead as Justice Wargrave, Lyndsey Marshal as Vera
Claythorne, Alex Wyndham as Captain Lombard, Sean Baker as Dr. Armstrong, John
Rowe as General Armstrong, Sam Dale as Mr. Blore, Joanna Monro 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".
[edit] Other Media
In 2005, The Adventure Company released the video game Agatha Christie: And Then
There Were None, the first in a series of PC games based on Christie novels. In February
2008 it was ported to the Wii console.
And Then There Were None was released by HarperCollins as a graphic novel adaptation
on 30 April 2009, adapted by François Rivière and illustrated by Frank Leclercq.
[edit] Other Variations
The K.B.S. Productions Inc. film, A Study in Scarlet (1933), predates the publication of
Ten Little Indians and follows a strikingly similar plot.[20] Though it is a Sherlock Holmes
movie, the movie bears no resemblance to Arthur Conan Doyle's original story of the
same name. In this case, the rhyme refers to "Ten Little fat Boys". The author of the
movie's screenplay, Robert Florey, "doubted that [Christie] had seen A Study in Scarlet
but he regarded it as a compliment if it had helped inspire her".[21]
Gumnaam 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 and hit music of the film was done by Shankar-Jaikishan. In addition, 5
Bambole per la Luna D'Agosto (1970) is an uncredited giallo adaptation by Mario Bava.
The 2010 film Devil was described by its story writer, M. Night Shyamalan, as an
"Agatha Christie nod."[22]
Several parodies have been made. One, the 1976 Broadway musical Something's Afoot,
stars Tessie O'Shea 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 episode "Hoo Done It", which
featured guest star Joey Forman as detective Harry Hoo, a parody of Charlie Chan. The
American television miniseries Harper's Island bore a strong resemblance to Christie's
novel. The September 2010 Family Guy episode "And Then There Were Fewer" was
inspired by the story. An Episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends titles "7 Little
Superheroes," is, being a children's show, a murder free adaptation of the story.
The 1985 film Clue, which is based on the famous board game, bears many similarities
with And Then There Were None.
The 1986 film April Fool's Day, is based on the best-selling novel And Then There Were
None.
The Manga series The Kindaichi Case Files once used a similar plot device where small
figurines foreshadowed a character's death. The Japanese multi-media series Umineko no
Naku Koro ni was heavily influenced by the book. Similarities can be seen in such
features as the characters being trapped on an island during a storm as they are murdered
one-by-one in accordance with a riddle, the seeming "unsolvable" nature of the crimes
and the many situations described as "closed room" scenarios, akin to the orchestration
by Wargrave of his own murder as revealed in the book's postscript. The first novel even
ends with a message bottle sent by one of the characters washing ashore and being
discovered by a fisherman several years after the incident.[citation needed]
In a Japanese 2-D shooter game called "Touhou 6: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil" created
by Team Shanghai Alice, a reference to the poem in the novel is used in the Extra Stage
for the name of Flandre Scarlet's theme song, "U.N. Owen was Her?". The novel is also
referenced in Flandre Scarlet's penultimate attack "And Then Will There Be None?". If
the player defeated Flandre as Marisa Kirisame, then the battle will be followed by a
conversation between the two regarding the original lyrics of the rhyme.
[edit] See also
Novels portal

And Then There Were None – 1943 play written by Agatha Christie
Film & television adaptations
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And Then There Were None – 1945 American film produced & directed by René
Clair
Ten Little Niggers – 1949 BBC television production (IMDb)
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Ten Little Niggers – 1959 ITV television production (IMDb)
Ten Little Indians – 1959 NBC television production (IMDb)
Ten Little Indians – 1965 British film produced by Harry Alan Towers
Gumnaam – 1965 Bollywood film
Zehn kleine Negerlein – 1969 West German television production (IMDb)
5 bambole per la luna d'agosto – 1970 Italian film directed by Mario Bava
And Then There Were None – 1974 English language film produced by Harry
Alan Towers
Desyat Negrityat – 1987 Russian film produced & directed by Stanislav
Govorukhin
Ten Little Indians – 1989 British film produced by Harry Alan Towers
And Then There Were None directed by Hubert Wentland
Harper's Island - a 13 episode mini-series with the same premise
Identity - a 2003 horror film inspired by the story
[edit] References
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^ a b "Review of Ten Little Indians". The Observer: pp. 6. 1939-11-05.
^ a b c Peers, C; Spurrier A & Sturgeon J (1999). Collins Crime Club – A checklist
of First Editions (2nd ed.). Dragonby Press. pp. 15. ISBN 1-871122-13-9.
^ a b c d Pendergast, Bruce (2004). Everyman's Guide To The Mysteries Of Agatha
Christie. Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing. pp. 393. ISBN 1-4120-2304-1.
http://books.google.com/books?id=nMS6y9YsqXkC&pg=RA3PA393&ots=Ya0sD7j9g0&dq=%22ten+little+people%22+christie+%22and+then+there+
were+none%22+%22ten+little+indians%22&as_brr=3&sig=PRCJUhB5jOlcQpz7QVTjs
TzmIpg.
^ a b "American Tribute to Agatha Christie – The Classic Years: 1940–1944".
http://home.insightbb.com/~jsmarcum/agatha40.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
^ Davies, Helen; Marjorie Dorfman, Mary Fons, Deborah Hawkins, Martin
Hintz, Linnea Lundgren, David Priess, Julia Clark Robinson, Paul Seaburn, Heidi
Stevens, and Steve Theunissen (14 September 2007). "21 Best-Selling Books of All
Time". Editors of Publications International, Ltd..
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/21-best-selling-books-of-all-time.htm. Retrieved
2009-03-25.
^ Poole S & Wagstaff V (2004). Agatha Christie: A Reader's Companion.
London: Aurum Press. pp. 160–167. ISBN 1-84513-015-4.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1845132033. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
^ Note: In some versions the seventeenth and eighteenth lines read Two little
Soldier boys playing with a gun / One shot the other and then there was One. Also the
One said he'd stay there... line is sometimes replaced by One got left behind....
^ "Ten Little Indians Study Guide". pp. 1–38.
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-tenlittleindians/sum.html. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
^ Holdings at the British Library (Newspapers – Colindale). Shelfmark: NPL
LON LD3 and NPL LON MLD3.
^ British National Bibliography for 1985. British Library. 1986. ISBN 0-71231035-5
^ "Zece negri mititei" si "Crima din Orient Express", azi cu "Adevarul"
^ Amazon.fr : Dix petits nègres, nouvelle édition: Livres: Agatha Christie
^ British National Bibliography British Library. 1986. ISBN 0-7123-1035-5
14.
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17.
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19.
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22.
^ Whitaker's Cumulative Book List for 1977. J. Whitaker and Sons Ltd. 1978.
ISBN 0-85021-105-0
^ The Times Literary Supplement 11 November 1939 (p. 658)
^ The New York Times Book Review 25 February 1940 (p. 15)
^ Toronto Daily Star 16 March 1940 (p. 28)
^ Barnard, Robert. A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation of Agatha Christie –
Revised edition (p. 206). Fontana Books, 1990. ISBN 0-00-637474-3
^ a b Light, Alison. Forever England: Femininity, Literature, and Conservatism
Between the Wars. Routledge, 1991. (p. 99). ISBN 0-415-01661-4
^ Taves, Brian. Robert Florey, the French Expressionist. New Jersey: Scarecrow
Press, 1987, p. 152; ISBN 0-8108-1929-5
^ Taves (1987), p. 153
^ M. Night Shyamalan Explains Origins Of 'Devil', MTV.com
[edit] External links
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And Then There Were None at the official Agatha Christie website
Spark Notes for novel
[hide]v · d · eWorks by Agatha Christie
Detectives
Novels
Hercule Poirot · Miss Marple · Colonel Race · Tommy and
Tuppence · Ariadne Oliver · Arthur Hastings · Superintendent
Battle · Chief Inspector Japp · Parker Pyne · Mr. Harley Quin
The Mysterious Affair at Styles · The Secret Adversary · The Murder
on the Links · The Man in the Brown Suit · The Secret of Chimneys ·
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd · The Big Four · The Mystery of the
Blue Train · The Seven Dials Mystery · The Murder at the
Vicarage · The Sittaford Mystery · Peril at End House · Lord
Edgware Dies · Murder on the Orient Express · Why Didn't They
Ask Evans? · Three Act Tragedy · Death in the Clouds · The A.B.C.
Murders · Murder in Mesopotamia · Cards on the Table · Dumb
Witness · Death on the Nile · Appointment with Death · Hercule
Poirot's Christmas · Murder Is Easy · And Then There Were
None · Sad Cypress · One, Two, Buckle My Shoe · Evil Under the
Sun · N or M? · The Body in the Library · Five Little Pigs · The
Moving Finger · Towards Zero · Death Comes as the End ·
Sparkling Cyanide · The Hollow · Taken at the Flood · Crooked
House · A Murder is Announced · They Came to Baghdad · Mrs
McGinty's Dead · They Do It with Mirrors · After the Funeral · A
Pocket Full of Rye · Destination Unknown · Hickory Dickory Dock ·
Dead Man's Folly · 4.50 from Paddington · Ordeal by Innocence ·
Cat Among the Pigeons · The Pale Horse · The Mirror Crack'd from
Side to Side · The Clocks · A Caribbean Mystery · At Bertram's
Hotel · Third Girl · Endless Night · By the Pricking of My Thumbs ·
Hallowe'en Party · Passenger to Frankfurt · Nemesis · Elephants
Can Remember · Postern of Fate · Curtain · Sleeping Murder
As Mary
Westmacott
Giant's Bread · Unfinished Portrait · Absent in the Spring · The
Rose and the Yew Tree · A Daughter's a Daughter · The Burden
Short story
collections
Poirot Investigates · Partners in Crime · The Mysterious Mr. Quin ·
The Thirteen Problems · The Hound of Death · The Listerdale
Mystery · Parker Pyne Investigates · Murder in the Mews · The
Regatta Mystery · The Labours of Hercules · The Witness for the
Prosecution and Other Stories · Three Blind Mice and Other
Stories · The Under Dog and Other Stories · The Adventure of the
Christmas Pudding · Double Sin and Other Stories · The Golden
Ball and Other Stories · Poirot's Early Cases · Miss Marple's Final
Cases and Two Other Stories · Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other
Stories · The Harlequin Tea Set · While the Light Lasts and Other
Stories
Plays
Radio and
television plays
Other books
Black Coffee · And Then There Were None · Appointment with
Death · Murder on the Nile/Hidden Horizon · The Hollow · The
Mousetrap · Witness for the Prosecution · Spider's Web · A
Daughter's a Daughter · Towards Zero · Verdict · The Unexpected
Guest · Go Back for Murder · Rule of Three · Fiddlers Three ·
Akhnaton · Chimneys
Wasp's Nest · The Yellow Iris · Three Blind Mice · Butter In a
Lordly Dish · Personal Call
The Road of Dreams · Come, Tell Me How You Live · Star Over
Bethlehem and other stories · Poems · An Autobiography