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Title details for And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - Wait list

And Then There Were None

by Agatha Christie
ebook
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Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is probably the signature novel of one of the best-selling authors of all time, a masterpiece of mystery and suspense that has been a fixture in popular literature since it was published in England in 1939. American readers might know the novel better as Ten Little Indians, the original title under which it was published in the U.S. in 1940. A simple sketch of the plot will remind readers of this enduring tale without robbing the mystery of its delectable, impeccably wrought suspense. Ten varied people, none of whom knows the other, are invited to a private island off the coast of Devon, to be the weekend guests of a mysterious host whom none of them knows. When the guests arrive on Indian Island, their host seems to have vanished, leaving his home to them. These ten people would seem to have nothing in common, except that they all harbor dark secrets they will try to conceal -- even as, it emerges, those secrets threaten their lives. Death shadows the house party, taking them one by one, leaving the living fugitive, to wonder who among them is the killer ... until there are none left. The plot of And Then There Were None is crafted with consummate skill, and the story told in a lean, vital style that drives the reader forward. Christie herself said she wrote the novel because she was intrigued by the task of killing off the ten central characters in a plausible way that still allowed for compelling suspense. "I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning," the author later wrote, "and I was pleased with what I had made of it." The critics agreed, both in England in 1939 and in America after the book's publication a year later. The popularity of And Then There Were None was enhanced greatly by Christie's own theatrical adaptation, which first appeared on London's West End in 1943 and on Broadway a few months later. It brought Christie her first success as a playwright, which would become another arena in which she triumphed. Between them, the novel and the play have inspired no less than three film adaptations. A note about the title -- Christie originally called the novel Ten Little Niggers, a reference to an old nursery rhyme that she places, framed, in the guest rooms of the ten characters in the story. Each dies in the manner described in a verse of the sing-song rhyme -- e.g., "Ten little nigger boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there nine." The rhyme ends with the words, "... and then there were none." The offensive word, which carries an extra dimension of ugliness in American culture, was replaced with "Indians" for American publication. Ironically, "Indian" is now also a politically incorrect term, so the novel has officially been retitled And Then There None. As Charles Osborne points out in his delightful and indispensable study The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, the shift in the old American title creates a bit of confusion. For Americans think it refers to another nursery rhyme that begins, "One little, two little, three little Indians ..." The nature of the original title reflects the time in which the novel it was written and the world in which Christie became an adult and a writer, one shaped largely by the British Empire and the racist thinking of the past. The cosmetic change of title to And Then There Were None is merely that, however. It erases a troubling shadow from an extraordinary, hugely entertaining achievement.
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Publisher: RosettaBooks Edition: ebook

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 0795308922
  • Release date: January 29, 2002

PDF ebook

  • ISBN: 0795308922
  • File size: 722 KB
  • Release date: January 29, 2002

Formats

OverDrive Read
PDF ebook

subjects

Classic Literature Fiction Mystery Thriller

Languages

English

Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is probably the signature novel of one of the best-selling authors of all time, a masterpiece of mystery and suspense that has been a fixture in popular literature since it was published in England in 1939. American readers might know the novel better as Ten Little Indians, the original title under which it was published in the U.S. in 1940. A simple sketch of the plot will remind readers of this enduring tale without robbing the mystery of its delectable, impeccably wrought suspense. Ten varied people, none of whom knows the other, are invited to a private island off the coast of Devon, to be the weekend guests of a mysterious host whom none of them knows. When the guests arrive on Indian Island, their host seems to have vanished, leaving his home to them. These ten people would seem to have nothing in common, except that they all harbor dark secrets they will try to conceal -- even as, it emerges, those secrets threaten their lives. Death shadows the house party, taking them one by one, leaving the living fugitive, to wonder who among them is the killer ... until there are none left. The plot of And Then There Were None is crafted with consummate skill, and the story told in a lean, vital style that drives the reader forward. Christie herself said she wrote the novel because she was intrigued by the task of killing off the ten central characters in a plausible way that still allowed for compelling suspense. "I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning," the author later wrote, "and I was pleased with what I had made of it." The critics agreed, both in England in 1939 and in America after the book's publication a year later. The popularity of And Then There Were None was enhanced greatly by Christie's own theatrical adaptation, which first appeared on London's West End in 1943 and on Broadway a few months later. It brought Christie her first success as a playwright, which would become another arena in which she triumphed. Between them, the novel and the play have inspired no less than three film adaptations. A note about the title -- Christie originally called the novel Ten Little Niggers, a reference to an old nursery rhyme that she places, framed, in the guest rooms of the ten characters in the story. Each dies in the manner described in a verse of the sing-song rhyme -- e.g., "Ten little nigger boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there nine." The rhyme ends with the words, "... and then there were none." The offensive word, which carries an extra dimension of ugliness in American culture, was replaced with "Indians" for American publication. Ironically, "Indian" is now also a politically incorrect term, so the novel has officially been retitled And Then There None. As Charles Osborne points out in his delightful and indispensable study The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, the shift in the old American title creates a bit of confusion. For Americans think it refers to another nursery rhyme that begins, "One little, two little, three little Indians ..." The nature of the original title reflects the time in which the novel it was written and the world in which Christie became an adult and a writer, one shaped largely by the British Empire and the racist thinking of the past. The cosmetic change of title to And Then There Were None is merely that, however. It erases a troubling shadow from an extraordinary, hugely entertaining achievement.
Expand title description text
Classic Literature Fiction Mystery Thriller
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