Description

This article is about the book. For otheruses,see And Then There Were None (disambiguation).
And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None First Edition Cover 1939.jpg
Cover of first UK 1939 edition by Stephen Bellman withoriginaltitle
Author Agatha Christie
Original title Ten Little Niggers
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre mystery, crime, psychological thriller
Publisher Collins Crime Club
Publication date
6 November 1939
Pages 272[1]
Preceded by Murder is Easy
Followed by Sad Cypress
Website And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by English writerAgathaChristie, widely considered her masterpiece and described byher asthe most difficult of her books to write.[2] It was firstpublishedin the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6November 1939,as Ten Little Niggers,[3] after the Britishblackface song, whichserves as a major plot point.[4][5] The USedition was not releaseduntil December 1939; its American reprintsand adaptations were allretitled And Then There Were None, thelast five words in thenursery rhyme ("Ten Little Indians").[6]

In the novel, a group of people are lured into coming toanisland under different pretexts, e.g., offers of employment,toenjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet old friends. All havebeencomplicit in the deaths of other human beings, but eitherescapedjustice or committed an act that was not subject to legalsanction.The guests and two servants who are present are "charged"withtheir respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording afterdinnerthe first night, and informed that they have been brought totheisland to pay for their actions. They are the only people ontheisland, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainlandandthe inclement weather, and gradually all ten are killed inturn,each in a manner that seems to parallel the deaths in thenurseryrhyme. Nobody else seems to be left alive on the island bythe timeof the apparent last death. A confession, in the form ofapostscript to the novel, unveils how the killings took placeandwho was responsible.