Ready Reference Treatise: And Then There Were None

By Raja Sharma

“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie was first published on 6th of November 1939. It is considered the author’s masterpiece.

According the author, “And Then There Were None” was the most difficult book for her to write.
When the book was first published in Britain, it was titled “Ten Little Niggers.” The title was after the British blackface song and it serves as a major plot point.

Ready Reference Treatise: And Then There Were None
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Feb 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311770202

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: And Then There Were None

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: And Then There Were None

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2016 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie was first published on 6th of November 1939. It is considered the author’s masterpiece. According the author, And Then There Were None was the most difficult book for her to write.

When the book was first published in Britain, it was titled Ten Little Niggers. The title was after the British blackface song and it serves as a major plot point.

When the book was published in the United States in December 1939, its title was changed and it became And Then There Were None.

The story of the novel revolves around a group of people who are lured into coming up to an island under different pretexts. They are strangers to one another. They are called to the island either to get employed, or to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet old friends. All these people are involved in murders but they have either escaped the law or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction.

More than one hundred million copies of the book have been sold around the world and it is undoubtedly one of the world’s best-selling mystery novels. The popularity of the book has never gone down since its first publication.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

The novel opens with the arrival of ten people on Soldier Island. It is an Indian Island in some other versions of the book. In the original version of the book that was published in 1939, it is Nigger Island.

The ten people are strangers to each other. The island where they have reached is a small isolated island off the Devon coast of England.

It transpires that each of the guests happens to have received an invitation tailored to his or her personal circumstances. The pretexts given in the invitations include an offer of employment or a late summer holiday there.

Thomas, the butler, and Ethel Rogers, the cook and housekeeper, receive the guests. Thomas and Rogers inform the visitors that Mr. and Mrs. Owen, their hosts, have not yet arrived.

In each room, where the guests are going to stay, there is a framed copy of a nursery rhyme, Ten Little Niggers, hanging on the wall. There are ten figurines on the dining room table.

The guests have their supper. When their supper is finished, a phonograph record is played. The record has a recording that describes each of the guests in turns.

The recorded voice accuses each of the visitors of having committed murder but escaping justice. The voice on the record eventually asks them whether any of the accused wishes to present a defence.

Only Anthony Marston and Philip Lombard deny the charges. Miss Brent does not want to speak in front of the men present there. The following day, she relates her account to Vera Claythorne.

The guests find out that none of them actually knows Mr. and Mrs. Owens. They finally conclude that the name ‘U. N.’ is the short form of ‘Unknown.’

When the recording is finished, Marston finishes his drink and immediately dies from cyanide poisoning. Now the