And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None is one of the classics. A mystery novel written by the English writer Agatha Christie. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after the children's Ten Little Indians and minstrel song, which serves as a major element of the plot.[1]
The book is the world's best-selling mystery, and with over 100 million copies sold is one of the best-selling books of all time. Publications International lists the novel as the sixth best-selling title.[2]
Plot
The novel is centered around a large murder mystery based on an infamous blackface minstrel song that describes a group of people who die under strange circumstances one by one. Due to the racist original title (1939), the book was re-titled And Then There Were None in 1940, and it was also published as (also overtly racist) Ten Little Indians in 1964.[3] Each of the ten victims – eight guests plus the island's two caretakers – is killed in a manner that reflects one of the lines of the rhyme.
References
- ↑ Peers, Chris; Spurrier, Ralph; Sturgeon, Jamie (1999). Collins Crime Club: a checklist of the first editions (2nd ed.). London, UK: Dragonby Press. p. 15. ISBN 1-871122-13-9.
- ↑ Davies, Helen; Dorfman, Marjorie; Fons, Mary; Hawkins, Deborah; Hintz, Martin; Lundgren, Linnea; Priess, David; Clark Robinson, Julia; Seaburn, Paul; Stevens, Heidi; Theunissen, Steve (14 September 2007). "21 Best-Selling Books of All Time". Editors of Publications International, Ltd. Archived from the original on 7 April 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2009.
- ↑ Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie. biblio.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2021