Each guest acknowledges awareness of (and, in some cases, involvement with) the deaths of the persons mentioned, but denies either malice and/or legal culpability. During the meal, a gramophone record plays, informing the ten that each is guilty of murder. He went and hanged himself and then there were none.īefore dinner that evening, the guests notice ten soldier (etc.) figurines on the dining room table. One got frizzled up and then there was one. Two Little Soldier boys sitting in the sun Three little Soldier boys walking in the zoo Ī big bear hugged one and then there were two.

One got in Chancery and then there were four.įour little Soldier boys going out to sea Ī red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Six little Soldier boys playing with a hive Ī bumble bee stung one and then there were five.įive little Soldier boys going in for law One chopped himself in halves and then there were six. Seven little Soldier boys chopping up sticks One said he'd stay there and then there were seven. One overslept himself and then there were eight.Įight little Soldier boys traveling in Devon Nine little Soldier boys sat up very late One choked his little self and then there were nine. Ten little Soldier boys went out to dine 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' ('Ni**ers' or 'Indians' in respective earlier editions) hanging on the wall. U.N.Owen (Ulick Norman Owen and Una Nancy Owen), are currently away, but that the guests will be attended to by Thomas and Ethel Rogers.

Upon arriving, they are told that their hosts, a Mr. Lombard and Miss Vera Claythorne have been invited to a mansion on the fictional Soldier Island ('Ni**er Island' in the original 1939 UK publication, 'Indian Island' in the 1940 US publication), which is based upon Burgh Island off the coast of Devon. Marston, General MacArthur, Miss Emily Brent, Justice Wargrave, Dr.

It is Christie's best-selling novel with 100 million sales to date, making it the world's best-selling mystery and the seventh most popular book of all time. It has been adapted into several plays, films, and a video game.Įight people of different social classes: Mr. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00. The novel has also been published and filmed under the title Ten Little Indians. Even though the guests are the only people on the island, they are all mysteriously murdered one by one, in a manner paralleling, inexorably and sometimes grotesquely, the old nursery rhyme, ' Ten Little Indians'. Sad Cypress And Then There Were None is a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 under the title Ten Little Ni**ers, later edited to Ten Little Indians, and in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in January 1940 under the title And Then There Were None. In the novel, ten people, who have previously been complicit in the deaths of others but have escaped notice and/or punishment, are tricked into coming onto an island.

And then there were none movie 2017