Questions About And Then There Were None

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Answered Questions (83)

Did anyone else not really like this book? I felt like there were too many plot twists and red herrings.

Rich Uncle Pennybags I can't really see why you'd pick up a Golden Age detective novel if you don't want plot twists and red herrings. That's the whole point of the genre.…moreI can't really see why you'd pick up a Golden Age detective novel if you don't want plot twists and red herrings. That's the whole point of the genre.(less)

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Does anyone have a copy of this book under the title Ten Little Indians? My mother said that when she read it in school that was the title it was printed under. Anyone know why they changed it?

Azur The original title was actually "Ten little niggers". There is (was?) a small island named Nigger Island that inspired Christie for the setting. Since…moreThe original title was actually "Ten little niggers". There is (was?) a small island named Nigger Island that inspired Christie for the setting. Since this is pretty offensive it was changed to "Ten little Indians". The children's rhyme was originally about Indians/Native Americans. This was deemed offensive too, so today they use the last line of the children's rhyme as title and the little figures were changed to soldiers.
Information from my copy of the book.

I have two versions of this book. One is the English version with the little soldiers. The other one is a German translation of the original version with the N word (and a ton of apologies in the preface) but also with the last line as title. (less)

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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)

abigael

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[1. I don't think Wargrave knew exactly who would kill who. However, at this point of the story (where there's only two persons left to face each other)... if you put into account all what we've seen/known about Vera & Lombard — their behaviour, their mental state — you'd see that it's more likely that Vera would end up killing Lombard, and not the other way around.

Remember that Lombard had been in tight places before. This is a person who knows how to remain calm and reasonable, no matter how tight the situation is. Another thing (although this is solely based on what I've seen of his character) is that Lombard seems to have a good amount of respect for Vera, as a woman. I might be wrong though, and it may only be a facade that he's been showing her. But if the revolver was still in his pocket, he probably wouldn't even use it against Vera — he'll try to be logical & work his way around without having to physically harm her, unless worse comes to worst & defending himself is the only option left.

Vera, on the other hand, is Lombard's opposite. Hence why Wargrave, on the manuscript document, had commented on how he had always thought that V & L were a good match for each other. Unlike Lombard, Vera's mental state had already gone haywire — anxiety and fear (of being killed) + guilt (over Cyril's death) — and so her intuition tells her that Lombard is the murderer and that she must kill him, if she wants to stay alive.

2. And so she kills him. But that's not where it ends, because the trauma of having just murdered another human being is now setting in, and her mind is now in the worst state possible. Wargrave can see this very clearly, and he knew that Vera definitely isn't mentally stable to do anything even remotely logical (e.g. staying out of the house/heliographing/calling for help — anything to get herself out of that terrifying place).

And so he sets up the stage, hanging a noose on the ceiling of Vera's bedroom & placing a chair below it. It was a psychological experiment, as he had said. Wargrave knew that Vera would hang herself because: 1. he knew that, of the 9 guests, Vera is the one with the heaviest guilt, and 2. he knew that the mental burden she's been carrying is already too much to handle, and that it would eventually lead her to take her own life.

If it doesn't turn out successfully, Wargrave will probably have to forcibly murder her (by strangling her, perhaps? — he'll definitely find a way), then hang her body on the noose to make it appear like she had committed suicide. . . you know, as long as he stays true to that nursery rhyme. (hide spoiler)]

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Don´t you think some of them were a little bit stupid? I mean, they had the rhyme telling them how the next one was going to get killed and yet they did the activity. An example: six little soldiers swimming in the sea, one drowned and then there were five. And one of them goes swimming even though they have read the rhyme.