Biography : Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigative work of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap.[1] In 1971, she was made a Dame by Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for her contribution to literature.[2] Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. She served in a hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London. She was initially unsuccessful at getting her work published, but in 1920 The Bodley Head press published her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Hercule Poirot. This launched her literary career. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all Characters : And Then There Were None, a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, widely considered her masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 as Ten Little Niggers, after the British blackface song which serves as a major plot point. For the first American edition, the title was changed to the last five words in the original American version of the song: And then there were none. In the novel, ten people are enticed into coming to an island under different pretexts, e.g. offers of employment or to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet with old friends. All have been complicit in the death(s) of other human beings but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests are charged with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn, in a manner that seems to parallel the ten deaths in the nursery rhyme. Nobody else seems to be left alive on the island by the apparently last death. A confession, in the form of a postscript to the novel, unveils how the killings took place and who was responsible. Summary : Eight people arrive on an isolated island off the Devon coast of England. Each appears to have an invitation tailored to his or her personal circumstances, such as an offer of employment or an unexpected late summer holiday. They are met by the butler and cook (who have never met their employer), making a total of ten people known to be on the island. While awaiting their hosts, they find a framed copy of the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Soldiers" ("Niggers" or "Indians" in respective earlier editions) hanging on the wall, and notice ten figurines on the dining room table, as well as discussing other oddities about the house and their visit. The butler plays a gramophone (or "phonograph") record while they are talking, as he had been instructed to do; unexpectedly the recording contains a voice that describes each visitor in turn and accuses each of having committed murder but evading justice, and asks if any of "the accused" wishes to give a defense. All are shocked and in the aftermath one of the guests (Anthony Marston) has a drink to help with the shock; however, his drink was poisoned with potassium cyanide and he chokes and dies.
Description:
Biography : Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections that she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigative work of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap.[1] In 1971, she was made a Dame by Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for her contribution to literature.[2] Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon. She served in a hospital during the First World War before marrying and starting a family in London. She was initially unsuccessful at getting her work published, but in 1920 The Bodley Head press published her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Hercule Poirot. This launched her literary career. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all Characters : And Then There Were None, a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, widely considered her masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939 as Ten Little Niggers, after the British blackface song which serves as a major plot point. For the first American edition, the title was changed to the last five words in the original American version of the song: And then there were none. In the novel, ten people are enticed into coming to an island under different pretexts, e.g. offers of employment or to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet with old friends. All have been complicit in the death(s) of other human beings but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests are charged with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn, in a manner that seems to parallel the ten deaths in the nursery rhyme. Nobody else seems to be left alive on the island by the apparently last death. A confession, in the form of a postscript to the novel, unveils how the killings took place and who was responsible. Summary : Eight people arrive on an isolated island off the Devon coast of England. Each appears to have an invitation tailored to his or her personal circumstances, such as an offer of employment or an unexpected late summer holiday. They are met by the butler and cook (who have never met their employer), making a total of ten people known to be on the island. While awaiting their hosts, they find a framed copy of the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Soldiers" ("Niggers" or "Indians" in respective earlier editions) hanging on the wall, and notice ten figurines on the dining room table, as well as discussing other oddities about the house and their visit. The butler plays a gramophone (or "phonograph") record while they are talking, as he had been instructed to do; unexpectedly the recording contains a voice that describes each visitor in turn and accuses each of having committed murder but evading justice, and asks if any of "the accused" wishes to give a defense. All are shocked and in the aftermath one of the guests (Anthony Marston) has a drink to help with the shock; however, his drink was poisoned with potassium cyanide and he chokes and dies.