Book:
Ten Little Indians
Author: Agatha
Christie
Number of pages: 173
What I’m watching: TV: How I Met Your Mother
Movies: First Men in the Moon, The Swan Princess, And Then There Were None1
What I’m playing: Dead Space 3, God of War 3, Skyrim
Alright,
now that I have zero homework, I am prepared to start knocking out some novels
from my unread shelves. I’ve seen the film And
Then There Were None, based on the book, but this was my first time reading
the novel. There’s a 48 page reader’s supplement inserted in the book, which
oddly enough, I have read. I read it
for a paper I did on Agatha Christie, “The Dame that Came from Devon.” I wanted
to find that paper because I don’t remember anything about it apart from the
title, but I don’t think I saved a copy. The insert is pretty much a little
background, pictures from the film, and short reviews of the novel.
Ten Little Indians is a murder mystery,
a genre at which Christie is superb. The back cover made it seem like the book
had a different ending than the film, which renewed my intrigue toward the
mystery. What’s more, Agatha Christie prefaces the novel with dramatic
character descriptions such as “Emily Brent – A sixty-five-year-old spinster
whose troubled dreams and rambling diary were the only indications of a
disturbed – and perhaps dangerous – mind” and “Dr. Armstrong – At first the
physician was a convenient dispenser of sedatives and diagnostician of causes
of death, but later the others remembered that he was the only one who had easy
access to poison” (Pocket Books 5). These did a wonderful job of priming me for
the story. One thing was odd, though. Christie also included for each character
the page of his or her first appearance. I’ve never seen that before in a book.
The
book opens with eight characters all mysteriously invited to Indian Island,
coaxed either by a mention of an old friend or the promise of money. Agatha
Christie excels at her characterizations. Simply the way each person travels
indicates something. The people who came for the money are in a third-class
train car. Anthony Marston raced to the boat in his fancy car, a character
detail I will explain in a bit. Ten
Little Indians has a lot of exposition, but Agatha Christie keeps it clever
and entertaining.
So,
they all get to the island, which is nothing but bare rock except for the
mansion and its two caretakers, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. Turns out nobody has met
the owner of the house, not even the Rogerses, who were only hired days ago.
The mysterious host has yet to arrive. Before long, a recorded voice accusing
all the guests and the servants of murder is heard on the gramophone. Throughout
the play, the truth of each accusation is first denied then discovered.
What
loosens their tongues are the murders. One by one, the ten people on the island
start meeting their deaths. It starts with Marston, guilty of running down two
children in his speeding car, choking from poison. Each death follows an old
nursery rhyme hung up all around the house, “Ten Little Indians:”
Ten
little Indian boys went out to dine;
One
choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine
little Indian boys sat up very late;
One
overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight
little Indian boys traveling in Devon;
One
said he’d stay there and then there were seven.
Seven
little Indian boys chopping up sticks;
One
chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six
little Indian boys playing with a hive;
A
bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five
little Indian boys going in for law;
One
got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four
little Indian boys going out to sea;
A
red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three
little Indian boys walking in the Zoo;
A
big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two
little Indian boys sitting in the sun;
One
got frizzled up and then there was one.
One
little Indian boy left all alone;
He
went and hanged himself and then there were none. (28)
Chancery, as I looked up, refers to an
English court. The host, U. N. Owen (a pseudonym), got all ten guests on the
island to exact a personal justice on people who escaped the legal system.
However, after a thorough search of Indian Island, the group finds that they
are alone. Turns out Mr. Owen is one of the ten accused people. Ten Little Indians is a great murder
mystery, so I don’t want to spoil a lot of details about who dies and who’s the
killer.
There
are some things I do want to talk about. Two characters use the phrase “There’s
a nigger in the woodpile” (31; 74). I tried looking up what that even means,
and I guess it might have to do with escaped slaves hiding in woodpiles. Though
the characters exhibit some racism, I wouldn’t say Agatha Christie comes off as
racist herself. At least one character speaks against prejudice:
Emily Brent‘s brow, which had been frowning perplexedly, cleared. She
said, “Ah, I understand you now. Well, there is Mr. Lombard. He admits to
having abandoned twenty men to their deaths.”
Vera said, “They were only natives…”
Emily Brent said sharply, “Black or white,
they are our brothers.” (69)
So, the racism in Ten Little Indians is only in beliefs held by certain characters,
unlike Hilda Manning’s inherent racism that was reflected in her play.2
Since
this is a plot I don’t want to ruin, I won’t say much more. The plot of the
book is almost exactly like the movie, so there were some parts that dragged
for me since I knew what was going to happen or not happen. The fruitless
search of the island, for example. However, had I not known what would happen,
I’m sure it all would have been much more suspenseful. The mystery was still
pretty thrilling, even though I knew all the answers.
I
want to mention the focus placed on meals throughout the ordeal. Pretty much
every breakfast, lunch, and dinner reveals the atmosphere of the group. Sometimes
they’re quiet over their food, other times talkative, sometimes conversation is
strained. Mealtime is a great place to reflect the current mood. The characters
are also constantly drinking to calm their nerves while everyone around them is
dying. Alcohol is pretty much the cure-all. For a murder mystery, I found it
funny how much time everyone spent eating and drinking. Then again, as Lombard
said, “Let’s eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Or who knows,
perhaps, even today” (Samuel French 61). But wait a minute, Lombard didn’t say
that in the novel…
Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Staying.
He
said it in the stage version. Bonus book! I also have (but haven’t read) Ten Little Indians, the script!
Book:
Ten Little Indians
Author: Agatha
Christie
Number of pages: 97
I’ve
seen the movie and read the book. They had their differences. Now I’ve got the
stage version.3 Would anything else be different? Would the entire
ending change? A lot of the names change. Some of the victims’ names and the ways
the guests die are different, too. The occasional typo doesn’t help. Blore’s
victim starts as “Lendor” (26), then becomes “Landor” (38), and finishes as “Lander”
(38). Another instance of a typo is when the speaker is supposed to switch to
Lombard, but it remains Blore’s line, so at one point it’s written that Blore
says, “I suspect Sir Lawrence. Blore suspects me” (75). Of course, there are
more changes than just in the names.
The
entire play is set in the mansion’s main room along with a connecting balcony
behind it. That definitely changes a lot of the action. Plus, Mr. Owen would be
poisoning Marston in front of the audience, although I’m sure it’d be
inconspicuous. The murder of Emily Brent also happens onstage, and I wonder how
that would be accomplished without the audience or other characters onstage
noticing. Marston is pretty annoying in the play. He calls everything “wizard.”
The mansion’s wizard, Vera’s wizard, his car is wizard…I don’t feel like counting
any more up. Dr. Armstrong says Wargrave looks likes a tortoise (17), which
makes me think of Yertle the Turtle, who acts as a judge in Seussical the
Musical.
Agatha
Christie does a good job moving all the action into the room, allowing some
action to happen in between scenes are on the balcony. However, some parts of
the novel had to be taken out altogether, which is too bad. Of course, the
biggest difference of all is the lack of inner monologue.
Without inner monologue, Scrubs would mostly be JD staring at nothing.
Following people’s thoughts as they
tried solving the whodunit or as they descended into madness was a huge part of
the novel, but third person quasi-omniscience isn’t possible (or at least it’s
very difficult – a lot of asides and other techniques) to translate onto a
stage. A great deal of characterization got lost in translation. No one ever read
the whole “Ten Little Indians” rhyme aloud in the play. I wonder if it would be
included in the playbill/program. I like that idea, letting the audience follow
along and wonder what’ll happen next.
After
my comment about alcohol as a cure-all, I got a laugh from one of Vera’s lines:
LOMBARD. I say, you do look low. How about
a drink to steady your
nerves?
VERA. (Rises, flaring up) A
drink! Two corpses in the house at nine o’clock in the morning and all you say,
“Have a drink”! An old man going quite crackers – “Have a drink”! Ten people
accused of murder – that’s all right – just have a drink. Everything’s fine so
long as you have a drink. (57)
I still stand by what I said about Ten Little Indians focusing on eating
and drinking because only a few pages later, Vera changes her mind:
VERA. (To WARGRAVE) You were right to insist on our going
to lunch – and drinking some brandy with it. I feel better.
WARGRAVE. (Returns to coffee tray –
takes his own coffee; stands by mantelpiece) The court always adjourns for
lunch. (63)
It’s not important, but the amount of
eating and drinking stood out to me.
So,
there are a lot of minute details which got switched around, slightly altered,
or taken out, but the ending is very different than the novel. Sadly for my
blog, I don’t want to risk spoiling anything of the ending, so I will stay
silent. I will say the play’s ending is close to the 1945 movie.
One
last thing I want to mention. Apparently, the novel and play first got published
under the title “Ten Little Niggers,” as mentioned on the script’s inside title
page. That would result in a much more frequent and casual use of the
pejorative word throughout the novel and play. Then again, does that reflect
racism in Agatha Christie? She’s using an old racist nursery rhyme – not her
own – as a framework for her murder mystery.
There’s no authorial intrusion to
indicate any attitude of Christie. I also ask myself, even though “Indian”
might have a less strong connotation than “nigger,” how racist is the title “Ten
Little Indians”? Does that title carry any less racist overtones? Am I just
more sensitized to the n-word? I don’t know. I still believe that the racism in
Ten Little Indians is held by the
characters, but not in Agatha Christie herself.
Bottom
line, Ten Little Indians is an
intriguing thriller that I still enjoy.
Verdict (Is the book staying or going?): Going. The book was better.
Notes
1. After all my talk of Ten Little Indians, my fiancé and I felt
like watching the movie. It’s funny (not haha funny) that she had read the book
but not seen the film and I had seen the film but had only just read the book.
2. For more on the subject of racist
writing, I recommend Chinua Achebe’s “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s
‘Heart of Darkness.’”
3. My copy of the script was once used
by someone playing the part of Emily Brent.
Works
Cited
Christie, Agatha. Ten Little Indians. New York: Pocket Books, 1973. Print.
Christie, Agatha. Ten Little Indians. New York: Samuel French, 1946. Print.
