And Then There Were None

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1939

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-10

Chapters 11-13

Chapter 14-Manuscript

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

A recently retired Mr. Justice Wargrave is traveling in a first-class carriage to the mysterious Soldier Island. An unknown millionaire by the name of Mr. Owen supposedly has bought a mansion built on the island. Justice Wargrave was invited by Constance Culmington, whom he remembers seeing seven or eight years ago.

Vera Claythorne is traveling in a third-class carriage with five other travelers. She was invited by Una Nancy Owen to work as a secretary at Soldier island. Vera thinks that she is lucky to have been offered this job because most people don’t like a Coroner’s Inquest even though she was acquitted of all blame.

Captain Phillip Lombard, who has also been invited to the island, sits across from her. His boss told him the owners invited him to do a job. He hopes the job isn’t illegal and implies that he has broken the law in the past, but he always got away with it.

Miss Emily Brent, a stuffy 65-year-old woman, is also in the carriage. She recently received an invitation to Soldier Island from “U.N.O.” The person says that they met at Belhaven Guest House a few years ago, but Emily doesn’t remember who the person could be.

General Macarthur received his invitation from a gentleman named Owen, supposedly a friend of a former man with whom he served in the army. General Macarthur believes that people are avoiding him because of a rumor from nearly 30 years ago.

Dr. Armstrong, a young, successful doctor, is driving to the island. He received an invitation from a husband worried about his wife’s health. Dr. Armstrong thinks about how women and their nerves are good for business because half the time nothing is wrong with them but boredom. He thinks to himself that he is lucky he got out of something that happened 15 years ago.

Anthony Marston, a handsome young man, is also driving. He was invited by the Owens, but he doesn’t know who they are. He hopes the trip will be fun and that there will be drinks and women.

Blore is traveling in a carriage with a sleeping old man. The man wakes up and tells him to watch and pray because the day of judgment is near.

Chapter 2 Summary

Upon first glimpse of Soldier Island, Vera thinks to herself that the island is nothing like what she pictured and that there is something quite sinister about it. Vera, Lombard, and General Macarthur meet Emily Brent and Justice Wargrave at the docks, as well as a third man who introduces himself as Davis. Justice Wargrave looks at Davis with unconcealed hostility. Just as they are boarded and about to depart, a fantastic car appears. It is Anthony Marston, who looks like a god with his hair blowing in the wind in the twilight glow.

Fred Narracott, the sailor, thinks to himself that the guests are not at all the classy, wealthy crowd he’d expected. Like the other guests, Fred has never met Mr. and Mrs. Owen. The house comes into view, and Fred finds himself feeling uneasy. They are greeted by an elderly gentleman who introduces himself as the butler, Mr. Rogers.

Mr. Rogers’s wife, the Owen’s maid, takes Vera up to her room. Vera notices that Mrs. Roger seems afraid of her own shadow, and she wonders what has the woman so frightened. Mrs. Rogers tells Vera that she and her husband only began their post two days ago and that they have never met the Owens. After the maid leaves, Vera notices a poem hanging over the mantlepiece. It is a nursery rhyme that she remembers from her childhood about 10 soldier boys who died one by one until there were none left.

Dr. Armstrong, happy to have arrived, thinks to himself that islands are like fantasies where one can escape. He notices Justice Wargrave on the terrace and thinks how odd it is that he should be one of the guests. He remembers being a witness at one of his trials and notes that Justice Wargrave is a powerful judge who is quick to convict. Justice Wargrave wonders where Constance Culmington is and thinks to himself that like all women, she is undependable.

Back in his room, Blore feels like everyone knows about him, but he doesn’t specify exactly what it is he thinks they know.

General Macarthur is disgruntled at the situation and wishes he could leave. He notes with annoyance that Lombard can’t be straight.

Meanwhile, Emily Brent reads a passage from the Bible in her room about how wicked people will go to hell.

Chapter 3 Summary

The guests start to feel at ease with one another after they all enjoy a pleasant dinner. They notice there are little glass soldier figurines on the table to represent Soldier Island. Vera Claythorne finds the ode to the nursery rhyme quaint and amusing, while Justice Wargrave finds it childish.

Vera Claythorne and Emily Brent listen to the sound of the waves from the drawing room window. Emily is surprised when Vera says that she hates the sound. They are soon joined by the men in the party. Rogers enters the drawing room with a coffee tray, and the guests drink their coffee in a comfortable silence, satisfied after a night of fine dining. Suddenly they hear The Voice, a jarring, disembodied voice that accuses each of the guests one by one of a specific murder they committed and got away with in the past.

The guests are visibly rattled, except for Justice Wargrave and Emily Brent. Lombard takes initiative and discovers the voice came from a gramophone. The record on the gramophone is called “Swan Song.” Rogers admits that he was the one who put the record on but pleads that he had no idea what was on it. He was simply following instructions from their host, Mr. Owen.

Justice Wargrave takes charge of figuring out what is afoot. He asks what Rogers knows about Owen, and Rogers admits that he and Mrs. Rogers never met the couple.

Justice Wargrave asks for all the guests to explain what they know about the owners of the house. They quickly discover that none of them know who this mysterious Mr. Owen is. Justice Wargrave also calls attention to the fact that Mr. Davis’s name was not on the record, but rather, a gentleman named “William Henry Blore.” Davis admits that his real name is Blore, and he is a detective who was hired by Owen to pose as a guest and investigate each of them.

Justice Wargrave realizes that all the various iterations of their host’s name, Mr. Owen, are a form of wordplay on the word “UNKNOWN.” He comes to the conclusion that they were all invited there “by a madman—probably a dangerous homicidal lunatic” (50).

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The novel is told from a limited omniscient point of view that shifts between characters. This shifting allows the readers to catch a glimpse inside each of the characters’ minds and observe their thoughts. This is an unusual creative decision for a mystery novel because Christie must write each character’s inner dialogue in a way that provides enough detail to convey how the characters are feeling without giving away the killer’s identity. The shifting point of view allows for the novel’s major themes to develop early in the novel, particularly guilt. At this point in the novel, the characters’ inner dialogue only hints that they each have something dark in their past that they regret. The fact that they don’t reveal their crimes right away immediately creates suspense. Vera, for instance, repeatedly thinks “She must not think of Hugo,” and more ominously, “Cyril’s head, bobbing up and down, swimming to the rock” (4). General Macarthur, as another example, thinks about “that damned rumour!” from nearly 30 years ago, convincing himself that it does “no good brooding,” but whatever the rumor is regarding, it clearly is haunting him because it is still bothering him decades later (8).

There are many examples of foreshadowing in the first two chapters of the novel, as is a staple in the mystery genre. The first major instance of foreshadowing is at the end of Chapter 1 when the old man in Blore’s carriage wakes up and suddenly warns him, “Watch and pray. The day of judgment is at hand” (14). The use of the word “judgment” is particularly important because it is one of the first early clues at who is behind the murders on Soldier Island: Justice Wargrave. Dr. Armstrong’s inner thoughts about Justice Wargrave also provide background about the type of person he is. Although he is older and retired, Justice Wargrave has a fearsome reputation. Dr. Armstrong says that Justice Wargrave “always looked half asleep, but was shrewd as could be when it came to a point of law” (30). His reputation is that of a “hanging judge,” another clue which foreshadows his set-up for Vera’s hanging at the end of the novel. Justice Wargrave is also the person to take charge when panic erupts after the gramophone recording. In a risky move, he starts to unravel pieces of the mystery for the guests by pointing out the wordplay on Mr. Owen, or “unknown.”

The characters’ description of the setting, the mansion on Soldier Island, serves to foreshadow something sinister is on the horizon. Vera, for example, thinks the house looks different than she pictured. Instead, “there was no house visible, only the boldly silhouetted rock with its faint resemblance to a giant head. There was something sinister about it” (19). General Macarthur says to the others that it is a “delightful spot,” but internally he feels “uneasy” and thinks it’s a “damned odd sort of place” (24). The characters’ apprehension toward Soldier Island helps to establish the eerie setting, especially since the mansion isn’t old or creepy, as one might expect from a house where 10 people are murdered, but new and renovated. Even so, it still gives off sinister energy.

Anthony Marston’s entrance is also an example of foreshadowing in the novel because Anthony serves a major plot purpose as the first character to die, setting the major conflict in motion. He arrives in a “superlatively beautiful” car, looking like “a young God, a Hero God out of some Northern Saga” (21), leading the group to be shocked when his vivacious life is extinguished.