Publication History

And Then There Were None Global Audience

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Agatha Christie’s novel has been published in over 50 languages. In fact, Christie is cited as the most translated author according to the Index Translationum. However, in many of these other languages, the original title, Ten Little N******, is in use. This is because the derogatory term is, “...an English word, with origins in a specific historical context, and translated approximations may or may not carry the same cultural charge or have been subject to the same historical sociocultural scrutiny,” (Hanes, 2018, 186). The weight of the term for U.S. audiences and audiences of other English speaking nations was clearly a motivating factor as to why the title was changed in those countries. However, even with the change of the title to Ten Little Indians for the play adaptation, the book and play were separated and publishers disassociated the two in the U.S.. Clearly the racial terms are less welcome in the English speaking community.

However, an examination of other titles of the book translated into other languages shows that the racial terms are still very much present. For example, in the 1942 Livraria do Globo translation under the title, O Caso dos Dez Negrinhos, for Brazilian audiences. The title literally means, The Case of the Ten Little Negroes (Hane, 2018, 189). Interestingly enough, the “Indian” form of this novel never surfaced in the Brazilian market, but in 2006, E Não Sobrou Nenhum, or And None Were Left, was published. Portugal has a similar relationship with the novel as it was published under the title As Dez Figuras Negras, or The Ten Black Figures. This trend is found in many international editions of the novel. Among many other languages, And Then There Were None has been translated into Icelandic, Italian, French, Arabic, Russian, Dutch, Spanish, Greek, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Serbian; internationally, it has sold over 100 million copies making it Christie’s best selling novel.