•
Versione 1
Rating: Ten Little Indians - And Then There Were None... is a book that essentially teaches two things: we all have something to hide, and man has a desperate thirst for justice, capable of taking on monstrous appearances. Starting from these premises, Agatha Christie creates one of her best novels, published in serial form in the Daily Express between June and July of 1939 and appearing for the first time in Italy in 1946.
Setting aside the success of the work (a whopping one hundred and ten million copies sold) and the criticisms provoked by the title (the book was initially published as Ten Little Niggers, a phrase extracted from the nursery rhyme quoted in the text, later transformed into Ten Little Indians and distributed in the United States as And Then There Were None, the last line of the poem), it is necessary instead to reflect on the aspects related to form and content, which continue to surprise more than eighty years later.
For this occasion, the writer from Torquay seems to test herself and the reader with a story bordering on the plausible but perfectly orchestrated. Eight strangers receive a letter inviting them to the mysterious Nigger Island, an island off the coast of Devon so called because it resembles a "negro" head (a term used several times, disregarding political correctness). The sender is unknown or contains a name that prompts the unlucky ones to dig into their own past, more or less distant. Once there, the company is welcomed by an elderly couple of servants, the Rogers, while the host, Mr. U.N. Owen (unknown?), will join them the following day. After dinner, Mr. Rogers, following Owen’s orders, starts the gramophone, and a recorded voice on the record accuses those present of having been condemned for a series of crimes that ordinary law could not judge. The guests and servants will therefore be eliminated according to the severity of their guilt, following the order established by a children's poem framed in the various bedrooms. In an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust, the stay on Nigger Island turns into a nightmare, a deadly game that will lead everyone to suspect the next.
The first element of interest in Ten Little Indians - And Then There Were None... is represented by the setting, capable of combining the romantic charm of the stormy nature and the comfort of a modern house equipped with every convenience, but at the same time cold, glacial, a home that for the ten unfortunate ones will become their tomb. The characters face the accusation in different ways: there are those who remain impassive (Miss Brent), those who succumb to fear (Vera Claythorne), those who wield the weapons of logic and rationality to put order in the tangled mess (Judge Wargrave). Beyond the reactions, the men and women trapped on Nigger Island are united by a common fate: all have indirectly contributed to the suffering and death of an innocent, in other words, have committed a crime that cannot be punished by jurisprudence but is condemned by moral law, that is, by that thirst for justice inherent in the human being. This motivation will drive someone (but who?) to assign blame and inflict penalties, almost as if facing a divine legislator or an infernal judge, eager to open the drawer of memory and uncover uncomfortable secrets kept hidden for too long.
Leaving aside the letter of explanations, a typical ploy to solve the mystery, Ten Little Indians - And Then There Were None... remains a ruthless and current work capable of revealing the vices of a brutalized humanity, willing to do anything to save itself. Agatha Christie unmasks these mechanisms with simple but elegant prose, composed of short sentences, tight dialogues, and an unstoppable rhythm, and scatters clues here and there that lead to suspect everyone, avoiding revealing too much and ending up in the ridiculous or unbelievable.
In the end, order will be restored and the mystery solved, not before disturbing the reader's mind and prompting reflection on a society that neglects the value of life and thinks only of its own interests. Elements that, often sadly, we find in those around us. Even today.
DeReviewer rating: 4.5
Loading comments slowly
