The Great Train Robbery (novel)

Last updated
The Great Train Robbery
Big-greattrainrobbery.jpg
First edition cover
Author Michael Crichton
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical novel,
Crime novel
Publisher Knopf
Publication date
May 1975
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages266
ISBN 0-394-49401-6
OCLC 1175916
813/.5/4
LC Class PZ4.C9178 Gr PS3553.R48
Preceded by The Terminal Man  
Followed by Eaters of the Dead  

The Great Train Robbery is a best-selling 1975 historical novel written by Michael Crichton, his third novel under his own name and his thirteenth novel overall. Originally published in the US by Alfred A. Knopf (then a division of Random House), it was later published by Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The novel tells the story of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist that takes place on a train travelling through Victorian-era England on 22 May 1855. Most of the book takes place in London. A 1978 film adaptation was written and directed by Crichton.

Contents

Plot

In 1854, master thief Edward Pierce plans to steal a shipment of gold worth more than £12,000 being transported monthly from London to the Crimean War front. The bank has locked the gold in two custom-built safes, each with two locks, thus requiring a total of four keys to open. He recruits Robert Agar, a specialist in copying keys, as an accomplice.

Pierce's first target is the key held by bank president Edgar Trent. Through painstaking surveillance, conversations with bank employees and a deliberately bungled pickpocketing attempt, Pierce deduces that Trent's key is kept at his mansion. With the assistance of his longtime mistress, an actress known only as "Miss Miriam", and his loyal associate, a buck cabby named Barlow, Pierce and Agar successfully break into Trent's home and wine cellar by night and make a wax impression of the key.

Bank manager Henry Fowler contracts syphilis and asks his friend Pierce to aid him in seeking a remedy: sleeping with a virgin. After supposedly making the necessary arrangements through a madam (actually "Miss Miriam") and charging Fowler the exorbitant price of one hundred fifty guineas, Pierce and Agar make an impression of Fowler's key, which he always carries with him around his neck but takes off and leaves with his clothes during the assignation.

The other two keys are kept in a shipping department office at London Bridge Station. Pierce helps burglar "Clean Willy" Williams escape from Newgate Prison and the criminals succeed in making wax copies of the two keys at the railway station, completing the job with only seconds to spare before detection. Now possessing copies of all four keys, Pierce bribes Burgess, the poorly paid train guard who rides in the baggage van containing the safes. Agar is then able to perform a dry run of the theft on 17 February 1855, making sure that the copied keys work perfectly.

The actual robbery is scheduled for May 22nd, but Pierce's plans are again disrupted when "Clean Willy" suddenly turns police informant. Pierce's cabby Barlow murders Willy before he can reveal the most crucial information, although Willy has told enough to cause Edward Harranby, a very senior Scotland Yard detective, to deduce that a major robbery is planned. Through careful manipulation of another informant, Pierce diverts the police's attention to an alleged robbery of the transatlantic cable company's payroll in Greenwich, leaving the thieves free and clear to finally strike.

By the next day, much of England is in an uproar upon the discovery of the robbery, with every organisation involved in the gold shipment blaming each other, few leads as to the true culprits and no idea how it was done. The members of the gang drop out of sight.

Eighteen months later, Agar's mistress, who has been caught in the act of robbing a drunk, informs on Agar to escape imprisonment. Agar, who has been arrested on an unrelated charge, turns informant after being threatened by Harranby with transportation to Australia. Pierce and Burgess are arrested at a prize-fighting event in Manchester, and all three are ultimately convicted. Pierce is sentenced to a long prison term, but escapes while being transported from court and disappears, along with the money from the Great Train Robbery.

Characters

Background

Crichton became aware of the story when lecturing at Cambridge University. He later read the transcripts of the court trial and started researching the historical period. [1]

Historical deviations

The story is a fictionalised representation of the historical events, although the setting can be considered quite accurate. The characters' names are changed in the novel; for example, the main protagonist William Pierce is changed to Edward Pierce and Edward Agar to Robert Agar. Crichton stated that for storytelling purposes, he did not want to be constrained by what actually happened. [1]

An accurate, non-fiction narrative of the robbery can be found in David C. Hanrahan's book The First Great Train Robbery. [2]

Reception

The New York Times called it "Mr Crichton's best thriller to date." [3] The Los Angeles Times described it as "marvellous fun." [4]

The book was one of the biggest best selling novels in the US in 1975. [5]

Three audiobook versions have been released:

Film adaptation

The novel was later made into a 1978 film entitled The First Great Train Robbery directed by Crichton starring Sean Connery as Pierce, Donald Sutherland as Agar and Lesley-Anne Down as Miriam. Unlike the real incident, only Pierce is captured and tried and all of the protagonists are seen to escape to freedom after the trial. The film was nominated for Best Cinematography Award for the British Society of Cinematographers, and the film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture by the Edgar Allan Poe award by the Mystery Writers Association of America. The film score by Jerry Goldsmith was short, but a favourite in the composer's repertoire and an extended version of the music was released in 2004.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Crichton</span> American author and filmmaker (1942–2008)

John Michael Crichton was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavily feature technology and are usually within the science fiction, techno-thriller, and medical fiction genres. Crichton’s novels often explore human technological advancement and attempted dominance over nature, both with frequently catastrophic results; many of his works are cautionary tales, especially regarding themes of biotechnology. Several of his stories center specifically around themes of genetic modification, hybridization, paleontology and/or zoology. Many feature medical or scientific underpinnings, reflective of his own medical training and scientific background.

<i>The Andromeda Strain</i> 1969 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton

The Andromeda Strain is a 1969 novel by Michael Crichton, his first novel under his own name and his sixth novel overall. It documents the outbreak of a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism in Arizona and the team of scientists investigating it. The book is framed as a report from a secret government project, which the scientists are part of, and includes text-based computer imagery illustrating the results of various tests on the organism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Train Robbery (1963)</span> 1963 robbery in Ledburn, England

The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.61 million, from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.

The Great Train Robbery may refer to:

<i>Congo</i> (novel) 1980 novel by Michael Crichton

Congo is a 1980 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton, the fifth under his own name and the fifteenth overall. The novel centers on an expedition searching for diamonds and investigating the mysterious deaths of a previous expedition in the dense tropical rainforest of the Congo. Crichton calls Congo a lost world novel in the tradition founded by Henry Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, featuring the mines of that work's title.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Gold Robbery</span> 1855 British train heist

The Great Gold Robbery took place on the night of 15 May 1855, when a routine shipment of three boxes of gold bullion and coins was stolen from the guard's van of the service between London Bridge station and Folkestone while it was being shipped to Paris. The robbers comprised four men, two of whom—William Tester and James Burgess—were employees of the South Eastern Railway (SER), the company that ran the rail service. They were joined by the planners of the crime: Edward Agar, a career criminal, and William Pierce, a former employee of the SER who had been dismissed for being a gambler.

"The Last of the Masters" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick. The original manuscript of the story was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on July 15, 1953, and the story was published by the Hanro Corporation in the final issue of Orbit Science Fiction in 1954. It has since been reprinted in several Philip K. Dick story collections, beginning with The Golden Man in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotten Row</span> Road and bridleway in Hyde Park, London

Rotten Row is a broad track running 1,384 metres (4,541 ft) along the south side of Hyde Park in London. It leads from Hyde Park Corner to Serpentine Road. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Rotten Row was a fashionable place for upper-class Londoners to be seen horse riding. Today it is maintained as a place to ride horses in the centre of London, but it is little used as such.

<i>The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery</i> 1959 American film

The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery is a 1959 American heist film directed by Charles Guggenheim and starring Steve McQueen as a college dropout hired to be the getaway driver in a bank robbery.

<i>Robbery</i> (1967 film) 1967 British film

Robbery is a 1967 British crime film directed by Peter Yates and starring Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet and James Booth. The story is a heavily fictionalised version of the 1963 Great Train Robbery. The film was produced by Stanley Baker and Michael Deeley, for Baker's company Oakhurst Productions.

<i>Villain</i> (1971 film) 1971 film by Michael Tuchner

Villain is a 1971 British gangster film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport and Donald Sinden. It is based on James Barlow's 1968 novel The Burden of Proof. Villain was director Michael Tuchner's first feature film after directing in television.

<i>The First Great Train Robbery</i> 1979 film by Michael Crichton

The First Great Train Robbery is a 1978 British heist comedy film directed by Michael Crichton, who also wrote the screenplay based on his 1975 novel The Great Train Robbery. The film stars Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down.

<i>Odds On</i> Novel by Michael Crichton

Odds On is Michael Crichton's first published novel. It was released in 1966 under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a short 215-page paperback novel. Hard Case Crime republished the novel under Crichton's name on November 19, 2013. Prior to the reissue, copies were rare and hard to find. Since then even the reissue is becoming scarce, with few copies available on sources such as bookfinder or ebay.

<i>Easy Go</i> (novel) Novel by Michael Crichton

Easy Go is Michael Crichton's third published novel, as well as the third to feature his pen name John Lange. It was released in 1968 under the pseudonym of John Lange. Re-released in 1974 by Bantam Books as The Last Tomb. Hard Case Crime republished the novel under Crichton's name on October 29, 2013.

<i>Travels</i> (book) 1988 nonfiction book by Michael Crichton

Travels is a 1988 nonfiction book by Michael Crichton that details how he abandoned his medical education at Harvard Medical School, moved to Los Angeles, and began his professional writing career with The Great Train Robbery (1975). After this book became a movie starring Sean Connery, Crichton undertook a variety of international adventures and experimented with mysticism, including out-of-body experiences, astral projection, and fortune-telling. It is his fourth, final, and most famous non-fiction book.

Roslund & Hellström were a Swedish duo of crime fiction writers comprising journalist Anders Roslund and activist and author Börge Hellström. They were full-time writers from 2004 to Hellström's death in 2017. Among others, they wrote a series of three books featuring Detective Inspector Ewert Grens, and after Hellström's death, Roslund wrote another in that series

<i>Pirate Latitudes</i> 2009 novel by Michael Crichton

Pirate Latitudes is an action adventure novel by Michael Crichton, the sixteenth novel to be published under his own name and first to be published after his death, concerning 17th-century piracy in the Caribbean. HarperCollins published the book posthumously on November 26, 2009. The story stars the fictional privateer Captain Charles Hunter who, hired by Jamaica's governor Sir James Almont, plots to raid a Spanish galleon for its treasure.

Edward Pierce may refer to:

<i>The Railway Detective</i> 2004 mystery novel by Keith Miles

The Railway Detective is the eponymous opening title in the series of detective mystery novels written by Keith Miles under the pseudonym Edward Marston. Set in 1851, it is about a railway robbery which is investigated and ultimately solved by two Scotland Yard detectives, Inspector Robert Colbeck and Sergeant Victor Leeming. The novel was published in 2004 by Allison & Busby of London. The book's cover depicts part of The Railway Station (1862) by William Powell Frith. According to the publishers in a 2018 news release, the series has been optioned for television adaptation by Mammoth Screen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Crichton bibliography</span>

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He wrote 28 novels and his books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films.

References

  1. 1 2 Owen, Michael (January 28, 1979). "Director Michael Crichton Films a Favorite Novelist". New York Times. p. D17.
  2. Hanrahan, David C. (2011). The First Great Train Robbery. London: Robert Hale. ISBN   9780709090403.
  3. Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (June 10, 1975). "Books of The Times: A Flash Pull for a Fat Pogue". New York Times. p. 36.
  4. Yardley, Jonathan (June 15, 1975). "Crighton Arrives on 'Great Train Robbery'". Los Angeles Times.
  5. "The Best Sellers of 1975". New York Times. December 7, 1975.