The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton

...famous novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World and also his film Westworld.
He's quite a good writer, one of the few who really deserves the "best seller" title.

The title of the novel imediately rang a bell but I wasn't too sure. I recalled a film with Sean Connery about a train robbery and just happens that I was right, there is also a film adaptation which is quite entertaining too.


-------------------Anyway, ...
...of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist, first in history to take place on a moving train (when trains were still a novelty), planned by a gentleman-thief named Pierce and his accomplices.
The robbery was over a year in the planning and involved making sets of duplicate keys from wax impressions for the locks on the safes and bribing the train's guard and many many more breath-holding situations.

But it's not ... more

When I first saw this novel for sale on a stand of used books I already knew Michael Crichton a bit. I loved his two most famous novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World and also his film Westworld.
He's quite a good writer, one of the few who really deserves the "best seller" title.

The title of the novel imediately rang a bell but I wasn't too sure. I recalled a film with Sean Connery about a train robbery and just happens that I was right, there is also a film adaptation which is quite entertaining too.

-------------------Anyway, what is this book about?
It is the story of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist, first in history to take place on a moving train (when trains were still a novelty), planned by a gentleman-thief named Pierce and his accomplices.
The robbery was over a year in the planning and involved making sets of duplicate keys from wax impressions for the locks on the safes and bribing the train's guard and many many more breath-holding situations.

But it's not just the story itself to entertain, Crichton gives to the readers also an interesting "lot" of knowledges about the Victorian era and once you finish the book you know much much more about Victorian England than you thought you already did. As a matter of fact the plot was apparently inspired by Kellow Chesney's 1970 book 'The Victorian Underworld' , which is a comprehensive examination into the more sordid aspects of Victorian society. I still have to get hold of that book but I'm highly interested.

The novel was later made into a 1979 film directed by Crichton himself starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland; right I was on my first thought.
The film received several awards but this is perhaps material for another review.

-------------------- Historical facts Vs. Fictional ones --------------------

I cannot avoid to take some of these information from the net because that's where I learnt how much of the story we read in the novel was actually true.

The story is, in fact, loosely based on the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, in which a cracksman called William Pierce (named Edward Pierce in Crichton's book and film) engineered the theft of £12,000 in gold coin and ingots from the London to Folkestone passenger train in 1855 destined to the British Army during the Crimean War.

The story is a mild representation of the historical events that happened, although the setting can be considered quite accurate. For some reason (no clear explanation is given about this), the character names are mixed up in the novel, for example the main characters William Pierce is changed to Edward Pierce and Edward Agar to Robert Agar.

----------------------IN CONCLUSION

The book makes you want to know more about Victorian society and about the Robbery itself. It was an extremely pleasant read and also a quick one. The novel is very short but keeps your interest all the way through.

I suggest this book to anyone with a taste for history (especially the 19th century-Victorian period) and also a fashination for highly precise mischief planning (I admit I love reading about robbery or escape plans LOL).

I hope that with my review I inspired some of you to look for this book, I personally loved it. 

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