THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (NOVEL)

'The Great Train Robbery' is a bestselling 1975 historical fiction novel written by Michael Crichton. Originally published in the USA by Alfred A. Knopf (then, a division of Random House), it is currently published by Avon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. It is the story of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist, which takes place on a train traveling through Victorian era England. The great bulk of the book takes place in London.

Contents

Historical deviations

Film adaptation

See also

External links

Historical deviations

The story is a mild representation of the historical events that happened, although the setting can be considered quite accurate. For some reason, the character names are mixed up in the novel, for example the main protagonists William Pierce is changed to Edward Pierce and Edward Agar to Robert Agar.

Film adaptation

The novel was later made into a 1979 film directed by Crichton starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. Unlike the real incident, 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; 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 repetoire and an extended version of the music was released in 2004.

See also

★ Great Gold Robbery of 1855

External links

★ British Transport Police web page about the robbery