6 h 36 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your family's fortune depends on who keeps breathing—and a dead body goes to the wrong place?
In The Wrong Box, Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne turn a Victorian money scheme into dry, quick farce. A fund called a tontine goes to its last surviving member. Old brothers Joseph and Masterman Finsbury remain in the running, while their quarrelsome relatives watch the money and plan their next moves.
A railway accident near Browndean throws those plans into confusion. Morris Finsbury wants the fortune on his side, but his schemes keep making matters worse. Michael Finsbury, a witty, lazy London lawyer, tries to steer the mess his own way. Mistaken identities and a misleading parcel turn family greed into a chase through England.
What you’ll discover
- A fortune worth scheming for Explore a fund whose rules make every survivor's next breath a matter of family interest.
- Relatives at cross purposes Meet a quarrelsome family whose hunger for money keeps feeding the confusion.
- The wrong parcel Follow mix-ups where neither a label nor an apparent identity deserves much trust.
- An unlikely guiding hand Watch Michael Finsbury see through family schemes while trying to direct the tangled affair.
- A cool comic voice Enjoy a narrator whose neat sentences and dry amusement sharpen the absurdity.
Who will love it
For readers who love dry British humor, farce and quick plots with wicked families, and anyone who enjoys Stevenson's funny side.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fortune goes to the last survivor
- The Finsbury family circles the money
- A railway accident starts the confusion
- Michael Finsbury tries to manage the mess
- Mistaken identity drives the comedy
- A light tale told with a dry voice
Who’s who
- Michael FinsburyA witty, lazy London lawyer who sees through his family's schemes and tries to steer the tangled affair his own way.
- Joseph FinsburyOne of the two old brothers left in the tontine, who is far more taken with his odd scraps of knowledge than with the fund.
- Masterman FinsburyThe other elderly survivor of the tontine, whose long life is of great interest to all his relatives.
- Morris FinsburyAn anxious relative who hopes to see the fortune come to his side and keeps making his plans worse.
- John FinsburyMorris's fellow schemer in the family, bound up in the fight over the fund.
- Gideon ForsythA young barrister who is swept into the confusion and brings a note of decency to it.
- Julia HazeltineA young woman drawn into the tangled events, who becomes part of the story's lighter, warmer thread.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Die falsche Kiste
by Robert Louis Stevenson; Lloyd Osbourne · 1889
A fortune goes to the last survivor, and a body in the wrong place sends greedy relatives scrambling.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A fortune goes to the last survivor
The book begins with the tontine. Years before the story starts, a number of people pay into a fund, and the money is to go to whoever lives longest. As the years pass, the group shrinks. By the time of the story, only two old men remain in the race, the brothers Joseph and Masterman Finsbury.
This changes what an old man means to his family. Each brother is now worth a great deal, but only if he outlasts the other. His relatives watch his health the way others watch the stock market. Every cough is news and every recovery is a disappointment.
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What is The Wrong Box about?
It is a comic novel about a tontine, a fund that goes to the last survivor, and the Finsbury family who scheme over it. A railway accident and a mixed-up body lead to a chain of farcical mistakes.
What is a tontine in The Wrong Box?
A tontine is a pool of money paid in by a group of people. The whole sum goes to the last member still alive. In the book, it makes relatives eager to see who survives.
Who wrote The Wrong Box?
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. It appeared in 1889. Stevenson was already known for adventure tales, and this book shows his lighter, comic side.
The author
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850–1894 · Scottish novelist and poet
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist and poet, born in Edinburgh in 1850. He wrote Treasure Island (1883), A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), and Kidnapped and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). He settled in Samoa in 1890 and died there in 1894.
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