Résumé
Résumé de Les Voyages de Bidwell, de Wall Street à la prison de Londres
Go deeper: the whole of Les Voyages de Bidwell, de Wall Street à la prison de Londres
About 9 h 10 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who love true crime, financial intrigue and Victorian travel will find plenty here. So will anyone curious about how a confident young man talks himself into fraud.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Picture a sixteen-year-old Brooklyn boy whose whole library is the life of King David, a book of martyrs and a few penny stories about pirates. He steps into Wall Street with a job and no worldly wisdom at all. Within a few years he wears the best clothes in New York. Within a few more he carries forged paper through the banks of Europe.
Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison is the memoir of Austin Bidwell, one of four Americans behind the 1873 forgeries against the Bank of England. He wrote it after twenty years in prison, and he tells it with swagger, regret and a sharp eye. He points again and again to the small slip that wrecks a clever plan, and to the Primrose Way, which is lined with flowers and ends in a cell.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A sheltered boy learns almost nothing usefulFree
- 2Fast company and a corrupt detective set the trap
- 3New York sells protection to its own thieves
- 4The first bond sale in Europe goes smoothly
- 5Forgers fail on a torn scrap of paper
- 6A raid on Europe and a close call in Rio
- 7The Silver King walks into the Bank of England
- 8One undated bill brings the fraud down
- 9Trial, sentence and a promise kept
- 10Twenty years inside, and how the walls were opened
Point clé 1 sur 10
A sheltered boy learns almost nothing useful
Bidwell opens with his schooling, and he is blunt about it. He attends Public School Number 13 in South Brooklyn for years and moves up grade after grade. Yet he leaves unable to write a grammatical sentence.
His home is loving but cut off from the world. His mother lives for heaven and prays over him each night. Neither parent teaches him a thing about money, men or danger.
At sixteen his father finds him a place in a sugar broker's office. There he lands among clever young clerks who laugh at his country manners, and one fills his head with stories of fortunes made in the gold room. Innocence without practical knowledge is not protection, it is an invitation.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Questions about Les Voyages de Bidwell, de Wall Street à la prison de Londres
What is Bidwell's Travels about?
It is Austin Bidwell's memoir of how he went from a Brooklyn clerk to a forger, helped defraud the Bank of England in 1873, was captured in Cuba and then spent twenty years in English prisons.
Who was F. A. Warren?
Frederick Albert Warren was the false name Bidwell used as a rich American customer of the Bank of England. Under that name he deposited money, bought stocks and introduced forged bills of exchange.
What was the Bank of England forgery of 1873?
Four Americans submitted forged bills of exchange to the bank and drew gold and bonds against them. The bank did not check the bills with the banks named on them until a missing date drew attention.
What does the Primrose Way mean in the book?
It is Bidwell's name for the pleasant-looking path of easy money and fast living. He uses it again and again to show that such a road, lined with flowers and music, ends in ruin.
Is Bidwell's Travels a true story and is it easy to follow?
It is a first-person memoir written after his release from prison. The chapters are short and full of scenes, chases and plain explanations of bonds, bills and prison rules, so it reads like an adventure.
Cite this edition
Bidwell, Austin. Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison.
Bidwell, A. (2026). Bidwell's travels, from Wall Street to London prison. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison (Original work published 1897)
Bidwell, Austin. Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison.
@book{bidwell2026bidwells,
author = {Bidwell, Austin},
title = {Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bidwells-travels-from-wall-street-to-london-prison},
note = {First published 1897}
}
