8 h 30 minAudiobook4 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
In a London afraid of dynamite, a stranger’s story can be as dangerous as a hidden plot.
Challoner, Somerset and Desborough have little to do and a taste for amusement. As these young English gentlemen wander through London, strangers draw them into odd stories and plots they only half understand. In The Dynamiter, Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson turn curiosity into a comic adventure where nobody’s account is easy to trust.
The London frame opens into tales within tales, some reaching other lands and other kinds of danger. People conceal their identities, invent histories and follow mistaken guesses. Zero Jones, an American tied to the dynamite plotting, adds danger and absurdity. Against the fear of bombs in British cities, the authors offer farce rather than sermons: playful, ironic and quick.
What you’ll discover
- Three curious gentlemen Follow Challoner, Somerset and Desborough as their search for amusement draws them toward mystery.
- Stories within stories Move from London encounters into tales that carry you toward distant lands and unfamiliar dangers.
- Nobody quite as advertised Watch hidden identities and invented histories turn each new acquaintance into a reason for doubt.
- Danger with an absurd edge Meet Zero Jones, whose part in the dynamite plotting brings menace into the comic tangle.
- Fear turned into farce Discover a Victorian satire that answers public panic with irony, deception and a taste for absurdity.
Who will love it
For readers who love Stevenson's lighter side, nested stories and Victorian satire, with false names, dynamite plots and strangers spinning tales in London.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A comic answer to a real panic
- Three idle young men meet a mystery
- Stories inside stories
- Deception, irony and a shared pen
Who’s who
- ChallonerOne of the young English gentlemen at the centre of the frame, ready for any amusing adventure.
- SomersetA companion of Challoner, curious and easily drawn into the odd stories of strangers.
- DesboroughThe third of the young men, who shares their wandering and their taste for mystery.
- Zero JonesAn American figure tied to the dynamite plotting, who adds danger and absurdity to the tangle.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Le Dynamiteur
by Robert Louis Stevenson; Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson · 1885
Young Englishmen follow strangers into a London of false names and dynamite plots, unsure whose stories to trust.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A comic answer to a real panic
The book belongs to the years of the dynamite campaign, when bombs in London made ordinary readers fear that any stranger might be a plotter. Stevenson and his wife chose to treat that fear as material for a romp. The word dynamiter in the title points straight at the headlines of the day.
The book is a sequel to New Arabian Nights, the earlier collection in which Stevenson had turned London into a city of strange adventure. Here he returns to the same idea. Ordinary streets, lodgings and railway carriages hide plots, disguises and odd coincidences.
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What is The Dynamiter about?
It is a comic adventure about young Englishmen who meet strange people and hear many stories in a London shaken by fear of dynamite plots. Deception and mistaken guesses drive the action.
Who wrote The Dynamiter?
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it with his wife, Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson. It appeared in 1885 as a sequel to his earlier book, New Arabian Nights.
Is The Dynamiter a true story?
No, it is fiction. It was written in response to the real dynamite attacks in British cities in the early 1880s, but its characters and plots are invented for comedy.
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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