8 h 30 minAudiobook8 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
You will enjoy this if you like comic mysteries, tales told within tales, eccentric villains, Victorian London streets, and the playful spirit of the Arabian Nights.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Three idle friends promise to chase adventure
- Challoner meets a frightened lady at dawn
- A tale of Mormon terror and a mad doctor
- Seven hundred pounds and a silly password
- A lady in lace and an old woman's story
- Somerset becomes landlord of a haunted mansion
- The lodger Zero and the dynamiter's gloomy trade
- Charming stories and uncertain identities
- What the novel is really about
- How the book is told
Who’s who
- Paul SomersetA fiery, talkative young barrister without clients, who wants to be a detective and ends up as landlord of a mysterious house.
- Edward ChallonerA portly, polite, easily embarrassed young man in debt, who finds that good manners can lead him into trouble.
- Harry DesboroughA simple, kind and handsome young man who falls in love with his neighbour.
- Mr. GodallThe grave, witty tobacconist of the Bohemian Cigar Divan, who is secretly the dethroned Prince Florizel of Bohemia.
- ZeroThe mysterious lodger and self-styled dynamiter, who is both terrifying and absurd, and wants a friend.
- Mrs. LuxmoreA vain, spirited old lady with many cats and lawsuits, who lends Somerset her empty mansion on a whim.
- Asenath FonblanqueThe lively young woman who tells Challoner a thrilling tale of Utah and sends him on an errand to Glasgow.
- Teresa ValdeviaThe Fair Cuban, a charming neighbour on Desborough's terrace, who tells him a dark tale of her flight from slavery.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 30 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Il dinamitardo
by Robert Louis Stevenson; Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson · 1885
Three penniless friends with one hundred pounds each promise to seize the next adventure that finds them in London.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What would you do with one hundred pounds and no trade? Three young Londoners pick a wild answer and promise to seize the next adventure that finds them.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Three idle friends promise to chase adventure
Paul Somerset, Edward Challoner and Harry Desborough meet in London, each with exactly one hundred pounds and no trade. Somerset claims that a man of the world is made for one profession only, and that is the detective. Challoner mocks the idea, and Desborough expects that nothing will ever happen to him.
They talk it over in the Bohemian Cigar Divan in Rupert Street, where the grave, witty tobacconist Mr. Godall listens with quiet delight. Somerset opens a newspaper and points to an offer of two hundred pounds for news of a tall man in a sealskin overcoat seen near Green Park. He declares that Chance will drag clues before their eyes, and then he makes both friends promise to welcome every adventure that comes.
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What is The Dynamiter about?
It follows three young Londoners, Somerset, Challoner and Desborough, who each meet a strange adventure involving bombs and secret plotters. The stories are linked by a frame at a cigar shop, and each is told with humour and tales within tales.
Who is Mr. Godall in The Dynamiter?
Mr. Godall is the tobacconist at the Bohemian Cigar Divan. He is really Prince Florizel of Bohemia, a former ruler who now earns his living selling tobacco.
Is The Dynamiter a sequel to New Arabian Nights?
It follows New Arabian Nights and shares Prince Florizel with it. Here he lives as Mr. Godall, a tobacconist who welcomes the young men to his shop.
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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