Story summary
Samenvatting van De Plunderaars
- 8 min. leestijd
- 11 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A man in black gloves whispers help-wanted ads, and New York jewelers line up with pearls.
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De Plunderaars in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 5 h 45 min4 h 35 min fast, 6 h 50 min slow
- Lengte
- 82.300 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1916by Edwin Lefevre
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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De Plunderaars in short
The Plunderers is a set of four linked tales about a secret band called the Plunder Recovery Syndicate. Each tale is a careful con aimed at a rich, vain or frightened man. The first fools the best jewelers of Fifth Avenue, the second sends a market into panic, the third builds a fortune out of newspaper fame, and the fourth turns a young man's longing for love into his father's business problem.
What De Plunderaars is about
What would you do if an advertisement offered sixty dollars a week to sit in a London waiting room and do nothing at all? A man with a twitching neck says yes, and so he becomes a small piece in a very large machine.
Edwin Lefevre, who wrote about money and markets for the magazines of his day, sets four linked tales in the New York of 1912 and 1913. They follow a secret band called the Plunder Recovery Syndicate, which says it takes money only from rich men who got it badly. You meet jewelers, brokers, bankers, a railroad king and a lovesick heir, and you keep asking who the real plunderers are.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who love caper stories, clever schemes and con artists. It suits anyone curious about Wall Street, old New York, or the fun of watching a perfect trick unfold.
The story in 11 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Two strange ads open the first trick
On Christmas Eve a man in black gloves walks into the business office of the New York Herald. He cannot speak above a whisper, so the clerk, Ralph Carroll, leans close. The man wants a worker with St. Vitus's dance and an introspective turn of mind. He removes his right glove to pay, and the clerk notices a long ivory scar running past his wrist.
Ten twitching men come to Room 888 of the St. Iago Building. The manager, W. W. Lovell, picks a cabinetmaker named Lewis J. Wright and offers him sixty dollars a week to sit in a doctor's waiting room in London and think about his illness. The others decide the company wants living advertisements, and Wright leaves with no idea what part he plays.
The Syndicate builds a false trail first, using people who are paid well to be puzzled. Each tells an honest story, and each story points the wrong way. A good trick hides in plain sight, and the odder the ad, the more carefully it was planned.
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A brave man is hired to whisper in Paris
A fortnight later the same whisperer is back at the Herald.
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A fur-coated colonel demands the best pearls
On a bright January day a limousine stops before Welch, Boon and Shaw, the jewelers on Fifth Avenue.
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The jewelers deliver their goods to the duke
The colonel will not let the jewels out of his sight.
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A Frenchman with a Yankee voice lands in Wall Street
The second tale, The Lion's Panic, begins at the brokerage of Richards and Tuttle.
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A great banker fails to arrive and stocks fall
The great W. H. Garrettson has not missed his office in forty years.
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A gold miner brings seven million to a hotel
The third tale, As Proofs of Holy Writ, opens on a quiet Sunday at the New York Planet.
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A young man, a nurse and a jealous husband
Jerningham needs a friend in society, so he hires Francis Wolfe, a handsome, penniless favorite of the chorus girls.
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An heir follows a talisman and the scent of sweet peas
The fourth tale, Cheap at a Million, begins with three cards sent to young Tom Merriwether, only son of a railroad king.
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What the tales say about greed, vanity and trust
Each victim has a weakness that the Syndicate studies like a lock.
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How Lefevre tells it, with wit and quiet clues
Lefevre writes like a man who has watched many offices and many deals.
Read all 11 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Jesse Boon A proud Fifth Avenue jeweler who loves royal customers and thinks he can spot a grafter.
- Amos Kidder The cynical financial editor of the Evening Planet, who keeps stumbling into the Syndicate's tricks.
- James B. Robison A Parisian-looking dandy with a Yankee twang who claims to know a secret way to beat the market.
- Alfred Jerningham A supposed Klondike miner who arrives in New York with boxes of gold dust and lead and a plan to enter society.
- Francis Wolfe A handsome, penniless favorite of the chorus girls who becomes the miner's friend and heir.
- Kathryn Keogh A beautiful, sharp-eyed trained nurse who asks why before she agrees to anything.
- Tom Merriwether The curious, adventurous heir to a railroad empire who follows a strange man's instructions.
- E. H. Merriwether A hard-driving little railroad king who fears more for his only son than for his fortune.
How it ends (spoiler)
Each tale closes with a letter or notice from the Plunder Recovery Syndicate. The jewelers learn their pearls are gone for good. Garrettson is photographed after his adventure and keeps silent. Jerningham sells control back to the trust company for a fortune and vanishes. E. H. Merriwether pays a million dollars, his son marries Isabel Woodford, and the Syndicate says it will dissolve.
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Vragen over De Plunderaars
What is The Plunderers about?
It is a set of four linked tales set in New York around 1912 and 1913. A secret band, the Plunder Recovery Syndicate, plans clever cons against rich men, from jewelers and bankers to a railroad king.
Who are the Plunderers in the book?
They are the members of the Plunder Recovery Syndicate. They claim to take money only from rich men whose wealth is tainted, and each tale shows the leader in a new disguise.
Is The Plunderers a true story?
No, it is fiction. It is set in the real New York of 1912 and 1913, and it mentions real places and public figures of the time, but its plots and main characters are invented.
Is The Plunderers easy to read?
It is a lively read. Each tale has its own story, short scenes, plenty of dialogue and dry humor, so you can follow the plots step by step and enjoy each trick as it unfolds.
What is the main message of The Plunderers?
A swindler succeeds by finding what people already want, whether fame, rank, safety or love. The book also asks who the real plunderers are, the thieves or the respectable men.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Lefèvre, Edwin. The Plunderers. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-plunderers.
Lefèvre, E. (2026). The plunderers. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-plunderers (Original work published 1916)
Lefèvre, Edwin. The Plunderers. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-plunderers.
@book{lefevre2026plunderers,
author = {Lefèvre, Edwin},
title = {The Plunderers},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-plunderers},
note = {First published 1916}
}
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