Story summary
Streszczenie książki Niszczyciel
- 8 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
Sculptor Loudon Dodd and Jim Pinkerton buy a wrecked brig, and Dodd sails to Midway Island.
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Niszczyciel — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 8 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 9 h 15 min7 h 20 min fast, 11 h slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 132 000
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1892by Robert Louis Stevenson; Lloyd Osbourne
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Niszczyciel in short
The Wrecker follows Loudon Dodd from a Muskegon business college to the Latin Quarter, then to San Francisco and a bare reef in the Pacific. At each stop he meets a different kind of money. His father plays at it, his grandfather builds on it, and Pinkerton turns it into a game of boundless hope.
What Niszczyciel is about
What would you do if you bought a wrecked ship for fifty thousand dollars, sure a fortune lay aboard, and then could not find it? That is the puzzle at the heart of The Wrecker, a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne.
The story is told by Loudon Dodd, a young American who wants only to be a sculptor. His friendship with the bursting, generous schemer Jim Pinkerton is the heart of the book.
Dla kogo. You will love this book if you enjoy a mystery with humour, tales of ships and island trade, and the warm friendship of a dreamy artist and a busy businessman.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A father's business lessons shape an artist
Loudon Dodd begins with his father, James K. Dodd, a gentle man who works at making money with the sad loyalty of a martyr. He wants his son to be safe, honest and rich, and he cannot see why anyone would choose art.
He sends Loudon to the Muskegon Commercial Academy. Boys there trade wheat, lard and stocks with pretend money called college paper.
His father makes a bargain. Double your ten thousand in college paper, he says, and you may go to Paris. Then his father's involvement in the new capitol offers another route to Paris, through a contract for its statues. A rescue comes from the statue contract his father holds for the new capitol, and he proposes that Loudon study sculpture in Paris.
Loudon learns about money from a man who loves him, and the lesson is stranger than either of them knows.
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Paris brings romance and a lucky grandfather
Loudon stops in Edinburgh on his way to France.
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Jim Pinkerton takes over his friend's life
Pinkerton is already a legend in the Latin Quarter.
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Ruin in Paris drives Loudon west
Loudon's statue, the Genius of Muskegon, is unveiled in May to a happy crowd.
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San Francisco turns an artist into a salesman
Pinkerton meets Loudon at Sacramento in a state of nervous joy.
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A newspaper notice sets off a bidding war
Loudon wanders San Francisco as an idle sketcher, and the South Sea islands begin to pull at him.
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The crew vanishes and a captain is found
Pinkerton raises the money in ninety-day bills, and it costs him dearly.
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The voyage and the wreck at Midway
The Pacific crossing is a happy stretch of trade wind and blue sky, and Loudon falls in love with the sea.
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Art, money and honesty clash in every scene
The central contrast is between art and business.
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A story told backward with many voices
The book is a frame story.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Loudon Dodd A young American sculptor who tells the story. He wants to make art, and he cannot refuse his friend's schemes.
- Jim Pinkerton A restless, generous businessman from the American West who believes in culture, advertising and bold investments. He wants Loudon beside him.
- Captain Nares A skilled, bad-tempered sea captain with a hidden loyalty. He commands the schooner that carries Loudon to the wreck.
- Captain Trent The nervous master of the wrecked brig Flying Scud. He is eager to see the sale go his way.
- Harry Bellairs A shabby lawyer who bids at the wreck auction for a hidden client, and who loves poetry.
- Mamie Pinkerton's quick-minded wife, loyal to her husband, who trusts Loudon less than Jim does.
- Johnson A mild, giggling mate with a sailor's rough talk, who helps Loudon find a captain and crew.
- Douglas Longhurst A polished millionaire who heads the ring of wreck buyers and looks kindly on Pinkerton.
How it ends (spoiler)
Dodd learns the truth from Norris Carthew in Barbizon. Castaways from the schooner Currency Lass, rescued by the Flying Scud, were cheated by Captain Trent, and a fight killed him and his crew. Carthew's party hid the crime by staging a wreck, then escaped aboard the warship Tempest. Dodd keeps the secret. The book closes years later with Pinkerton prosperous, Nares his partner and Dodd telling the tale.
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Pytania o Niszczyciel
What is The Wrecker about?
It follows Loudon Dodd, an American sculptor, and his friend Jim Pinkerton. They buy a wrecked brig at auction, convinced it hides opium, and send a schooner to Midway Island to search it. The search opens a larger mystery.
Who wrote The Wrecker?
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote it with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne, and the two worked on the novel in the South Seas. Stevenson died in 1894. It is a joint novel that mixes comedy, travel and mystery.
Who is Jim Pinkerton in The Wrecker?
Pinkerton is Loudon Dodd's loyal, boundlessly energetic friend. He is a newspaper writer and businessman who loves art in a hopeful, practical way, and he is always starting a new scheme with great confidence.
Is The Wrecker a true story?
No, it is fiction, though the authors drew on real ports, ships and island trade they knew. The idea began on a schooner in the Pacific, where they swapped stories about the sale of wrecks.
Is The Wrecker easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that its chapters move quickly and its narrator is funny and clear. Each place, from Paris to San Francisco to a Pacific reef, is lively, and the mystery keeps you turning pages.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Lloyd Osbourne. The Wrecker. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wrecker.
Stevenson, R. L., & Osbourne, L. (2026). The wrecker. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wrecker (Original work published 1892)
Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Lloyd Osbourne. The Wrecker. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wrecker.
@book{stevenson2026wrecker,
author = {Stevenson, Robert Louis and Osbourne, Lloyd},
title = {The Wrecker},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-wrecker},
note = {First published 1892}
}
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