The Great Train Robbery

In 1975, the American writer Michael Crichton published the book The Great Train Robbery (in English it was published under the title The Four Keys). The author describes in a highly romanticized form the course of the legendary train robbery of 18 May 1855, when a small group of robbers managed to steal 12,000 pounds in gold (about 75 million crowns in today's conversion) from a moving train. The main character of the story is the swashbuckling gentleman Edward Pierce, who, although they certainly don't suffer from want, ...and decides, with the help of a "clientele".., an expert in opening bad checks, Robert Agar to steal Crimean gold. But this is by no means just a conventional reconstruction of one big crime.

Based on the realities of the time, Crichton describes the causes and consequences of this act, but also the social conditions of the time. It shows readers the other side of the Victorian era, which was characterised by wealth on the one hand and life in appalling conditions on the other. The translator Jaroslav Kořán wrote about Crichton's way of working in the afterword: "The author has studied a vast amount of contemporary material during the preparation process, including old court records and newspapers, and the adventure story he tells us is also an incisive analysis of social conditions, class relations and moral attitudes in Victorian England, making this book far beyond the boundaries of a conventional crime read. The atmosphere of the time is emphasised by literal quotations from the press, the language of the 'better' society, but above all the language of the underworld of the time. "

The sensitive interweaving of reality and fiction helps maintain the tension and literally forces the reader - and in this case the listener - to continue following the story. The audiobook honours Crichton's writing style, leaving the two narrative lines he outlined - the general framework, which consists of the author's notes on the times and social conditions, and the story of the brilliant criminal Edward Pierce and his accomplices.