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The Wrong Box
Two elderly brothers are the last survivors of a tontine—a financial scheme where the final survivor claims everything.
"The Wrong Box" by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne is a black comedy novel. Two elderly brothers are the last survivors of a tontine—a financial scheme where the final survivor claims everything.
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How very little does the amateur, dwelling at home at ease, comprehend the labours and perils of the author, and, when he smilingly skims the surface of a work of fiction, how little does he consider the hours of toil, consultation of authorities, researches in the Bodleian, correspondence with learned and illegible Germans—in one word, the vast scaffolding that was first built up and then knocked down, to while away an hour for him in a railway train! Thus I might begin this tale with a biography of Tonti—birthplace, parentage, genius probably inherited from his mother, remarkable instance of precocity, etc—and a complete treatise on the system to which he bequeathed his name. The material is all beside me in a pigeon-hole, but I scorn to appear vainglorious. Tonti is dead, and I never saw anyone who even pretended to regret him; and, as for the tontine system, a word will suffice for all the purposes of this unvarnished narrative.
Contents
- 01Preface
- 02Chapter I. In Which Morris Suspects
- 03Chapter II. In Which Morris takes Action
- 04Chapter III. The Lecturer at Large
- 05Chapter IV. The Magistrate in the Luggage Van
- 06Chapter V. Mr Gideon Forsyth and the Gigantic Box
- 07Chapter VI. The Tribulations of Morris: Part the First
- 08Chapter VII. In Which William Dent Pitman takes Legal Advice
- 09Chapter VIII. In Which Michael Finsbury Enjoys a Holiday
- 10Chapter IX. Glorious Conclusion of Michael Finsbury’s Holiday
- 11Chapter X. Gideon Forsyth and the Broadwood Grand
- 12Chapter XI. The Maestro Jimson
- 13Chapter XII. Positively the Last Appearance of the Broadwood Grand
- 14Chapter XIII. The Tribulations of Morris: Part the Second
- 15Chapter XIV. William Bent Pitman Hears of Something to his Advantage
- 16Chapter XV. The Return of the Great Vance
- 17Chapter XVI. Final Adjustment of the Leather Business
About this edition
- Author
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Era
- Modern (c. 1800–1945)
- Reading level
- Introductory: no background needed
- Formats
- EPUB, PDF
- Length
- 116 pages
- This edition
- Modern Philosophers