The Great Train Robbery

“What was really so shocking about The Great Train Robbery was that it suggested, to the sober thinker, that the elimination of crime might not be an inevitable consequence of forward-marching progress. Crime could no longer be likened to the Plague, which had disappeared with changing social conditions to become a dimly remembered threat of the past. Crime was something else, and criminal behavior would not simply fade away.”

In this statement from the novel’s introduction, Michael Crichton describes his theory of what makes the Great Train Robbery (which is based on the historical Great Gold Robbery) so shocking to Victorian society. They believe that crime can be eradicated just as disease was, through the application of new technologies and understandings. The audacious heist challenges this concept of crime, implying that such feats will be characteristic of a rapidly changing society.

“Edward Pierce, on the other hand, was positively exuberant in his approach to crime. Whatever his sources of income, whatever the truth of his background, one thing is certain: he was a master cracksman, or burglar, who over the years had accumulated sufficient capital to finance large-scale criminal operations, thus becoming what was called a ‘putter-up.’ And toward the middle of 1854, he was already well into an elaborate plan to pull the greatest theft of his career, The Great Train Robbery.”

In this quote, Crichton contrasts Pierce and his actions with the dominant concepts of the crimes that “educated figures” committed in Victorian England. Historically, such criminals were low-level conmen, but Pierce proves to be an educated man who runs a large criminal enterprise and uses his talents to gain extreme wealth.

“He smiled broadly. ‘So, gentlemen, you see that the crude attempt of a mere child from the dangerous classes can hardly be of concern to Huddleston & Bradford, for the little ruffian had no more chance of stealing that bullion than I have of—well, of flying to the moon.’”

In this quote, Mr. Henry Fowler boasts about the security measures he has put in place to protect the gold shipment from London to France. He believes that criminals—which is to say, poor, uneducated people—are too unsophisticated to successfully steal the gold. The irony of this statement is that he is revealing his security measures to the very man who will successfully steal the gold.