The Napoleon of Crime :The Life and Times of Adam Worth, the Real Moriarty
The Napoleon of Crime :The Life and Times of Adam Worth, the Real Moriarty
paperback
Published:
15 June, 1998
Popular Books by Ben Macintyre
View All Books by Ben Macintyre
Description
The rumbustious true story of the Victorian master thief who was the model for Conan Doyle’s Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’ arch-rival. From the bestselling author of ‘Operation Mincemeat’ and ‘Agent Zigzag’.
Adam Worth was the greatest master criminal of Victorian times. Abjuring violence and setting himself up as a perfectly respectable gentleman, he became the ringleader for the largest criminal network in the world and the model for Conan Doyle’s evil genius, Moriarty.
At the height of his powers, he stole Gainsborough’s famous portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, then the world’s most valuable painting, from its London showroom. The duchess became his constant companion, the symbol and substance of his achievements. At the end of his career, he returned the painting, having gained nothing material from its theft.
Worth’s Sherlock Holmes was William Pinkerton, founder of America’s first and greatest detective agency. Their parallel lives form the basis for this extraordinary book, which opens a window on the seedy Victorian underworld, wittily exposing society’s hypocrisy and double standards in a storytelling tour de force.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780006550624 |
| ISBN10 | 0006550622 |
| Number Of Pages | 320 |
| Item Weight | 240 g |
| Product Dimensions | 129 x 198 x 28 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
‘A good deal more thrilling than most thrillers’
Ruth Rendell, Daily Telegraph
‘A most remarkable and entertaining biography. It is a highly charged thriller, a moving love affair, a dramatic history of the Victorian criminal underworld, a noble tragedy’
Alexander Waugh, Independent on Sunday
‘A well-researched and lively account…Macintyre has an appetite for fact, assiduity and wit’ Asa Briggs, The Times
‘This is a delicious mingling of through research, lyrical storytelling and empathetic crime reporting…a stylish, original, and picturesque story that reads better than the vast bulk of crime books currently in print’ Michael Coren, Literary Review
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Ben MacIntyre is the author of Forgotten Fatherland, A Foreign Field, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and Josiah the Great. He is the Associate Editor and a columnist for The Times and was the paper’s parlimentary sketch-writer, as well as its correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He lives in London.