Customer Reviews

The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A gentleman burglar thumbs his nose at 'impregnable security' in a gallery and steals a priceless portrait of a scandalous woman by literally standing on the shoulders of a giant; then falls in love with the painting and 'elopes' with it for the next twenty years, eventually collecting the award for its return (in disguise) with the help of the detective who first hunted, then befriended, him.

This is the stuff of fiction? No, it all actually happened. Adam Worth was an anomaly even by the standards of his own time (he disdained killing) and preferred to organize teams of cracksmen to maintain his highly organized "web of crime" in London.

It is not surprising to find that Worth was the original of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty and that he earned the profound respect of his personal Sherlock Holmes, Alan Pinkerton. Worth was a self-made man in a very literal sense, from a poor immigrant German/Jewish background. He reinvented himself as an English gentleman and trained an Irish barmaid, Kitty Flynn, to improve her speech and deportment to pass as a Lady. Flynn eventually married a real sugar daddy and became a 'great lady' in a very literal sense, thereby making Worth and Flynn the originals of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle as well as of Professor Moriarty and Kitty Winter.

This is a book filled with incredibly colorful characters who specialized in a genteel style of crime. I thank the author for providing information on my favorite New York fence, "Moms" Mandelbaum, and the safecracker "Baron" Max Shinburn (who is immortalized along with his enemy, Worth, in the Sherlock Holmes stories.)By the way, a character very similar to Worth is played magnificently by Sean Connery in THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY.

Truth really is stranger than fiction. I enjoyed this book very much and can highly recommend it to others.

A very interesting look at two very complex and enigmatic people; Adam Worth and William Pinkerton. One is a life lived in the shadows, the other a life pursuing people with whom he felt a kindred spirit. There seems to be enough light to shed both interest and information on the subject, yet somehow one still feels unsatisfied, as if there was a great deal more to tell. This is probably due in large measure to the intentional obscurity with which Worth lived his double life and the protection Pinkerton gave his. The psychological analysis of Worth is fascinating, but in making the connection between Worth and Moriarity (as well as the Freudian conclusions about Worth and the painting of the Duchess of Devonshire) the author goes a bit far afield after he has already made his point. This somewhat damages the credibility of his objectivity. Even if the outcome remains the same, the author seems to have invested to much of his ego in his conclusions and strains to prove his points. Overall a fascinating look at a man who probably was the best crook of all time, an interesting example of Victorian hypocrisy turned upside down, and one of strangest frienships next to Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. If the book accomplished one surprising result, it was to send me looking for more information on the Pinkerton family, one of the more interesting and unique families in American history. A genuinely fascinating read conducted with style by the author.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the subject matter is guaranteed to fascinate. Adam Worth was a truly bizarre and unique character who knew and was related to several famous people. The book is also very well-written.

My complaint is that the author often seems not really very interested in his subject, Adam Worth. Large sections of the book--including the beggining and the end--are not about Adam Worth at all. The author seems obsessed with the Gainsborough painting, The Duchess of Devonshire. Admittedly, stealing this painting was perhaps Worth's most famous crime and would certainly have rated a chapter. However, Macintyre drones on and on and on about the painter, the history of the painting, the many people who have owned the painting, wholly unsupported psychological assertions about the painting's affect on Worth. He devotes an entire chapter just to J.P. Morgan, who Worth never met nor stole from. Morgan rates a chapter simply because he was the last owner of the Gainsborough.

This is a basically good book that is fatally flawed by the author's tendency to obsess about what is a peripherial issue. Too bad. If you are an art historian I can recommend this book whole-heartedly. If you are interested in a biography of Adam Worth, I recommend the book only with reservations.

This book provides a fascinating portrait of one of the last of the gentleman criminals. In fact, Adam Worth wanted to be known solely as a gentleman rather than as a notorious criminal. The crimes were simply his way of gaining power and prestige in a Victorian world where he could never gain this position without buying it. And buy it he did by perpetrating almost every crime imaginable. An honorable thief who was fiercly loyal to his henchmen, Worth was devilishly clever, many times carrying out operations right out in the open without being caught. No wonder Doyle tapped him for Sherlock Holmes' arch-rival and Elliot immortalized him as Macavity, the Mystery Cat. Not bad for a guy who officially "died" in the Civil War at the 2nd Battle of Bull Run (reports of his death were greatly exaggerated--and he used his deceased status for financial gain, thus beginning his very lucrative criminal career).
Much of the book is taken up with his most famous crime, the stealing the "Duchess of Devonshire" by Gainsborough mere weeks after it was sold at the highest price ever paid for a painting up to that time. For a crime that was almost done on a whim, it is the one for which he is most well known and for which he was never caught (he returned the painting 25 years later anonymously).
Two very nice sub-themes run throughout the book. First was his undying love for his best friend's wife, Kitty Flynn. Flynn went on from humble beginnings (and after dropping he thieving hubby) to become a true Victorian lady of note, but Worth never dropped the torch he held for her (he was probably the father of two of her children).
The second was his friendship with William Pinkerton later in life. Born of mutual respect for each other throughout their careers as antagonists, Pinkerton not only did not volunteer evidence that could have condemned Worth to life in prison after he was caught and exposed, but also brokered the return of the Duchess while keeping Worth anonymous. Pinkerton mourned Worth when he died and kept a promise to watch out for his children by bringing his son into the detective agency, an ironic legacy for the Napoleon of Crime.
Fascinating stuff. Truly stranger than fiction.

Evoking all the moral ambiguity of the Victorian Era, Macintyre offers an intriguing portrait of its most accomplished criminal. Adam Worth, alias Henry Raymond (a name appropriated from the recently deceased founder and editor of the "New York Times") masterminded a series of crimes on three continents, rarely participating in them directly and deploring the use of weapons as a failure of the intellect. While his ill-gotten gains allowed him to live unscathed for some years as an English gentleman, the crime central to this biography was one from which he derived no financial benefit for a quarter century.
His personal theft of a Gainsborough portrait of Georgiana, Dutchess of Devonshire, began an association which, in the author's estimate, became an obsession. At the time, Worth was involved in an amicable menage a trois with his partner, Piano Charley Bullard, and an ambitious Irish woman, Kitty Flynn. Kitty elected to marry Bullard but both men enjoyed her favors and two daughters born during the marriage were widely viewed to be Worth's. A year before the theft, she had left for New York, divorced Bullard, and become engaged to another man. It was her action which "pushed Worth into matrimony, but of a very different sort: his elopement with the Dutchess was now transformed into a full-fledged marriage..."
In addition to the rogues' gallery about Worth, all interesting in their own right, two figures stand out: William Pinkerton and J. Pierpont Morgan. Together, they provide the socially respectable base with Worth at the incongruous apex. Pinkerton's avowed purpose of ferreting out wrong-doers did not preclude his admiration for Worth's achievements and he would ultimately become a trusted friend, serving as intermediary for the return of the portrait to its rightful owners. The robber baron Morgan, who would purchase the painting upon its return, appears as Worth's socially respectable counterpart, his outward veneer of propriety concealing sexual incontinence "to an almost pathological degree."
Macintyre has done a fine job in describing the impact of both Worth and the portrait on popular culture: Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarity is the fictional embodiment of the master criminal and successive generations have been fascinated with Georgiana as represented in the painting.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable biography, written with wit and considerable compassion for its complex subject.

Adam Worth, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional evil mastermind Moriaty, makes a meaty subject for a book under any circumstances. From manager of gaming Hells and forger to diamond and art thief - his criminal career is breath-takingly audacious.

But that isn't where it ends, the story of Adam Worth includes a mystery of a famously stolen portrait, a determined Pinkerton detective and a tale which takes you across four continents.

Ben McIntyre keeps us in full charge of the facts of the life of Worth, and researching it must have been a trial in itself, for as he acknowledges at the beginning of the book, Worth was notoriously cagey about his life leaving few records apart from some coded letters.

The thing that drew me, originally to this book was the story of the portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire. This picture was made for adventure 100 years before Worth stole it. Painted by Gainsborough sometime in 1787 it disappeared shortly afterwards, for reasons unknown, and turned up, a little the worse for wear, over the fireside of some dear old biddy in 1830. Back in the mainstream again it turned up for action in the 1870's bringing in the highest price for a portrait to that date. It was then that Worth saw it, and determined to steal it. And it was here that their two fates, that of the portrait, and that of Adam Worth become inextricably linked.

For the next 25 years as Worth travelled the world pursuing his various illegal schemes, the portrait travelled with him. A remarkably audacious act in itself - but then Worth was an audacious and confident man.

I never felt overwhelmed by the psychological analysis of Worth in this book. In fact I found Macintyre's style easy to read, and his ability to blend the many disparate facts and vast array of colourful characters that peppered Worth's life, excellent.

This is great story and a great book.

I agree with the reviewers saying this book missed its target. It seems like MacIntyre couldn't find sufficient material for a book about Adam Worth, but went ahead and wrote it anyway. My guess is that there's plenty of information about "The Duchess of Devonshire," and so MacIntyre used that to pad out his manuscript. Worth pulled off plenty of other capers, and I'd like to read about those. What I don't want to read is the author's unsubstantiated speculation about Worth's psyche.

If you're interested in the provenance of the "Duchess," this book might be an interesting read. Otherwise, I'd recommend Asbury's "Gangs of New York." Two of Worth's contemporaries and sometime associates also wrote books which might be worth tracking down. These were Sophie Lyons and William Pinkerton.

The Napoleon of Crime is a good, easy read; the author does not demand much from the reader. The chapters are short; some of the chapters appear to be padding, but remarkably everything is tied together in the last four chapters. I can recollect no violence in the book; the characters are well detailed and unique. The work is not a fictionalized attempt and the author appears to stay close to the sources. It must have been a temptation to have such interesting characters with which to work and not make up dialog. The author's effort to find emotional attachments and committments, which are not obvious from the records he consulted, is well down. No pop-psychology here, just understandable human probabilities. I was both entertained and informed by this book; it made no demands on me other than to pay attention and watch the details.

Written with dry British humor, the story of Adam Worth, master criminal, comes to life. And what a life it is! But. apparently, source material was rare and therefore only a few episodes of a criminal nature could be told. In toto, the author just repeats that Worth was a criminal and make sacks of money. To fill the book, he drags the Duchess of Devonshire around a bit too much. A comparison between her and her direct descendant, Lady Di, could be amusing. And I do hope they make the movie soon.

Ben MacIntyre wrote a very entertaining book about Adam Worth. Although the book covered too much of one part of his life and not much detail on other parts, I found his life story intreguing. A great portion of the book was devoted to the portrait Duchess of Devonshire and not on Worth's love of stealing. Adam Worth led a very deceptive life. It is interesting to find out just what a clever man Adam Worth was. MacIntyre portrayed Worth's life in somewhat a humorus way. Adam Worth wasn't your common thief.