The Wrong Box (novel)

The Wrong Box
First edition cover
AuthorRobert Louis Stevenson
Lloyd Osbourne
LanguageEnglish
GenreBlack comedy
PublisherLongmans, Green & Co.
Publication date
1889
Publication placeScotland
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages283
TextThe Wrong Box at Wikisource

The Wrong Box is a black comedy novel co-written by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, first published in 1889. The story is about two brothers who are the last surviving members of a tontine.

The book was the first of three novels that Stevenson co-wrote with Osbourne, who was his stepson. The others were The Wrecker (1892) and The Ebb-Tide (1894). Osbourne wrote the first draft of the novel late in 1887 (then called The Finsbury Tontine), Stevenson revised it in 1888 (then called A Game of Bluff) and again in 1889 when it was finally called The Wrong Box. A film adaptation, also titled The Wrong Box, was released in 1966, and a musical in 2002.