Define Books As Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1)
| Original Title: | The Amateur Cracksman |
| ISBN: | 0141439335 (ISBN13: 9780141439334) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1 |
| Characters: | A.J. Raffles, Bunny Manders |
| Setting: | United Kingdom |
E.W. Hornung
Paperback | Pages: 240 pages Rating: 3.61 | 2078 Users | 225 Reviews
Point Out Of Books Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1)
| Title | : | Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1) |
| Author | : | E.W. Hornung |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 240 pages |
| Published | : | August 26th 2003 by Penguin Classics (first published 1898) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Mystery. Short Stories. Crime |
Narration To Books Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1)
Gentleman thief Raffles is daring, debonair, devilishly handsome-and a first-rate cricketer. In these eight stories, the master burglar indulges his passion for cricket and crime: stealing jewels from a country house, outwitting the law, pilfering from the nouveau riche, and, of course, bowling like a demon-all with the assistance of his plucky sidekick, Bunny. Encouraged by his brother-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle, to write a series about a public school villain, and influenced by his own experiences at Uppingham, E. W. Hornung created a unique form of crime story, where, in stealing as in sport, it is playing the game that counts, and there is always honor among thieves.Rating Out Of Books Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1)
Ratings: 3.61 From 2078 Users | 225 ReviewsAppraise Out Of Books Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (A.J. Raffles, The Gentleman Thief #1)
Did not finish.A. J. Raffles must be just about THE most annoying character ever created. Narcisistic, and borderline psychopathic. And Bunny is a snivelling little wimp.Managed two and a half stories before throwing in the towel.The embodiment of fin de siècle decadence, dashing A. J. Raffles artfully commits crime for crimes sake. Bored with life as a master cricketer, Raffles turns to a life of crime to stifle his ennui and pad his purse. His conscience-bitten sidekick, Bunny, accompanies him as he burgles Victorian Londons rogues, ruthless, and rich and undeserving. In the eight short stories that make up Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1899), E. W. Hornung creates an anti-Sherlock Holmes a character who finds as
A.J. Raffles is a gentleman thief and first class amateur cricket player. With the narrator, his sidekick known as Bunny, he uses his position in society to liberate valuables from their owners. Hornung was Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law. The book is dedicated to Conan Doyle and these stories certainly owe something to him, although Raffles is on the other side of the law to Holmes. The stories are fun and Raffles is an engaging character. From time to time he has to justify his dubious
I love Raffles and Bunny playing the anti-Holmes duo, and the weird adventures they get up to. I'd love it more, though, if they did more actual burglary and less "we almost did a burglary but for one reason or another we did not actually commit the burglary." Feels like Hornung is hedging bc of Victorian morality and damn it, I just want some thieves doing thief stuff! Give me the Lupin vibes!
A gentleman thief who is no gentleman!I'd read a couple of other classic gentleman-thief books (Lupin, Phantomas), so I was expecting something similar. Nope. These are the stories of how two men-about-town slide down the slippery slope of crime, with no pretense of solving crimes or stealing from the rich to give to the poor. There's acid to the stories--as if we were reading the modern stories of how a famous sports figure and a famous journalist, presumed to be wealthy on the basis of their
A.J. Raffles periodically re-surfaces as a classic character of popular fiction, and just as quickly drops out of sight again, exactly as E.W. Hornung frequently describes him doing in the 26 short stories and single novel that he devoted to Raffles - about half the output that Arthur Conan Doyle produced about Sherlock Holmes. Hornung, famously, was married to Conan Doyle's sister, and patterned his stories of the gentleman thief and champion cricketer Raffles, and his sidekick Bunny Mander,
Raffles and Bunny are buddies! They are buddies with a complex setup though, since A.J. Raffles lead his old school chum Bunny (our narrator) into a life of amateur crime which forever complicates their lives. If nothing else, this is an interesting window into late 19th century England, where high class men gambled away everything they had and would rather steal than resort to work. Like many have pointed out, this is very like Holmes and Watson's dynamic, only applied to thieves rather than
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