 = E. W. Hornung = 
 
 Ernest William Hornung ( 7 June 1866 – 22 March 1921 ) was an English author and poet known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th @-@ century London . Hornung was educated at Uppingham School ; as a result of poor health he left the school in December 1883 to travel to Sydney , where he stayed for two years . He drew on his Australian experiences as a background when he began writing , initially short stories and later novels . 
 In 1898 he wrote " In the Chains of Crime " , which introduced Raffles and his sidekick , Bunny Manders ; the characters were based partly on his friends Oscar Wilde and his lover , Lord Alfred Douglas , and also on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson . The series of Raffles short stories were collected for sale in book form in 1899 , and two further books of Raffles short stories followed , as well as a poorly received novel . Aside from his Raffles stories , Hornung was a prodigious writer of fiction , publishing numerous books from 1890 , with A Bride from the Bush to his 1914 novel The Crime Doctor . 
 The First World War brought an end to Hornung 's fictional output . His son , Oscar , was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres in July 1915 . Hornung joined the YMCA , initially in England , then in France , where he helped run a canteen and library . He published two collections of poetry during the war , and then , afterwards , one further volume of verse and an account of his time spent in France , Notes of a Camp @-@ Follower on the Western Front . Hornung 's fragile constitution was further weakened by the stress of his war work . To aid his recuperation , he and his wife visited the south of France in 1921 . He fell ill from influenza on the journey , and died on 22 March 1921 , aged 54 . 
 Although much of Hornung 's work has fallen into obscurity , his Raffles stories continued to be popular , and have formed numerous film and television adaptations . Hornung 's stories dealt with a wider range of themes than crime : he examined scientific and medical developments , guilt , class and the unequal role played by women in society . Two threads that run through a sizeable proportion of his books are Australia and cricket ; the latter was also a lifelong passion . 
 
 = = Biography = = 
 
 
 = = = Early life : 1866 – 86 = = = 
 
 Hornung was born Ernest William Hornung on 7 June 1866 at Cleveland Villas , Marton , Middlesbrough ; he was nicknamed Willie from an early age . He was the third son , and youngest of eight children , of John Peter Hornung ( 1821 – 86 ) and his wife Harriet née Armstrong ( 1824 – 96 ) . John was christened Johan Petrus Hornung in the Transylvania region of Hungary and , after working in Hamburg for a shipping firm , had moved to Britain in the 1840s as a coal and iron merchant . John married Harriet in March 1848 , by which time he had anglicised his name . At the age of 13 Hornung joined St Ninian 's Preparatory School in Moffat , Dumfriesshire before enrolling at Uppingham School in 1880 . Hornung was well liked at school , and developed a lifelong love of cricket despite limited skills at the game , which were further worsened by bad eyesight , asthma and , according to his biographer Peter Rowland , a permanent state of generally poor health . 
 When Hornung was 17 his health worsened ; he left Uppingham and travelled to Australia , where it was hoped by his family that the climate would be beneficial . On his arrival he was employed as a tutor to the Parsons family in Mossgiel in the Riverina , south @-@ western New South Wales . In addition to teaching , he spent time working in remote sheep stations in the outback and contributing material to the weekly magazine The Bulletin ; he also began writing what was to become his first novel . Although he spent only two years in Australia , the experience was " the making of him and ... the making of his career as a writer " , according to Rowland . Another biographer , Mark Valentine , wrote that Hornung " seems to have regarded this period as one of the most satisfying of his life " . 
 
 = = = Return to England : 1886 – 98 = = = 
 
 Hornung returned to England in February 1886 , before the death of his father in November . From a position of relative prosperity , John 's coal and iron business had encountered difficulties and he was in financially straitened circumstances by the time of his death . Hornung found work in London as a journalist and story writer , often publishing his work under a pseudonym , although in 1887 he published his first story under his own name , " Stroke of Five " , which appeared in Belgravia magazine . His work as a journalist was during the period of Jack the Ripper and the series of five murders , which were undertaken against a background of rising urban crime in London ; it was around this time that Hornung developed an interest in criminal behaviour . 
 Hornung had worked on the novel manuscript he brought back from Australia and , between July and November 1890 , the story , " A Bride from the Bush " , was published in five parts in the Cornhill Magazine . It was also released that year as a book — his first . The story — described by Rowland as an " assured , graceful comedy of manners " — used Hornung 's knowledge of Australia as a backdrop , and the device of an Australian bride to examine British social behaviour ; the novel was well received by critics . In 1891 Hornung became a member of two cricket clubs : the Idlers , whose members included Arthur Conan Doyle , Robert Barr and Jerome K. Jerome , and the Strand club . 
 Hornung knew Doyle 's sister , Constance ( " Connie " ) Aimée Monica Doyle ( 1868 – 1924 ) , whom he had met when he visited Portugal . Connie was described by Doyle 's biographer , Andrew Lycett , as being attractive , " with pre @-@ Raphaelite looks ... the most sought @-@ after of the Doyle daughters " . By December 1892 , when Hornung , Doyle and Jerome visited the Black Museum at Scotland Yard , Hornung and Connie were engaged , and in 1893 Hornung dedicated his second novel , Tiny Luttrell , " to C.A.M.D. " They were married on 27 September 1893 , although Doyle was not at the wedding and relations between the two writers were sometimes strained . The Hornungs had a son , Arthur Oscar , in 1895 ; while his first name was from Doyle , who was also Arthur 's godfather , the boy 's middle name was probably after Doyle and Hornung 's mutual friend Oscar Wilde and it was by his second name that he was known . In 1894 Doyle and Hornung began work on a play for Henry Irving , on the subject of boxing during the Regency ; Doyle was initially eager and paid Hornung £ 50 as a down payment before he withdrew after the first act had been written : the work was never completed . 
 Like Hornung 's first novel , Tiny Luttrell had Australia as a backdrop and also used the plot device of an Australian woman in a culturally alien environment . The Australian theme was present in his next four novels : The Boss of Taroomba ( 1894 ) , The Unbidden Guest ( 1894 ) , Irralie 's Bushranger ( 1896 ) and The Rogue 's March ( 1896 ) . In the last of these Hornung wrote of the Australian convict transport system , and showed evidence of a " growing fascination with the motivation behind criminal behaviour and a deliberate sympathy for the criminal hero as a victim of events " , while Irralie 's Bushranger introduced the character Stingaree , an Oxford @-@ educated , Australian gentleman thief , in a novel that " casts doubt on conventional responses " to a positive criminal character , according to Hornung 's biographer , Stephen Knight . 
 
 = = = Introducing Raffles : 1898 – 1914 = = = 
 
 In 1898 Hornung 's mother died , aged 72 and he dedicated his next book , a series of short stories titled Some Persons Unknown , to her memory . Later that year Hornung and his wife visited Italy for six months , staying in Posillipo ; his account of the location appeared in an article of the May 1899 edition of Cornhill Magazine . The Hornungs returned to London in early 1899 , to a house in Pitt Street , West Kensington , where they lived for the next six years . 
 The fictional character Stingaree proved to be a prototype of a character Hornung used in a series of six short stories published in 1898 in Cassell 's Magazine , A. J. Raffles . The character was modelled on George Cecil Ives , a Cambridge @-@ educated criminologist and talented cricketer who , like Raffles , was a resident of the Albany , a gentlemen 's only residence in Mayfair . The first tale of the series " In the Chains of Crime " was published in June that year , titled " The Ides of March " . The stories were collected into one volume — with two additional tales — under the name The Amateur Cracksman , which was published the following year . Hornung used a narrative form similar to Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes stories , with Raffles and his partner @-@ in @-@ crime ( and former school fag ) Bunny Manders being the criminal counterparts to Holmes and Dr. Watson — although Rowland writes that Raffles and Manders " were also fictionalized versions of Wilde and Bosie " ( Wilde 's lover , Lord Alfred Douglas ) . — and he dedicated the stories to his brother @-@ in @-@ law : " To A.C.D. This form of flattery " . Doyle had warned against writing the stories , and reflected in his memoirs that " there are few finer examples of short @-@ story writing in our language than these , though I confess I think they are rather dangerous in their suggestion . I told him so before he put pen to paper , and the result has , I fear , borne me out . You must not make the criminal the hero " . The book was a popular and financial success , although some critics also echoed Doyle 's fears . The reviewer in The Spectator wrote that " stern moralists " would consider the book 's premise " as a new , ingenious , artistic , but most reprehensible application of the crude principles involved in the old @-@ fashioned hero @-@ worship of Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin " . The book ends with Manders imprisoned and Raffles apparently dead , something that left The Spectator reviewer " expressing [ their ] satisfaction that this audaciously entertaining volume is not issued in a cheap form . It is emphatically a feat of virtuosity rather than a tribute to virtue . " 
 After publishing two novels , Dead Men Don 't Tell Tales in 1899 and Peccavi in 1900 , Hornung published a second collection of Raffles stories , The Black Mask , in 1901 . The nearly broke Manders is told to apply for the post of a nurse to an elderly invalid , who then reveals himself to be Raffles , who , as Manders describes , had " aged twenty years ; he looked fifty at the very least . His hair was white ; there was no trick about that ; and his face was another white . The lines about the corners of the eyes and mouth were both many and deep " . In the final story of the collection , " The Knees of the Gods " , Raffles and Manders enlist in the army to fight in the Second Boer War ; the story closes with Manders wounded and Raffles killed . The critics again complained about the criminal aspect ; The Spectator declared " this sort of book presents crime in a form too entertaining and attractive to be moral " , while the reviewer for The Illustrated London News thought that Hornung 's " invention has obviously flagged ... It is laughable , in a sense which the author never intended , to hear these burglars rant about the honour of Old England . It is a pity that the man who wrote Peccavi should stoop to this " . 
 In 1903 Hornung collaborated with Eugène Presbrey to write a four @-@ act play , Raffles , The Amateur Cracksman , which was based on two previously published short stories , " Gentlemen and Players " and " The Return Match " . The play was first performed at the Princess Theatre , New York , on 27 October 1903 with Kyrle Bellew as Raffles , and ran for 168 performances . 
 In 1905 , after publishing four other books in the interim , Hornung brought back the character Stingaree , previously seen in Irralie 's Bushranger . Later that year he responded to public demand and produced a third series of short Raffles stories in A Thief in the Night , in which Manders relates some of his and Raffles 's earlier adventures . The reviewer for the Boston Herald thought that " the sentimental side of the story has never before been shown so dramatically and romantically " , and described the book as " thrilling and exciting " . Hornung 's next book was published in 1909 and was the final Raffles story , the full @-@ length novel Mr. Justice Raffles ; the book was poorly received , with the reviewer for The Observer asking if " Hornung is perhaps a little tired of Raffles " , and stating that " it has not the magic or the ' go ' of the first Raffles , and there is no good in pretending that it has " . During the course of the year he collaborated with Charles Sansom to write a play A Visit From Raffles , which was performed in November that year at the Brixton Empress Theatre , London . 
 Hornung turned away from Raffles thereafter , and in February 1911 published The Camera Fiend , a thriller whose narrator is an asthmatic cricket enthusiast with an ironmaster father , much as Hornung was himself . The story concerned the attempts of a scientist to photograph the soul as it left the body . Hornung followed this up with Fathers of Men ( 1912 ) and The Thousandth Woman ( 1913 ) before Witching Hill ( 1913 ) , a collection of eight short stories in which he introduced the characters Uvo Delavoye and the narrator Gillon , whom Rowland considers to be " reincarnations of Raffles and Bunny " . Hornung 's next work , The Crime Doctor ( 1914 ) marked the end of his fictional output . 
 
 = = = First World War and aftermath = = = 
 
 Oscar Hornung left Eton College in 1914 , intending to enter King 's College , Cambridge later that year . When Britain entered the war against Germany , he volunteered , and was commissioned into the Essex Regiment . He was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres on 6 July 1915 , aged 20 . Although heartbroken by the loss , Hornung was adamant that some good would come of it and he edited a privately issued collection of Oscar 's letters home under the title Trusty and Well Beloved , released in 1916 . Around this time he joined an anti @-@ aircraft unit . In either 1916 or 1917 he joined the YMCA and did volunteer work in England for soldiers on leave ; in March 1917 he visited France , writing a poem about his experience afterwards — something he had been doing more frequently since Oscar 's death — and a collection of his war poetry , Ballad of Ensign Joy , was published later that year . 
 In July 1917 Hornung 's poem , " Wooden Crosses " , was published in The Times , and in September , " Bond and Free " appeared . Towards the end of the year , he was accepted as a volunteer in a YMCA canteen and library " a short distance behind the Front Line " . During his service in Arras , in February 1918 he borrowed a staff car from a friend and visited his son 's grave near Ypres , before returning to the library in Arras . Hornung was concerned about support for pacifism among troops , and wrote to his wife about it . When she spoke to Doyle about the matter , rather than discussing it with Hornung he informed the military authorities . Hornung was angered by Doyle 's action , and " told him there was no need for him to ' butt in ' except for his own ' satisfaction ' . " Relations between the two men were strained as a result . Hornung continued to work at the library until the German Spring Offensive in March overran the British positions and he was forced to retreat , firstly to Amiens and then , in April , back to England . He stayed in England until November 1918 , when he again took up his YMCA duties , establishing a rest hut and library in Cologne . In 1919 Hornung 's account of his time spent in France , Notes of a Camp @-@ Follower on the Western Front , was published . Doyle later wrote of the book that " there are parts of it which are brilliant in their vivid portrayal " , while Hornung 's biographer , Alison Cox , described the book as " one of the best records of the war as experienced on the front lines " . That year Hornung also published his third and final volume of poetry , The Young Guard . 
 
 = = = Death and legacy = = = 
 
 Hornung finished his work with the YMCA and returned to England probably in early 1919 , according to Rowland . He worked on a new novel but was hampered by poor health . His wife 's health was of even greater concern , so in February 1921 they took a holiday in the south of France to recuperate . He fell ill on the train with a chill that turned into influenza and pneumonia from which he died on 22 March 1921 , aged 54 . He was buried in Saint @-@ Jean @-@ de @-@ Luz , in the south of France , in a grave adjacent to that of Gissing . Doyle , returning from a spiritualist lecture tour of Australia , received the news in Paris and travelled south in time for the funeral . 
 When Hornung had still been courting Doyle 's sister , Doyle wrote that " I like young Willie Hornung very much ... he is one of the sweetest @-@ natured and most delicate @-@ minded men I ever knew " . Honouring him after his death , Doyle wrote that he " was a Dr. [ Samuel ] Johnson without the learning but with a finer wit . No one could say a neater thing , and his writings , good as they are , never adequately represented the powers of the man , nor the quickness of his brain " . His obituarist in The Times described him as " a man of large and generous nature , a delightful companion and conversationalist " . 
 Much of Hornung 's work fell out of favour as time passed ; Rowland observed that " all of Hornung 's other works have been forgotten , with the possible exception of Stingaree , but the cricketing Cracksman continues to enthral " . The idea of a criminal as a positive character was one of Hornung 's legacies , and Twentieth @-@ Century Literary Criticism states that " critics have also interpreted Raffles as a prototype of the antihero in modern crime fiction " . The academic Frank Wadleigh Chandler , describing Raffles 's death , writes that " all his creator 's attempts to portray him as a hero , rather than an anti @-@ hero , deservedly fail . " Valentine highlights one aspect of the stories was the mix of " devilry and daring " demonstrated by Raffles ; in this respect he was a literary " forerunner of The Saint , James Bond and other insouciant types " . The writer Colin Watson agrees , and called Hornung " a precursor of [ Ian ] Fleming " . 
 The character continued in book form : the writer Philip Atkey , under the pseudonym Barry Perowne , obtained permission from the Hornung estate to continue the Raffles stories , and seven more novels followed between 1933 and 1940 , with Raffles transformed from a gentleman thief to a tough adventurer . Perowne continued the series in 1950 , and 14 of his stories were published in the 1974 volume Raffles Revisited . Hornung 's original stories have undergone a number of reprints , and when all the short stories were published in a single volume , Graham Greene considered it " a splendid idea " . In 1975 Greene had written a play based on the Raffles stories , The Return of A.J. Raffles , which premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company , with Denholm Elliott as Raffles . 
 There were several Raffles films made during Hornung 's lifetime , Further films followed in the years after his death , including Raffles , the Amateur Cracksman ( 1925 ) , with House Peters , Sr. ; Raffles ( 1930 ) , featuring Ronald Colman ; The Return of Raffles ( 1933 ) , with George Barraud ; and Raffles ( 1939 ) , starring David Niven ; the last of these was a Samuel Goldwyn Productions remake of their own 1930 film , which the academic Victor E. Neuburg called the " most memorable portrayal " of the character . 
 The BBC has dramatised some of Hornung 's Raffles stories for radio , first in the 1940s and again in the 1990s , when Nigel Havers played Raffles . In 1977 Anthony Valentine played the thief , and Christopher Strauli his partner , in a Yorkshire Television series . A 2001 TV version , The Gentleman Thief , adapted the stories for a contemporary audience , with Havers playing the lead . 
 
 = = Writing = = 
 
 
 = = = Style and technique = = = 
 
 Hornung 's prose is widely admired for its lucid @-@ yet @-@ simple style . Oliver Edwards , writing in The Times , considered that " not the least attractive part of the Raffles books is the simple , plain , unaffected language in which each one of them is written " . The obituarist in the same newspaper agrees , and thinks Hornung had " a power of good and clear description and a talent for mystery and surprise " . Colin Watson also considers the point , and observes that in Hornung 's writing , " superfluous description has been avoided and account of action is to the point " , while Doyle admired his " sudden use of the right adjective and the right phrase " , something the writer and journalist Jeremy Lewis sees as a " flamboyant , Kiplingesque taste for the vivid " . 
 Critics have observed that Hornung 's stories and novels are well @-@ structured . George Orwell wrote that Hornung was " a very conscientious and on his level a very able writer . Anyone who cares for sheer efficiency must admire his work " . Watson states that Hornung 's " writing has pace . The stories , however ridiculous , carry the readers along briskly " . According to Cox , " Hornung 's work showed steady maturation " during his career , a point that Doyle also agreed with , although Edwards disagrees , and thinks The Crime Doctor to be one of Hornung 's weaker books . 
 Hornung 's approach to characters differed from other contemporary authors . Cox notes that Hornung " frequently chose to write from the perspective of the criminal " , and while many of Hornung 's novels contained criminal activity as a major element of the plot , the critic for Contemporary Authors states that the works do not " belong to the crime @-@ fiction genre " . Hornung 's works included elements from more general fiction , " such as false identities , disguises , and disowned heiresses " . 
 
 = = = Major themes = = = 
 
 The academic Nick Rance identifies three categories of Raffles stories : " the rise of the New Woman " , in which Raffles either escapes from romantic entanglements , or uses the infatuations of a woman in order to achieve his aims ; " the rise of the plutocracy " , in which Raffles steals from the nouveau riche as much as the upper classes ; and those stories that seek " to reaffirm or re @-@ establish a sense of middle @-@ class identity " . The last category is based on Raffles not being a member of " Society " , only being accepted because of his cricketing ability and associated fame . From this point , Raffles 's stealing from the rich is a " rearguard action on behalf of the puritan values " which was perceived as making up middle @-@ class values , although Rance also states that those values are obscured because of the changing boundaries between the classes . Gariepy makes the same point , and considers that " Raffles 's daring exploits and fantastic adventures symbolized the growing rebellion against Victorian sensibility at the turn of the century " . 
 Hornung kept abreast of scientific and medical developments , and was keen to incorporate them into his stories which , the critic for Contemporary Authors states , shows Hornung had " a streak of modernity and decided interest in new ideas " . The Camera Fiend uses the modern technology of the camera as an instrument central to the plot , while the protagonist of The Crime Doctor uses psychology to identify criminals . 
 Throughout the Raffles stories patriotism runs as an intermittent theme — to such an extent that the writer William Vivian Butler describes him as a " super @-@ patriot " . In the course of the short story " A Jubilee Present " Raffles , celebrating Queen Victoria 's diamond jubilee , steals a gold cup from the British Museum and sends it to the queen , telling Manders that " we have been ruled over for sixty years by infinitely the finest monarch in the world " . In " The Knees of the Gods " , Raffles volunteers for service in the Second Boer War , changing his name and hair colour — he jokes to Manders that he is prepared to " dye for his country " — and he later confesses his true identity to his superiors in order to unmask a spy . 
 Some of Hornung 's novels , including The Shadow of the Rope , No Hero and The Thousandth Woman , are notable for " portraying women in a rather modern , favorable light " , according to the critic for Contemporary Authors , showing concern for their unequal position in society . Cox identifies a theme of guilt running through a number of works . Among these is Peccavi , in which a clergyman lives his life trying to atone for an earlier crime ; Shadow of the Rope , in which a woman is accused of her husband 's murder ; and The Thousandth Woman , in which a woman stands by her lover after he is accused of murder . 
 Although Hornung 's Australian experience was brief , it influenced most of his literary work from A Bride from the Bush published in 1899 , to Old Offenders and a Few Old Scores , which was published after his death . According to Chandler , " nearly two @-@ thirds of [ Hornung 's ] books refer in varying degrees to Australian incidents and experiences " , with " even Raffles " starting his criminal career in Australia . Some of Horning 's works — such as A Bride from the Bush — were praised for their accuracy of detail in depicting the Australian environment , although the detail could overwhelm the storyline , as in The Rogue 's March . 
 Cricket was one of Hornung 's lifelong passions , and he was delighted to become a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1907 . The sport also permeated his stories , with Raffles playing for the Gentlemen of England . Rance observes that Raffles compares law @-@ breaking and cricket : " crime is reckoned as another and better sport " . 
 Raffles does on occasion disparage his game , commenting to Manders in " Gentlemen and Players " , " where 's the satisfaction of taking a man 's wicket when you want his spoons ? " Valentine also considers the point , and sees Raffles 's cricket as a front for his criminal activities , citing Raffles 's praise for cricket for " the glorious protection it affords a person of my proclivities " . 
 Watson examines Raffles 's actions within the broader context of sportsmanship , with Raffles acting within his own moral code " of what is ' done ' and ' not done ' . " Orwell , in his essay " Raffles and Miss Blandish " , observes that when Raffles feels remorse , it " is almost purely social ; he has disgraced ' the old school ' , he has lost his right to enter ' decent society ' , he has forfeited his amateur status and become a cad " . 
 
 