A. J. Raffles
Encyclopedia
Arthur J. Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E. W. Hornung
, a brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle
, the creator of Sherlock Holmes
. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes — he is a "gentleman thief
," living in the Albany
, a prestigious address in London
, playing cricket
for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the "Amateur Cracksman", and often, at first, differentiates between himself and the "professors" — professional criminals from the lower classes.
As Holmes has Dr. Watson to chronicle his adventures, Raffles has Harry "Bunny" Manders
— a former schoolmate saved from disgrace and suicide by Raffles, whom Raffles persuaded to accompany him on a burglary
. While Raffles often takes advantage of Manders' relative innocence, and sometimes treats him with a certain amount of contempt, he knows that Manders' bravery and loyalty are to be relied on utterly. In several stories, Manders saves the day for the two of them after Raffles gets into situations he cannot get out of on his own.
One of the things that Raffles has in common with Holmes is a mastery of disguise
— during his days as an ostensible man-about-town, he maintains a studio apartment
in another name in which he keeps the components of various disguises. He can imitate the regional speech of many parts of Britain flawlessly, and is fluent in Italian.
The second phase begins some time later when Bunny — having served a prison sentence — is summoned to the house of a rich invalid. This turns out to be Raffles himself, back in England in disguise. Then begins their "professional" period, exiled from Society, in which they are straightforward thieves trying to earn a living while keeping Raffles's identity a secret. They finally volunteer for the Boer War
, where Bunny is wounded and Raffles dies in battle after exposing an enemy spy. These stories were originally collected in The Black Mask, although they were subsequently published in one volume with the phase one stories.
Like Sherlock Holmes after his disappearance into the Reichenbach Falls
, Raffles was never quite the same after his reappearance. The "classic" Raffles elements are all found in the first stories: cricket, high society, West End clubs, Bond Street jewellers... and two men in immaculate evening dress pulling off impossible robberies.
England
than he seems to be. He is aware of the fact that many people who seem to be his friends only like him for his cricket, and he himself has lost all interest in the sport, keeping it up only for its excellent possibilities as a cover for his real occupation (which he considers far more interesting and exciting) and as mental practice. He does have scruples, despite his profession — he will not steal from his host, and he is reluctant to kill, although he does so once and plans to at another time. He also does feel badly about the way he abuses Manders' loyalty.
Despite the risks he already takes, he is sometimes still a sportsman, and some of his crimes are for motives other than pure profit. In a late story, he steals a gold cup from the British Museum
on impulse: when challenged by Bunny as to how he will dispose of it, he posts it to the Queen as a Diamond Jubilee
present. In another, he steals money from a tight-fisted Old Boy
in order to make a donation to their former school in the name of "An Old Boy", shaming the man into making a donation after he had said he would not. His last crime, committed just before he goes off to the Boer War
, is to steal a collection of memorabilia of his crimes from Scotland Yard
's Black Museum
.
The model for Raffles was George Ives
, a Cambridge-educated criminologist and talented cricketer according to Lycett. Ives was privately homosexual, and although Hornung "may not have understood this sexual side of Ives' character", Raffles "enjoys a remarkably intimate relationship with his sidekick Bunny Manders."
as Raffles, a young Clara Blandick
as Gwendolyn and E. M. Holland as Captain Bedford.
. During the 1930s and early 1940s, his series featured Raffles as a fairly typical contemporary pulp adventure hero; when he picked up the series again in the 1950s, and once again during the 1970s and 1980s, the stories were set closer to the late Victorian-setting of the original stories, featuring a version of Raffles who only ever committed crimes for reasons of compassion.
John Kendrick Bangs
authored a 1906 novel R. Holmes & Co. starring Raffles' grandson (and Sherlock Holmes
's son, by Raffles' daughter Marjorie), Raffles Holmes. The novel's second chapter tells the story of Holmes's pursuit of Raffles and his growing affection for Raffles's daughter. Bangs also wrote Mrs Raffles, in which Raffles's sidekick Bunny Manders teams-up in America with the cracksman's hitherto-unchronicled wife.
Graham Greene
wrote a play
called The Return of A. J. Raffles which differs from the Hornung canon
on several points.
Peter Tremayne wrote the novel The Return of Raffles.
Philip José Farmer
put Raffles and Manders into a science-fictional
situation in his story, "The Problem of the Sore Bridge - Among Others", in which he and Bunny solve three mysteries unsolved by Sherlock Holmes and save humanity from alien invasion.
The 1977 novel Raffles by David Fletcher
is a fresh re-write of many of Hornung's original stories, deriving from the television series of the same year.
Adam Corres authored the 2008 novel Raffles and the Match-Fixing Syndicate, a modern crime thriller in which A. J. Raffles, a master of gamesmanship, explores the corrupt world of international cricket match fixing.
. Following this he recently appeared as a central character in the first chapter of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century
set in 1910.
The character of Raffles appeared in the TV film Incident at Victoria Falls
under the name Stanley Bullard and played by Alan Coates. He encountered Sherlock Holmes
, the creation of Hornung's brother-in-law.
Raffles makes a cameo appearance in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula (1992). Although never mentioned by name, the character is described as an amateur cracksman (a reference to the title of the first short story collection), and mutters the epigram, "You play what's chucked at you, I always say."
Raffles and Bunny also make a minor appearance in Lost in a Good Book
, a 2004 novel written by Jasper Fforde
. They are pulled out of the literary world into the real world to help crack a safe containing the stolen manuscript of Shakespeare's Cardenio
.
's Shlock Homes stories, "The Adventure of the Odd Lotteries", Homes and Watney encounter a cracksman and hypochondriac known as "A.J. Lotteries". Raffles, Gentleman Thug
is a strip in Viz
that features a character who shares his name (plus the name of his assistant, Bunny) with the literary Raffles. He is depicted as an upper-class, late Victorian/early Edwardian version of a "chav
".
and German Lord Lister (see Raffles (Lord Lister)
) may be regarded as foreign avatars of Hornung's character.
Ernest William Hornung
Ernest William Hornung , known as Willie, was an English author, most famous for writing the Raffles series of novels about a gentleman thief in late Victorian London....
, a brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, the creator of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes — he is a "gentleman thief
Gentleman thief
In the Victorian vernacular, a gentleman thief is a particularly well-behaving and apparently well bred thief. A "gentleman" is usually, but not always, a man with an inherited title of nobility and inherited wealth, who need not work for a living. Such a man steals not in order to gain material...
," living in the Albany
The Albany
The Albany or Albany is an apartment complex in Piccadilly, London.-Building:...
, a prestigious address in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, playing cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the "Amateur Cracksman", and often, at first, differentiates between himself and the "professors" — professional criminals from the lower classes.
As Holmes has Dr. Watson to chronicle his adventures, Raffles has Harry "Bunny" Manders
Bunny Manders
Harry Manders is a character in the popular series of Raffles novels by E.W. Hornung. He is the faithful companion of Raffles, a cricketer and gentleman thief, who makes a living robbing the rich in late Victorian British High Society.Whereas Raffles is sharp-witted and cynical, the younger Bunny...
— a former schoolmate saved from disgrace and suicide by Raffles, whom Raffles persuaded to accompany him on a burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
. While Raffles often takes advantage of Manders' relative innocence, and sometimes treats him with a certain amount of contempt, he knows that Manders' bravery and loyalty are to be relied on utterly. In several stories, Manders saves the day for the two of them after Raffles gets into situations he cannot get out of on his own.
One of the things that Raffles has in common with Holmes is a mastery of disguise
Disguise
A disguise can be anything which conceals or changes a person's physical appearance, including a wig, glasses, makeup, costume or other ways. Camouflage is one type of disguise for people, animals and objects...
— during his days as an ostensible man-about-town, he maintains a studio apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
in another name in which he keeps the components of various disguises. He can imitate the regional speech of many parts of Britain flawlessly, and is fluent in Italian.
Plot details
The "Raffles" stories have two distinct phases. In the first phase, Raffles and Bunny are men-about-town who also commit burglaries. Raffles is a famous gentleman cricketer, a marvellous spin bowler who is often invited to social events that would be out of his reach otherwise. "I was asked about for my cricket," he comments after this period is over. It ends when they are caught and exposed on an ocean voyage while attempting another theft; Raffles dives overboard and is presumed drowned. These stories were collected in The Amateur Cracksman. Other stories set in this period, written after Raffles had been "killed off," were collected in A Thief in the Night.The second phase begins some time later when Bunny — having served a prison sentence — is summoned to the house of a rich invalid. This turns out to be Raffles himself, back in England in disguise. Then begins their "professional" period, exiled from Society, in which they are straightforward thieves trying to earn a living while keeping Raffles's identity a secret. They finally volunteer for the Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, where Bunny is wounded and Raffles dies in battle after exposing an enemy spy. These stories were originally collected in The Black Mask, although they were subsequently published in one volume with the phase one stories.
Like Sherlock Holmes after his disappearance into the Reichenbach Falls
Reichenbach Falls
The Reichenbach Falls are a series of waterfalls on the River Aar near Meiringen in Bern canton in central Switzerland. They have a total drop of 250 m . At 90 m , the Upper Reichenbach Falls is one of the highest cataracts in the Alps...
, Raffles was never quite the same after his reappearance. The "classic" Raffles elements are all found in the first stories: cricket, high society, West End clubs, Bond Street jewellers... and two men in immaculate evening dress pulling off impossible robberies.
Personality
Raffles is cynical about society, but would settle down permanently if he could just make a big enough haul. At one point, he comments "we can't all be moralists, and the distribution of wealth is all wrong anyway," suggesting that he is less contented with the state of affairs in late-VictorianVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
than he seems to be. He is aware of the fact that many people who seem to be his friends only like him for his cricket, and he himself has lost all interest in the sport, keeping it up only for its excellent possibilities as a cover for his real occupation (which he considers far more interesting and exciting) and as mental practice. He does have scruples, despite his profession — he will not steal from his host, and he is reluctant to kill, although he does so once and plans to at another time. He also does feel badly about the way he abuses Manders' loyalty.
Despite the risks he already takes, he is sometimes still a sportsman, and some of his crimes are for motives other than pure profit. In a late story, he steals a gold cup from the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
on impulse: when challenged by Bunny as to how he will dispose of it, he posts it to the Queen as a Diamond Jubilee
Diamond Jubilee
A Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th anniversary in the case of a person or a 75th anniversary in the case of an event.- Thailand :...
present. In another, he steals money from a tight-fisted Old Boy
Old boy network
An old boy network, or society, can refer to social and business connections among former pupils of male-only private schools. British public school students were traditionally called "boys", thus graduated students are "old boys"....
in order to make a donation to their former school in the name of "An Old Boy", shaming the man into making a donation after he had said he would not. His last crime, committed just before he goes off to the Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, is to steal a collection of memorabilia of his crimes from Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
's Black Museum
Black Museum
The Black Museum of Scotland Yard is a famed collection of criminal memorabilia kept at the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London, England. The museum came into existence sometime in 1874, although unofficially. It was housed at Scotland Yard, and grew from the collection of prisoners'...
.
The model for Raffles was George Ives
George Cecil Ives
George Ives was a German-English poet, writer, penal reformer and early gay rights campaigner.-Life and career:...
, a Cambridge-educated criminologist and talented cricketer according to Lycett. Ives was privately homosexual, and although Hornung "may not have understood this sexual side of Ives' character", Raffles "enjoys a remarkably intimate relationship with his sidekick Bunny Manders."
Collections
The Raffles stories, all by E. W. Hornung, are collected in- The Amateur CracksmanThe Amateur CracksmanThe Amateur Cracksman was the original short story collection by Ernest William Hornung featuring his most famous character A. J. Raffles a gentleman thief in late Victorian Great Britain. It was first published in 1899...
(the early period, in which Raffles really is an amateur thief) - The Black MaskThe Black MaskThe Black Mask is the second collection of stories written by Ernest William Hornung in the A. J. Raffles series concerning a gentleman thief in late Victorian London...
(after Raffles's and Bunny's exposure) (U.S. title: Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman) - A Thief in the Night
- Mr. Justice RafflesMr. Justice RafflesMr. Justice Raffles was a 1909 novel written by E.W. Hornung. It featured his popular character A. J. Raffles a well-known cricketer and gentleman thief...
(novel).
Theatre
The story of A. J. Raffles was first performed on Broadway as Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman on 27 October 1903 at the Princess Theatre. The play moved to the Savoy Theatre in February 1904 and closed out in March of that year racking up 168 performances. It starred Kyrle BellewKyrle Bellew
Harold Kyrle Money Bellew , more commonly known as Kyrle Bellew, was a British stage and silent film actor in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bellew notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside Brown-Potter...
as Raffles, a young Clara Blandick
Clara Blandick
Clara Blandick was an American actress. Her many film appearances include the role of Auntie Em in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:She was born Clara Dickey, the daughter of Isaac B...
as Gwendolyn and E. M. Holland as Captain Bedford.
Film
There have been numerous films based on Raffles and his adventures, including:- Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1905), with Gilbert M. Anderson
- Raffles, the Amateur CracksmanRaffles The Amateur Cracksman (1917 film)Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman is a 1917 silent film starring John Barrymore. The film also co-stars Frank Morgan, Evelyn Brent and Mike Donlin. The film was directed by George Irving.-Plot:...
(1917), starring John BarrymoreJohn BarrymoreJohn Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III... - Raffles (1925), with House Peters
- RafflesRaffles (1930 film)Raffles is a film starring Ronald Colman as the popular title character, a gentleman who is also secretly a notorious jewel thief. Kay Francis plays the woman who Raffles falls in love with. It is based on the 1906 play Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman by E. W...
(1930), featuring Ronald ColmanRonald ColmanRonald Charles Colman was an English actor.-Early years:He was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings included Eric, Edith, and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he... - Return of Raffles (1933)
- RafflesRaffles (1939 film)Raffles is a 1939 film starring David Niven and Olivia de Havilland. It is one of several film adaptations of an 1899 novel by E. W. Hornung, Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman. Sidney Howard wrote the screenplay for the 1930 version, died in 1939, and was given credit as co-author of the screenplay...
(1939), starring David NivenDavid NivenJames David Graham Niven , known as David Niven, was a British actor and novelist, best known for his roles as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days and Sir Charles Lytton, a.k.a. "the Phantom", in The Pink Panther...
Television
- Raffles (1975), a made-for-TV movie, with Anthony Valentine portraying Raffles and Christopher StrauliChristopher StrauliChristopher Strauli is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is probably most famous for appearing as Norman Binns in the British sitcom Only When I Laugh, alongside James Bolam, Peter Bowles, Richard Wilson and Derrick Branche.-Early life and education:He was born in Harpenden,...
playing his sidekick Bunny Manders. - Raffles (TV series)Raffles (TV series)Raffles was a 1977 television adaptation of the A. J. Raffles stories by Ernest William Hornung. The series was produced by Yorkshire Television and written by Phillip Mackie...
The two reprised their roles in a well-regarded television series produced by Yorkshire TelevisionYorkshire TelevisionYorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
in 1977 and scripted by Philip MackiePhilip MackiePhilip Mackie was a British film and television screenwriter. He was born in Salford in Lancashire, England...
. The series was intermittently repeated on ITV3 in 2006, and has been released on DVD. - The Gentleman ThiefThe Gentleman ThiefThe Gentleman Thief is a 2001 British television adaptation of the A.J. Raffles stories by Ernest William Hornung. It features performances from Nigel Havers as A. J. Raffles and Michael French as Ellis Bride. It was directed by Justin Hardy....
(2001), starring Nigel HaversNigel HaversNigel Allan Havers is an English actor. He is probably best known for his BAFTA-nominated role as Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, and for his role as Dr. Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up...
Audio
- Raffles (1985–1993), four series on BBC Radio 4 and World Service starring Jeremy ClydeJeremy ClydeMichael Thomas Jeremy Clyde is an English actor and musician. The son of Lady Elizabeth Wellesley, he made his first public appearance as a pageboy at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1953...
as Raffles and Michael CochraneMichael CochraneMichael Cochrane is an English actor who specialises in playing upper class characters, sometimes with a suaveness that hides their villainy....
as Bunny Manders. - Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman, read by David RintoulDavid RintoulDavid Rintoul is a stage and television actor.Rintoul was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at Edinburgh University and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London....
. - Raffles, the Gentleman Thief, continuing radio series by Imagination TheaterImagination TheaterImagination Theater is an American syndicated radio drama program produced by Jim French Productions. It airs on FM and AM radio stations across the United States and also on XM satellite radio. It features modern radio dramas, the most popular of which are The Adventures of Harry Nile and The...
, scripted by M. J. Elliott, Jim FrenchJim French (radio)James R. "Jim" French is an American radio personality and producer who has written and produced, as of 2011, over 803 radio shows, including The Adventures of Harry Nile and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series.-Life and career:...
and John Hall.
Pastiches
The Raffles character was continued by Barry PerowneBarry Perowne
Barry Perowne was a pseudonym of the British writer Philip Atkey , best known for crime fiction. Another pseudonym was Pat Merriman. He continued the A. J. Raffles series after its creator E. W. Hornung's death, as well as other stories with his own characters.-External links:*...
. During the 1930s and early 1940s, his series featured Raffles as a fairly typical contemporary pulp adventure hero; when he picked up the series again in the 1950s, and once again during the 1970s and 1980s, the stories were set closer to the late Victorian-setting of the original stories, featuring a version of Raffles who only ever committed crimes for reasons of compassion.
John Kendrick Bangs
John Kendrick Bangs
John Kendrick Bangs was an American author, editor and satirist.-Biography:He was born in Yonkers, New York. His father was a lawyer in New York City....
authored a 1906 novel R. Holmes & Co. starring Raffles' grandson (and Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
's son, by Raffles' daughter Marjorie), Raffles Holmes. The novel's second chapter tells the story of Holmes's pursuit of Raffles and his growing affection for Raffles's daughter. Bangs also wrote Mrs Raffles, in which Raffles's sidekick Bunny Manders teams-up in America with the cracksman's hitherto-unchronicled wife.
Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
wrote a play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
called The Return of A. J. Raffles which differs from the Hornung canon
Canonical
Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. Canon comes from the greek word κανών kanon, "rule" or "measuring stick" , and is used in various meanings....
on several points.
Peter Tremayne wrote the novel The Return of Raffles.
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
put Raffles and Manders into a science-fictional
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
situation in his story, "The Problem of the Sore Bridge - Among Others", in which he and Bunny solve three mysteries unsolved by Sherlock Holmes and save humanity from alien invasion.
The 1977 novel Raffles by David Fletcher
David Fletcher
David Fletcher may refer to:* David Fletcher * David Fletcher * David Fletcher * David Fletcher...
is a fresh re-write of many of Hornung's original stories, deriving from the television series of the same year.
Adam Corres authored the 2008 novel Raffles and the Match-Fixing Syndicate, a modern crime thriller in which A. J. Raffles, a master of gamesmanship, explores the corrupt world of international cricket match fixing.
Other character appearances
The character was mentioned in the 2007 epistolary graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black DossierThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...
. Following this he recently appeared as a central character in the first chapter of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century is the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. Co-published by Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics in the US and UK respectively, Century will be published in...
set in 1910.
The character of Raffles appeared in the TV film Incident at Victoria Falls
Incident at Victoria Falls (1991 TV film)
Incident at Victoria Falls was the second and final film in the proposed series of television films Sherlock Holmes the Golden Years written by Bob Shayne. It starred Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee as Holmes and Watson in old age...
under the name Stanley Bullard and played by Alan Coates. He encountered Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, the creation of Hornung's brother-in-law.
Raffles makes a cameo appearance in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula (1992). Although never mentioned by name, the character is described as an amateur cracksman (a reference to the title of the first short story collection), and mutters the epigram, "You play what's chucked at you, I always say."
Raffles and Bunny also make a minor appearance in Lost in a Good Book
Lost in a Good Book
Lost in a Good Book is an alternate history, fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde. It won the IMBA 2004 Dilys Award.-Plot introduction:It is the second book by Jasper Fforde and the sequel to the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next in The Eyre Affair...
, a 2004 novel written by Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and begun two more independent series: The Last Dragonslayer...
. They are pulled out of the literary world into the real world to help crack a safe containing the stolen manuscript of Shakespeare's Cardenio
Cardenio
The History of Cardenio, often referred to as merely Cardenio, is a lost play, known to have been performed by The King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. It was attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stationers' Register entry of 1653...
.
Parody
In one of Robert L. FishRobert L. Fish
Robert Lloyd Fish was an American writer of crime fiction. His first novel, The Fugitive, gained him the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel in 1962, and his short story "Moonlight Gardener" was awarded the Edgar for best short story in 1972...
's Shlock Homes stories, "The Adventure of the Odd Lotteries", Homes and Watney encounter a cracksman and hypochondriac known as "A.J. Lotteries". Raffles, Gentleman Thug
Raffles, Gentleman Thug
Raffles, the Gentleman Thug is a comic strip featured in the British publication Viz, the central character of which is a 19th-century nobleman given to 'immense erudition and wanton violence'. Raffles inhabits the formal world of the Victorian gentleman, but behaves as a 21st-century hooligan,...
is a strip in Viz
Viz (comic)
Viz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent storylines...
that features a character who shares his name (plus the name of his assistant, Bunny) with the literary Raffles. He is depicted as an upper-class, late Victorian/early Edwardian version of a "chav
Chav
A chav is a term that is used in the United Kingdom to describe a stereotype of teenagers and young adults from an underclass background.-Etymology:...
".
Avatars
The French Arsène LupinArsène Lupin
Arsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction / crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television such as Night Hood, stage play and comic book adaptations.- Overview :A...
and German Lord Lister (see Raffles (Lord Lister)
Raffles (Lord Lister)
Raffles and Lord Lister are the names of a popular fictional gentleman thief, who first appeared in a German pulp magazine entitled "Lord Lister, genannt Raffles, der Meisterdieb" published in 1908...
) may be regarded as foreign avatars of Hornung's character.
External links
- Raffles stories on Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- "Raffles and Miss Blandish", Horizon 10.58 (1944) - an essay by George OrwellGeorge OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...