Books with author E. W. Hornug

Mr. 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. It was the fourth and last in his four Raffles books which had begun with The Amateur Cracksman in 1899.Unlike the three previous works, the book was a full-length novel and featured darker elements than the earlier collections of short stories. In it a jaded Raffles is growing increasingly cynical about British high society. He encounters Dan Levy, an unscrupulous moneylender, who manages to entrap a number of young men, mostly sons of the wealthy, by giving them loans and then charging huge amounts of interest. Raffles takes it upon himself to teach Levy a lesson.At the end of Hornung's second Raffles short story collection The Black Mask, Raffles and his companion Bunny Manders volunteer for service in the Second Boer War in 1899 where he was killed at the hands of the Boers. Hornung had intended this as a patriotic finale to his hero's story. However there was great popular demand for the return of the character, and a number of generous publishing offers, and Hornung agreed to write another book.In this he has been compared to Arthur Conan Doyle's decision to resurrect Sherlock Holmes after he had been killed falling over the Reichenbach Falls. Doyle had managed this by revealing that Holmes had actually survived the falls, while Hornung set Mr. Justice Raffles before the events of the Boer War. The comparison between the resurrections of Holmes and Raffles is made interesting by the fact that Doyle and Hornung were brothers-in-law. Indeed prior to resurrecting Holmes, Doyle had used much the same technique, demand had called for another Holmes story, so the book he wrote to meet this demand The Hound of the Baskervilles was set prior to Holmes's "demise".

Arthur Raffles is a prominent member of London society, and a national sporting hero. As a cricketer he regularly represents England in Test matches. He uses this as a chance to commit a number of burglaries, primarily stealing valuable jewelry from his hosts. In this he is assisted by his friend, the younger, idealistic Bunny Manders. Both men are constantly under the surveillance of Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard who is always thwarted in his attempts to pin the crimes on Raffles.

Australian outback had always fascinated the British colonial imagination when rags to riches stories of the British convicts and other social outcasts transformed the image of Australia as a gold digger's paradise (remember Abel Magwitch's story in Charles Dicken's Great Expectations?). This interaction which proved deadly for the aboriginal culture and population of Australia also impacted the British literature in a way that it had stories to tell of its incomprehensible wilderness and its inhabitants. This edition brings you an assorted collection of stories about the Australian outback and its people from the pen of a renowned British author – E. W. Hornung. Hornung had also lived and travelled in Australia for two years and unlike his contemporaries wrote a lot of stories with Australia in the background. E. W. Hornung (1866–1921) was an English author and poet and also brother-in-law to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Hornung is known for writing the A. J. Raffles series about a gentleman thief based on a deliberate inversion of the Sherlock Holmes series. Hornung dedicated his creation as a form of flattery to Doyle. Hornung's works are also remembered for giving insight into the social mores of late 19th and early 20th century British society.

You mean when Ready asked him if we were out of our course? I must say I thought it was a silly question to put. It was the same the other evening about the cargo. If the skipper says we're in ballast why not believe him? Why repeat steerage gossip, about mysterious cargoes, at the cuddy table? Captains are always touchy about that sort of thing. I wasn't surprised at his letting out...<

The Amateur Cracksman' was the original short story collection by E.W. Hornung featuring his most famous character A. J. Raffles; a gentleman thief in late Victorian England. It was first published in 1899. The book was very well received and spawned three follow-ups: two more short story collections; 'The Black Mask' (1901) and 'A Thief in the Night' (1904); as well as a full-length novel; 'Mr. Justice Raffles' in 1909.

An English author who gained fame with a series of novels about a raffish but lovable thief named Arthur J. Raffles, Ernest William Hornung also tried his hand at mystery and detective fiction, perhaps inspired by his brother-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of master detective Sherlock Holmes. In Dead Men Tell No Tales, Hornung spins a yarn that starts out with a love affair that blossoms on a boat journey, but soon turns deadly. A must-read for lovers of classic detective fiction.