Raffles
Archie Mac |Published: 1955
Pages: 256
Author: Hornung, AW
Publisher: Collins
Rating: 4 stars
This little book features the first two collected stories of Raffles. The two books were originally released in 1899 – The Amateur Cracksman, and 1901 – The Black Mask. In essence they are the whole Raffles story taking us from his first meeting with his equally fictitious chronicler ‘Bunny’ Manders, through to his death in the veldt of South Africa in the Boer war.
Hornung had launched Raffles in the Cassell’s Magazine in June 1898, with his first story The Ides of March, in which Raffles turns a suicidal ‘Bunny’ Manders into his criminal accomplice. The clever Raffles and the awestruck ‘Bunny’ quickly enter into a life of crime, often using Raffles’ cricket profile as cover to access the wealthy upper classes.
Raffles is portrayed as a spin bowler and appears to be a bowling all-rounder. There is no mention of which arm he bowls or his fielding position. In the second book Raffles also confides to ‘Bunny’ that he was no real cricket lover, which will be the greatest disappointment for the cricket tragic.
The author keeps a good pace throughout his stories and soon after their meeting our antiheroes are under investigation by Scotland Yard. By the end of The Amateur Cracksman ‘Bunny’ Manders has been arrested and Raffles is on the run.
With his identity now known we hear practically no more about Raffles the cricketer throughout the second book The Black Mask. This book is not as fast moving or as engaging as the first. We find a paranoid Raffles constantly worried about his identity being discovered until eventually Raffles fakes his own death.
Eventually, Hornung kills off Raffles in the Boer war and as with most antiheroes he pays the price for his antisocial lifestyle.
For books written well over a hundred years ago, these – especially the first book – are entertaining reads and although they contain minimal cricket are well worth tracking down.
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