Raffles - E. W. Hornung

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Biographie:
On June 7, 1866, in Cleveland Villas in Marton, Middlesbrough, Ernest William Hornung was born. He was a poet and writer from England best known for his A. J. Raffles novels about a gentleman burglar in late 19th-century London. In 1898, he published In the Chains of Crime, which introduced Bunny Manders and Raffles. In 1899, the collection of Raffles' short stories was published as a book for sale. In addition to his Raffles tales, Hornung was a prolific fiction author who produced a large number of works between 1890 and 1914. He wrote a lot when he was in France...

Sommaire:
Raffles, a gentleman thief, is brash, debonair, devilishly attractive, and a top-notch cricket player. In these eight tales, the master thief indulges his love of cricket and his penchant for crime, robbing the nouveau riche, evading the cops, and, of course, bowling like a demon-all with the help of his resourceful sidekick, Bunny. Raffles and Bunny are two young males who do not want to work for a living despite having significant debt. To maintain their lifestyles of idle luxury, they turn to crime, notably burglary. Raffles is nearly superhuman, rational, and frigid. Because Bunny is so dumb, the reader enjoys knowing more than he does and snickering at everything he overlooks. It lacks any notable female characters and has some casual bigotry characteristics of the historical period. The actual burglary escapades are fine-not great or awful-but for me, the true enjoyment came from getting a glimpse into a brain and environment that seem fascinatingly foreign...