Audiobook · read by volunteers
Amateur Cracksman
E. W. Hornung (1866–1921)
Read by Kristin Hughes (1974-2021) · 8 chapters · 5 h 25
About the book
A. J. Raffles is one of the finest cricketers in England and the most charming man in London society. He is also a thief. With his friend Bunny as his companion and chronicler, he leads a double life in which the thrill of the crime matters as much as the loot. Each adventure puts the pair in some new danger, from a glittering country-house weekend to a plan that goes slightly wrong at a crucial moment.
E. W. Hornung created the gentleman burglar in the late nineteenth century as a kind of mirror image of the great detectives of his day. The Amateur Cracksman is the first collection of the Raffles stories, eight tales in about five and a half hours. They are witty, fast and cheerfully amoral, and they offer a lively reminder of how much fun a rogue can be on the page.
Introduction
Ernest William Hornung (1866–1921) was an English author and the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle, having married Doyle’s sister Constance. He wrote novels and stories, including a number set in Australia, where he had spent some years. His most famous creation is the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, who appeared in a series of stories beginning in the 1890s. The Amateur Cracksman, published in 1899, is the first collection.
The stories are narrated by Bunny Manders, Raffles’s loyal friend and partner, who looks back on their exploits. The structure is, deliberately, a reversal of the Sherlock Holmes tales, in which Watson narrates the work of a brilliant detective. Here the brilliant figure is a criminal, and the faithful chronicler is his accomplice. The book reflects the world of late Victorian clubs, cricket and high society, in which a man with good manners could pass almost anywhere. The tone is light, and the plots are neat and often surprising.
Raffles was a great success, and he has appeared in later stories, plays, films and television series. The book is also an interesting example of how popular fiction played with the moral categories of its readers.
The recording has eight sections, one for each story, and runs for about five and a half hours. It is read by a single LibriVox volunteer. Why listen now? Because the stories are short, clever and entertaining, and each can be enjoyed alone. If you enjoy detective fiction, they provide a delicious change of perspective: you follow the thief rather than the sleuth, and you wonder, with some pleasure, whether he will get away with it.
Public domain
E. W. Hornung died in 1921: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text