Contains The Amateur Cracksman, and Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman; A Thief in The Night, and Mr. Justice Raffles.
"I think I may claim that his famous character Raffles was a kind of inversion of Sherlock Holmes, Bunny playing Watson. […]I think there are few finer examples of short story writing in our language than these, though I confess I think they are rather dangerous in their suggestion. […] You must not make the criminal a hero." – Arthur Conan Doyle
A.J. Raffles was the among the early anti-heroes and his mould of gentleman by day and amateur cracksman by night created many more such adventure heroes over the next five decades and made him the second most popular character of his era after Sherlock Holmes.
This volume collects all the books of the adventures of the gentleman burglar with a conscience and a sense of justice. Raffles, the perpetual houseguest, mingles with the upper set but is, in fact, a jewel thief – a master cracksman who makes his living by stealing from his wealthy acquaintances. His adventures are detailed by his friend Bunny Manders, a struggling journalist who first met the young Raffles while they were at school together.
The second part of this volume completes the Raffles oeuvre with ten stories and the only full-length Raffles novel Hornung wrote about the cracksman with a conscience and a sense of justice. Raffles, the perpetual houseguest, mingles with the upper set but is, in fact, a jewel thief – a master cracksman who makes his living by stealing from his wealthy acquaintances. His adventures are detailed by his friend Bunny Manders, a struggling journalist who first met the young Raffles while they were at school together.
Raffles was played on-screen over fifteen times.