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crack_van2010-12-05 10:40 pm
ajs-bunny.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2010-12-05 10:40 pm
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OVERVIEW: Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman
Dashing gentleman? Check. Clever heists? Adventure? Victorian intrigue? Check, check, and check.
...Slash without the squinting? Done and done!
As part of small fandom month,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
storyfan and I, ajs_bunny will be taking you on a hansom cab ride through the end of Victorian London into Edwardian England with the man who has been hailed as "a dangerous bat, a brilliant field, and perhaps the very finest slow bowler of his decade."
Sherlock Holmes?
Think again!
Bunny and Raffles as played by Christopher Strauli and Anthony Valentine
For Raffles was outside the law. Although he lived the public life of a respectable English gentleman and amateur cricketer, he owed his wealth and life of leisure to his nocturnal game — that as a "cracksman," or thief.
His right-hand man is none other than Harry "Bunny" Manders, his fag from his schoolboy days. Yes, I said fag. For in the good old days, the British public school system allowed older boys to take younger boys as their personal servants. Equally, yes, I said his friend's name was Bunny. For that is the only name Raffles ever calls him by (unless it's "my dear chap," "my good rabbit" or "my dear boy").
When we first meet Raffles, his dear old fag Bunny has put himself in a disgraceful position. He has squandered his family's inheritance living his own life of gentlemanly luxury and gambling. Seeking help from his old schoolmate, Bunny's suicidal hand is stayed by Raffles who then proceeds to seduce him into a life of crime.
Born in Middlesbrough, England in 1866, Ernest William Hornung was known simply as 'Willie' to friends and family. As a young man, he went to Uppingham School (the same school as modern-day Stephen Fry), but he suffered from asthma and so his family sent him to Australia. Those experiences of young schoolboy days and youthful excursions in the colonies inspired many an adventurous tale for the author.
It is unknown if Hornung met his future wife Constance ("Connie") Doyle first or if he was already acquainted with her brother, the famous author Arthur Conan Doyle, but the two men were great friends from the start. It should be no surprise, then, that the authors shared ideas and stories from time to time.
Hornung was already a well-established author by the time he made Conan Doyle's acquaintance, but he hadn't the success of his brother-in-law who was enjoying the money earned from the sale of the Sherlock Holmes adventures. The Hornungs visited the family after Conan Doyle built the palatial estate at Undershaw. Over an after-dinner cigar, the two men marveled at how finding the right character could make a writer successful.
Hornung, however, did not feel he had such a character. "What about this bloke you just created," said Sir Arthur, pointing to the short story Hornung published earlier in 1896 titled "After the Fact". "The public school man who was disgraced and turned to crime? Surely he would make a suitable character for a series!"
Hornung thought otherwise. "I don't know if I have enough ideas for him," said he. "Besides, I killed him off in the end!"
Still, the seed had been planted, and when the Hornungs left England for an extended stay in Italy, Hornung began to put some serious thought about the creation of the world's most elegant anti-hero.
After Willie's death in 1927, the Hornung family gave permission to Philip Atkey who, under the pseudonym of Barry Perowne, wrote Raffles pastiches for various mystery magazines in the 1930s. They were very unlike the original stories, making Raffles more of a shadowy Holmes figure with Bunny as his Watson.
Raffles also enjoyed a long stint on American radio for CBS in the 1940s where he was brought into the modern era to help fight against the Nazis. Sans Bunny.
Then in 1975, when the Raffles stories fell into public domain, Graham Greene resurrected Raffles in his own play, "The Return of A.J. Raffles". Using real life figures in a fictional setting, Greene didn't shy away from the homoerotic content of the original stories like previous incarnations.
Christopher Strauli and Anthony Valentine in Raffles
The stories were brought to life in the Yorkshire Television series starring Anthony Valentine as Raffles and Christopher Strauli as Bunny. This series took great cares to re-create the era in which Raffles and his Bunny lived, including building an entire set to replicate the exterior and interior of London's famous Albany lodgings. Charmingly the most perfect Bunny, Strauli makes an innocent foil to Valentine's devilish Raffles. The series has recently been re-released on DVD. Catch some clips on YouTube.
Michael Cochrane, Eleanor Bron and Jeremy Clyde for BBC Radio
Later, the BBC Radio gave Raffles a voice with Jeremy Clyde as A.J. Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny Manders. If you thought the television show was sufficiently slashy, you will be more than pleasantly surprised at the innordinate amount of man love in the radio show.
Further attempts to bring back the gentleman thief has recently flopped (modern-day adaptions with Nigel Havers on television, and a novel, Raffles and The Match-Fixing Syndicate), but fans of Sherlock Holmes are rediscovering this old literary classic thanks to Project Gutenberg.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crimeandcricket.
A whole website dedicated to Anthony Valentine and the televised series of Raffles can be found at Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman.
The entire series of stories along with a plethora of other trivia suitable for fans and fan writers alike can be found at The Annotated A.J. Raffles.
For more fannish gushing about why you should be seriously running, not walking, to your local library to pick up these classics, I point you to this fandom pitch byanima_mecanique.
...Slash without the squinting? Done and done!
As part of small fandom month,
storyfan and I, ajs_bunny will be taking you on a hansom cab ride through the end of Victorian London into Edwardian England with the man who has been hailed as "a dangerous bat, a brilliant field, and perhaps the very finest slow bowler of his decade."Sherlock Holmes?
Think again!
Bunny and Raffles as played by Christopher Strauli and Anthony Valentine
A Thief in the Night
One of his hands fell kindly on my shoulder, while the other slipped into my overcoat pocket, and I suffered him to deprive me of my weapon without a murmur. Nor was this simply because Raffles had the power of making himself irresistible at will. He was beyond comparison the most masterful man whom I have ever known; yet my acquiescence was due to more than the mere subjection of the weaker nature to the stronger. The forlorn hope which had brought me to the Albany was turned as by magic into an almost staggering sense of safety. Raffles would help me after all! A.J. Raffles would be my friend!Before the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, there was A.J. Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman. The twenty-six short stories and one novel written round the turn of the century (1898-1909) by E.W. Hornung remains, like his brother-in-law's creation of Sherlock Holmes, one of the more endearing characters in English literature. But one, sadly, who has not had the endurance of his law-abiding counterpart.
For Raffles was outside the law. Although he lived the public life of a respectable English gentleman and amateur cricketer, he owed his wealth and life of leisure to his nocturnal game — that as a "cracksman," or thief.
His right-hand man is none other than Harry "Bunny" Manders, his fag from his schoolboy days. Yes, I said fag. For in the good old days, the British public school system allowed older boys to take younger boys as their personal servants. Equally, yes, I said his friend's name was Bunny. For that is the only name Raffles ever calls him by (unless it's "my dear chap," "my good rabbit" or "my dear boy").
When we first meet Raffles, his dear old fag Bunny has put himself in a disgraceful position. He has squandered his family's inheritance living his own life of gentlemanly luxury and gambling. Seeking help from his old schoolmate, Bunny's suicidal hand is stayed by Raffles who then proceeds to seduce him into a life of crime.
The Stories
The Raffles stories are all told lovingly, faithfully, and "truthfully" by Bunny who was encouraged by Raffles to take up his pen and make himself a name in letters. The stories are full of daring, of excitement, and of love. Loads and loads of love.It was Raffles I loved. It was not the dark life we led together, still less its base rewards; it was the man himself, his gayety, his humour, his dazzling audacity, his incomparable courage and resource. And a very horror of turning to him again in mere need of greed set the seal on my first angry resolution. But the anger was soon gone out of me, and when at length Raffles bridged the gap by coming to me, I rose to greet him almost with a shout.You would imagine Raffles as some dashing daring-do, and well he may be, but he is also a criminal. To his loving Bunny, sometimes he is cruel and heartless. He pointedly does not tell Bunny about his devilish plans, and once taking Bunny into his confidence, appears to neglect the poor sod altogether! But suddenly Raffles does the most tender-hearted thing a cold-hearted burglar could do for his pal, and everything seems aright in the world.
"What a rabbit you are at a quotation!Sadly, it does not last. As short as the stories are sweet, Hornung realises that he should not completely glamorise Raffles, for it would be too unrealistic in the sensibilities of Victorian and Edwardian people. Eventually, Raffles gives his life for the worthy cause fighting for the honour of Queen and England."'And I think that the field of Philippi"You may have forgotten your Shakespeare, Bunny, but you ought to remember that."
Was where Caesar came to an end;
But who gave old Brutus the tip, I
Can't comprehend!'
And I did, vaguely, but had no idea what it or Raffles meant, as I plainly told him.
[...]
But I had identified his doggerel verse at last. I am ashamed to say that it was part of a set of my very own writing in the school magazine of my time. So Raffles knew the stuff better than I did myself, and yet scorned to press his flattery to win me over! He had won me: in a second my rounded shoulders were a pedestal for those dangling feet.
The Author
Born in Middlesbrough, England in 1866, Ernest William Hornung was known simply as 'Willie' to friends and family. As a young man, he went to Uppingham School (the same school as modern-day Stephen Fry), but he suffered from asthma and so his family sent him to Australia. Those experiences of young schoolboy days and youthful excursions in the colonies inspired many an adventurous tale for the author.It is unknown if Hornung met his future wife Constance ("Connie") Doyle first or if he was already acquainted with her brother, the famous author Arthur Conan Doyle, but the two men were great friends from the start. It should be no surprise, then, that the authors shared ideas and stories from time to time.
Hornung was already a well-established author by the time he made Conan Doyle's acquaintance, but he hadn't the success of his brother-in-law who was enjoying the money earned from the sale of the Sherlock Holmes adventures. The Hornungs visited the family after Conan Doyle built the palatial estate at Undershaw. Over an after-dinner cigar, the two men marveled at how finding the right character could make a writer successful.
Hornung, however, did not feel he had such a character. "What about this bloke you just created," said Sir Arthur, pointing to the short story Hornung published earlier in 1896 titled "After the Fact". "The public school man who was disgraced and turned to crime? Surely he would make a suitable character for a series!"
Hornung thought otherwise. "I don't know if I have enough ideas for him," said he. "Besides, I killed him off in the end!"
Still, the seed had been planted, and when the Hornungs left England for an extended stay in Italy, Hornung began to put some serious thought about the creation of the world's most elegant anti-hero.
The Pastiches
The term "Raffles" became synonymous with burglaring (at least the gentlemanly kind), and the character of Raffles would appear on several occasions in the cinema, including a silent version from 1917 starring John Barrymore and films with Ronald Colman in 1930 along with its 1940 remake starring David Niven.After Willie's death in 1927, the Hornung family gave permission to Philip Atkey who, under the pseudonym of Barry Perowne, wrote Raffles pastiches for various mystery magazines in the 1930s. They were very unlike the original stories, making Raffles more of a shadowy Holmes figure with Bunny as his Watson.
Raffles also enjoyed a long stint on American radio for CBS in the 1940s where he was brought into the modern era to help fight against the Nazis. Sans Bunny.
Then in 1975, when the Raffles stories fell into public domain, Graham Greene resurrected Raffles in his own play, "The Return of A.J. Raffles". Using real life figures in a fictional setting, Greene didn't shy away from the homoerotic content of the original stories like previous incarnations.
Christopher Strauli and Anthony Valentine in Raffles
The stories were brought to life in the Yorkshire Television series starring Anthony Valentine as Raffles and Christopher Strauli as Bunny. This series took great cares to re-create the era in which Raffles and his Bunny lived, including building an entire set to replicate the exterior and interior of London's famous Albany lodgings. Charmingly the most perfect Bunny, Strauli makes an innocent foil to Valentine's devilish Raffles. The series has recently been re-released on DVD. Catch some clips on YouTube.
Michael Cochrane, Eleanor Bron and Jeremy Clyde for BBC Radio
Later, the BBC Radio gave Raffles a voice with Jeremy Clyde as A.J. Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny Manders. If you thought the television show was sufficiently slashy, you will be more than pleasantly surprised at the innordinate amount of man love in the radio show.
Further attempts to bring back the gentleman thief has recently flopped (modern-day adaptions with Nigel Havers on television, and a novel, Raffles and The Match-Fixing Syndicate), but fans of Sherlock Holmes are rediscovering this old literary classic thanks to Project Gutenberg.
The Fandom
On LiveJournal, you can find the exploits of Raffles and his Bunny continue atcrimeandcricket.A whole website dedicated to Anthony Valentine and the televised series of Raffles can be found at Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman.
The entire series of stories along with a plethora of other trivia suitable for fans and fan writers alike can be found at The Annotated A.J. Raffles.
For more fannish gushing about why you should be seriously running, not walking, to your local library to pick up these classics, I point you to this fandom pitch by
anima_mecanique.
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Hornung loved cricket. He and other writers of the period had formed a little team named 'Allahakbarries'. There's a little article about them (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267008/The-XI-included-Jeeves-Wooster-Pooh-Peter-Pan-J-M-Barries-celebrity-cricket-team-revived.html). I believe he was a member of the MCC at one point, too.
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I didn't, though, expect to find that Raffles had a fandom!
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I forgot raffles....
Re: I forgot raffles....
Although there aren't a lot of stories in this fandom (it truly is a small fandom), they're all so good. It's hard to improve upon perfection....
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