Arthur J. Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E. W. Hornung, brother-in-law to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes - he is a ""gentleman thief,"" living at the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing cricket for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the ""Amateur Cracksman,"" and often, at first, differentiates between himself and the ""professors"" - professional criminals from the lower classes. As Holmes has Dr. Watson to chronicle his adventures, Raffles has Harry ""Bunny"" Manders - a former schoolmate saved from disgrace and suicide by Raffles, whom Raffles persuaded to accompany him on a burglary. While Raffles often takes advantage of Manders' relative innocence, and sometimes treats him with a certain amount of contempt, he knows that Manders' bravery and loyalty are to be relied on utterly.

Originally published in The Strand Magazine, where he was second in popularity only to the legendary Sherlock Holmes, these stories introduced the world to antihero gentleman cricketer and thief, A.J. Raffles, along with his faithful cohort, Bunny Manders. This collection includes all of author E.W. Hornung's Raffles adventures. Contains the short story collections: The Amateur Cracksman The Black Mask The Thief in the Night And the novel Mr Justice Raffles

The adventures of one of fiction's most enduring characters, the hyper-elegant A. J. Raffles, man-about-town, thief, and 'finest slow bowler of his generation'. With his partner in crime, Bunny Manders Raffles preys on the rich, the greedy, and the unspeakably vulgar. His talents are exercised not only in London, but as far afield as Italy, Australia, and South Africa at the height of the Boer War. The emphasis on panache, with intensifying suggestions of fallibility, goes to the heart of late Vicotiran attitudes and values. In this volume are all the adventures contained in The Amateur Cracksman, The Black Mask, and A Thief in the Night, with a new introduction and a map of London locations.

These are E. W. Hornung's famous stories of adventure and crime featuring the thrill seeking A. J. Raffles and his friend, accomplice and chronicler 'Bunny'. By turns urbane gentleman about town and accomplished cricketer, life is just too ordinary for Raffles and that sets him on a series of adventures that have long been treasured as a real antidote to the 'white knights' who are the usual heroes of the crime fiction of this period. This book includes the first two collections of Raffles-the Gentleman Cracksman-stories, The Amateur Cracksman & The Black Mask-comprising some 16 stories in all. Included are 'The Ides of March, ' 'Nine Points of the Law, ' 'The Fate of Faustina' and many other favourites. Leonaur is bringing the entire Raffles adventures together in two matching volumes which are available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket-making them perfect for collector

This early work by Arthur Conan Doyle was originally published in 1891 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. It was between 1876 and 1881, while studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, that he began writing short stories, and his first piece was published in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal before he was 20. In 1887, Conan Doyle's first significant work, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual. It featured the first appearance of detective Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist who was to eventually make Conan Doyle's reputation. A prolific writer, Conan Doyle continued to produce a range of fictional works over the following years. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.