E. W. Hornung

Ernest William Hornung (7 June 1866 – 22 March 1921) was an English author and poet known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th-century London.

Aside from his Raffles stories, Hornung was a prodigious writer of fiction, publishing numerous books from 1890, with A Bride from the Bush to his 1914 novel The Crime Doctor.

He published two collections of poetry during the war, and then, afterwards, one further volume of verse and an account of his time spent in France, Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front.

Hornung's stories dealt with a wider range of themes than crime: he examined scientific and medical developments, guilt, class and the unequal role played by women in society.

John was christened Johan Petrus Hornung in the Transylvania region of Hungary and, after working in Hamburg for a shipping firm, had moved to Britain in the 1840s as a coal and iron merchant.

[5][b] Hornung was well liked at school, and developed a lifelong love of cricket despite limited skills at the game, which were further worsened by bad eyesight, asthma and, according to his biographer Peter Rowland, a permanent state of generally poor health.

[4][9] In addition to teaching, he spent time working in remote sheep stations in the outback[4] and contributing material to the weekly magazine The Bulletin; he also began writing what was to become his first novel.

From a position of relative prosperity, John's coal and iron business had encountered difficulties and he was in financially straitened circumstances by the time of his death.

[14] His work as a journalist was during the period of Jack the Ripper and the series of five murders, which were undertaken against a background of rising urban crime in London; it was around this time that Hornung developed an interest in criminal behaviour.

[13][15] Hornung had worked on the novel manuscript he brought back from Australia and, between July and November 1890, the story, "A Bride from the Bush", was published in five parts in The Cornhill Magazine.

[16] The story—described by Rowland as an "assured, graceful comedy of manners"[11]—used Hornung's knowledge of Australia as a backdrop, and the device of an Australian bride to examine British social behaviour;[9] the novel was well received by critics.

[26] Like Hornung's first novel, Tiny Luttrell had Australia as a backdrop and also used the plot device of an Australian woman in a culturally alien environment.

[29] Later that year Hornung and his wife visited Italy for six months, staying in Posillipo; his account of the location appeared in an article of the May 1899 edition of The Cornhill Magazine.

[13][40] The reviewer in The Spectator wrote that "stern moralists" would consider the book's premise "as a new, ingenious, artistic, but most reprehensible application of the crude principles involved in the old-fashioned hero-worship of Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin".

[41] The book ends with Manders imprisoned and Raffles apparently dead, something that left The Spectator reviewer "expressing [their] satisfaction that this audaciously entertaining volume is not issued in a cheap form.

[44] The critics again complained about the criminal aspect; The Spectator declared "this sort of book presents crime in a form too entertaining and attractive to be moral",[45] while the reviewer for The Illustrated London News thought that Hornung's "invention has obviously flagged ...

[46] In 1903 Hornung collaborated with Eugène Presbrey to write a four-act play, Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman, which was based on two previously published short stories, "Gentlemen and Players" and "The Return Match".

[42] The reviewer for the Boston Herald thought that "the sentimental side of the story has never before been shown so dramatically and romantically", and described the book as "thrilling and exciting".

[52] Hornung followed this up with Fathers of Men (1912) and The Thousandth Woman (1913) before Witching Hill (1913), a collection of eight short stories in which he introduced the characters Uvo Delavoye and the narrator Gillon, whom Rowland considers to be "reincarnations of Raffles and Bunny".

[54] Although heartbroken by the loss, Hornung was adamant that some good would come of it and he edited a privately issued collection of Oscar's letters home under the title Trusty and Well Beloved, released in 1916.

[56] In either 1916 or 1917 he joined the YMCA and did volunteer work in England for soldiers on leave; in March 1917 he visited France, writing a poem about his experience afterwards—something he had been doing more frequently since Oscar's death[57]—and a collection of his war poetry, Ballad of Ensign Joy, was published later that year.

[64] Hornung continued to work at the library until the German spring offensive in March overran the British positions and he was forced to retreat, firstly to Amiens and then, in April, back to England.

[72] The academic Frank Wadleigh Chandler, describing Raffles's death, writes that "all his creator's attempts to portray him as a hero, rather than an anti-hero, deservedly fail.

"[73] Valentine highlights one aspect of the stories was the mix of "devilry and daring" demonstrated by Raffles; in this respect he was a literary "forerunner of The Saint, James Bond and other insouciant types".

Oliver Edwards, writing in The Times, considered that "not the least attractive part of the Raffles books is the simple, plain, unaffected language in which each one of them is written".

[102] Gariepy makes the same point, and considers that "Raffles's daring exploits and fantastic adventures symbolized the growing rebellion against Victorian sensibility at the turn of the century".

[105][106] In "The Knees of the Gods", Raffles volunteers for service in the Second Boer War, changing his name and hair colour—he jokes to Manders that he is prepared to "dye for his country"[107]—and he later confesses his true identity to his superiors in order to unmask a spy.

[105] Some of Hornung's novels, including The Shadow of the Rope, No Hero and The Thousandth Woman, are notable for "portraying women in a rather modern, favorable light", according to the critic for Contemporary Authors, showing concern for their unequal position in society.

According to Chandler, "nearly two-thirds of [Hornung's] books refer in varying degrees to Australian incidents and experiences",[111] with "even Raffles" starting his criminal career in Australia.

[1] From 1899 to 1907, he was the secretary of the Authors Cricket Club, organising the team's matches − a position which gave him a substantial degree of networking power in the literary world.