词条 | Raffles stories and adaptations |
释义 |
Arthur J. Raffles is a British fictional character – a cricketer and gentleman thief – created by E. W. Hornung, who, between 1898 and 1909, wrote a series of 26 short stories, two plays, and a novel about him and his fictional chronicler, Harry "Bunny" Manders. The first story, "The Ides of March", appeared in the June 1898 edition of Cassell's Magazine.[1] The early adventures were collected in The Amateur Cracksman[1] and continued with The Black Mask (1901).[2] The last collection, A Thief in the Night (1904)[3] and the novel Mr. Justice Raffles (1909)[4] tell of adventures previously withheld. The novel was poorly received, and no further stories were published.[5] Hornung dedicated the first collection of stories, The Amateur Cracksman, to his brother-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle, intending Raffles as a "form of flattery."[6] In contrast to Conan Doyle's Holmes and Watson, Raffles and Bunny are "something dark, morally uncertain, yet convincingly, reassuringly English."[7] {{quote|text=I think I may claim that his famous character Raffles was a kind of inversion of Sherlock Holmes, Bunny playing Watson. He admits as much in his kindly dedication. 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. I told him so before he put pen to paper, and the result has, I fear, borne me out. You must not make the criminal a hero.|sign=Arthur Conan Doyle[6]}}Raffles is an antihero. Although a thief, he "never steals from his hosts, he helps old friends in trouble, and in a subsequent volume he may or may not die on the veldt during the Boer War."[8] Additionally, the "recognition of the problems of the distribution of wealth is [a] recurrent subtext" throughout the stories.[6] According to the Strand Magazine, these stories made Raffles "the second most popular fictional character of the time," behind Sherlock Holmes.[6] They have been adapted to film, television, stage, and radio, with the first appearing in 1903. CharactersArthur J. Raffles{{Main|A. J. Raffles (character)}}Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes{{spaced ndash}}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"{{spaced ndash}}professional criminals from the lower classes.[6][1] Harry "Bunny" Manders{{Main|Bunny Manders}}Bunny Manders, a struggling journalist, is Watson to Raffles' Holmes, his partner and chronicler. They met initially at school and then again on the night Bunny intended to commit suicide after writing bad cheques to cover gambling debts. Raffles, also penniless, but thriving, persuaded Bunny to join him instead.[6][1] PlotsThe "Raffles" stories have two distinct phases. In the first phase, Raffles and Bunny are men-about-town who also commit burglaries. Raffles is a famous gentleman cricketer, a marvellous spin bowler who is often invited to social events that would be out of his reach otherwise. "I was asked about for my cricket", he comments after this period is over. It ends when they are caught and exposed on an ocean voyage while attempting another theft; Raffles dives overboard and is presumed drowned. These stories were collected in The Amateur Cracksman.[1] Other stories set in this period, written after Raffles had been "killed off", were collected in A Thief in the Night.[3] The second phase begins some time later when Bunny{{spaced ndash}}having served a prison sentence{{spaced ndash}}is summoned to the house of a rich invalid. This turns out to be Raffles himself, back in England in disguise. Then begins their "professional" period, exiled from Society, in which they are straightforward thieves trying to earn a living while keeping Raffles's identity a secret. They finally volunteer for the Boer War, where Bunny is wounded and Raffles dies in battle after exposing an enemy spy. These stories were originally collected in The Black Mask, although they were subsequently published in one volume with the phase one stories.[2] The last few stories in A Thief in the Night were set during this period as well.[3] Raffles was never quite the same after his reappearance. The "classic" Raffles elements are all found in the first stories: cricket, high society, West End clubs, Bond Street jewellers{{spaced ndash}}and two men in immaculate evening dress pulling off impossible robberies. BackgroundWhile Raffles and Bunny were based largely on Holmes and Watson, several of the Holmes stories, including the story of his return from the dead, were not published until after Hornung had published The Amateur Cracksman in 1899, and The Black Mask in 1901. Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in June 1892, in "The Adventure of the Final Problem" in the Strand Magazine, and did not write of him again until The Hound of the Baskervilles in August 1901. Doyle would return Holmes to life in "The Adventure of the Empty House" in October 1903, a decision which his biographers agree was due to the success of the Raffles stories.[9] The grand reveal scene in "The Adventure of the Empty House", when Holmes drops his disguise, parallels Raffles's own reveal scene in The Black Mask story "No Sinecure". Thus, while the pre-hiatus Sherlock Holmes stories were a primary influence for the Raffles stories, this relationship would later be reversed.[9] AdaptationsFilmThere have been numerous films based on Raffles and his adventures, including:
Television
Radio and audio
TheatreThe story of A. J. Raffles was first performed on Broadway as Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman on 27 October 1903 at the Princess Theatre.[22] The play moved to the Savoy Theatre in February 1904 and closed out in March of that year racking up 168 performances. It starred Kyrle Bellew as Raffles, a young Clara Blandick as Gwendolyn and E. M. Holland as Captain Bedford.[23] In Langdon McCormick's 1905 play, The Burglar and the Lady, Raffles went up against Arthur Conan Doyle's famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Former boxer "Gentleman Jim" Corbett played Raffles, who was portrayed as an American to match his casting. McCormick did not secure permission from either Doyle or Hornung to use their characters. A 1914 movie adaptation of the play removed Holmes but kept Raffles, again played by Corbett.[24] A dramatisation by Hornung and Eugene Presbrey, with the one-word title Raffles, was staged at the Comedy Theatre, London in 1906, with Gerald du Maurier in the title role.[25] Graham Greene wrote a play called The Return of A. J. Raffles which differs from the Hornung canon on several points, including reinventing Raffles and Bunny as a homosexual couple.[26][27]Other appearances
Raffles and Holmes
Cameo appearances
ReferencesNotes1. ^1 2 3 {{cite book |last=Hornung |first=E. W. |date=29 April 2013 |title=The Amateur Cracksman |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=1484852605 }} Bibliography2. ^1 {{cite book |last=Hornung |first=E. W. |date=29 April 2013 |title=The Black Mask |publisher=Ulverscroft Softcover |isbn=1444808095 }} 3. ^1 2 {{cite book |last=Hornung |first=E. W. |date=22 July 2013 |title=A Thief in the Night |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=1491069368 }} 4. ^{{cite book |last=Hornung |first=E. W. |date=25 December 2012 |title=Mr. Justice Raffles |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=1481841858 }} 5. ^{{cite book|last1=Rowland|first1=Peter|title=Raffles and His Creator|date=1999|publisher=Nekta Publications|location=London|isbn=0953358321|pages=190 & 194–95}} 6. ^1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 {{cite web|url=http://www.strandmag.com/htm/strandmag_raffles.htm |title=Raffles: The Gentleman Thief |first=Richard |last=Bleiler |date= |website=strandmag.com |publisher=Strand Magazine |accessdate=22 February 2014}} 7. ^{{cite news |last=Stuart |first=Evers |date=28 April 2009 |title=The Moral Riddles of AJ Raffles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/apr/27/aj-raffles-sherlock-holmes |newspaper=The Guardian |location= |publisher= |accessdate= }} 8. ^1 {{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-of-a-lifetime-raffles-by-ew-hornung-8297781.html |title=Book of a Lifetime: Raffles by EW Hornung |first=Anthony |last=Quinn |date=10 November 2012 |website=independent.co.uk |publisher=The Independent |accessdate=22 February 2014}} 9. ^1 Rowland, Raffles and His Creator, pages 137-138. 10. ^{{cite AV media |people=Irving, George (Director) |year=1917 |title=Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman |trans-title=|medium=Motion picture |url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/raffles-the-amateur-cracksman-v139255/ |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 11. ^{{cite AV media |people= Quiribet, Gaston and Gerald Ames (Director) |year=1921 |title=Mr. Justice Raffles |medium=Motion picture |url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/mr-justice-raffles-v131050 |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 12. ^{{cite AV media |people=Baggot, King (Director) |year=1925 |title=Raffles |medium=Motion picture |url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/raffles-v107132 |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 13. ^{{cite AV media |people=Fitzmaurice, George and Harry D'Abbadie D'Arrast (Director) |year=1930 |title=Raffles |medium=Motion picture |url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/raffles-v107129 |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 14. ^{{cite AV media |people=Markham, Mansfield (Director) |year=1932 |title=The Return of Raffles |medium=Motion picture |url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-return-of-raffles-v107685 |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 15. ^{{cite AV media |people=Wood, Sam (Director) |year=1939 |title=Raffles |medium=Motion picture |url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/raffles-v107130 |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 16. ^{{cite web|title= Raffles The Amateur Cracksman (1975)|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/325748|publisher=British Film Institute|accessdate=26 February 2014}} 17. ^{{cite AV media |year=1977 |title=Raffles |medium=Television production |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003BQ1HSY/ |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 18. ^{{cite news|last=Banks-Smith|first=Nancy|title=Cutglass vowels and strangled yowls in the last summer of peace|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 July 2001|authorlink=Nancy Banks-Smith|location=London|page=22}} 19. ^{{cite web|title=Raffles on BBC Radio |author=Greg Marshall |url=http://www.geocities.com/gregorym101/raffles.html |work= |archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/5klUBRmtc?url=http://www.geocities.com/gregorym101/raffles.html |archivedate=24 October 2009 |deadurl=yes |df=dmy }} 20. ^{{cite AV media |people=French, Jim (Narrator) |year=2012 |title=Raffles, The Gentleman Thief |medium=Audiobook |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008YWGQ9U/ |publisher=Audible.com |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 21. ^{{cite AV media |people=Rintoul, David (Narrator) |year=2013 |title=Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman |medium=Audiobook |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GNJ5PA2/ |publisher=Audible.com |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 22. ^{{cite book |last1=Bordman |first1=Gerald |last2=Hischak |first2=Thomas S. |date=January 2004 |title=The Oxford Companion to American Theatre |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195169867.013.2560 |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195169867 |accessdate=25 February 2014}} 23. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=4918 |title=Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman |author= |date= |website=ibdb.com |publisher=IBDB |accessdate=22 February 2014}} 24. ^{{cite book |title=Sherlock Holmes on the Stage: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Plays Featuring the Great Detective |last=Kabatchnik |first=Amnon |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-8108-6125-1 |oclc=190785243 |pages=47–51}} 25. ^"Comedy Theatre", The Times, 14 May 1906, p.10 26. ^{{cite book |last=Greene |first=Graham |date=4 December 1975 |title=The Return of A. J. Raffles |url= |location= |publisher=The Bodley Head |isbn=0370106024 |accessdate= }} 27. ^{{cite web |url= https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/20/specials/greene-raffles.html |title=Graham Greene's 'Raffles' Is No Sherlock Holmes |last1=Nightingale |first1=Benedict |date=21 December 1975 |website=nytimes.com |publisher=The New York Times |accessdate=22 February 2014}} 28. ^David Vinyard's review of Raffles Revisited is typical. 29. ^{{cite book |last=Breen |first=Jon L. |title=Ruffles versus Ruffles |url=http://www.iblist.com/book11974.htm |publisher=Ellery Queen |accessdate=25 February 2014 }} 30. ^{{cite book |last=Fletcher |first=David |date=1977 |title=Raffles |url= |location= |publisher=Putnam |isbn=0399119485 |accessdate= }} 31. ^{{cite book |last=Tremayne |first=Peter |date=July 1991 |title=The Return of Raffles |url= |location= |publisher=Severn House Pub Ltd |isbn=0727841408 |accessdate= }} 32. ^{{cite book |last=Hall |first=John |date=2007 |title=The Ardagh Emeralds |url= |location= |publisher=Linford Mystery Library, F. A. Thorp (Publishing) |isbn=9781846178672 |accessdate= }} 33. ^{{cite book |last=Corres |first=Adam |date=14 January 2008 |title=Raffles and the Match-Fixing Syndicate |url= |location= |publisher=Grosvenor House Publishing Limited |isbn=9781906210625 |accessdate= }} 34. ^{{cite book |last=Bangs |first=John Kendrick |date= |title=R. Holmes & Co. |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20559 |location= |publisher=Project Gutenberg |isbn=3955630781 |accessdate= }} 35. ^{{cite book |last=Bangs |first=John Kendrick |date= |title=Mrs. Raffles |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30853 |location= |publisher=Project Gutenberg |isbn=1494875063 |accessdate= }} 36. ^{{cite book |last=Farmer |first=Philip José |date=April 1981 |title=Riverworld and Other Stories |chapter=The Problem of the Sore Bridge – Among Others |url= |series=The Gregg Press science fiction series |publisher=Gregg Press |isbn=0839826184 |accessdate= }} 37. ^{{cite book |last=Fish |first=Robert L. |date=1 August 1990 |title=Schlock Homes: The Complete Bagel Street Saga |chapter=The Adventure of the Odd Lotteries |publisher=Gaslight Publications |isbn=0934468168 }} 38. ^{{cite AV media |people=Corcoran, Bill (Director) |year=1991 |title=Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls |medium=Television production |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IU37WK |accessdate=25 February 2013 }} 39. ^{{cite book |last=Newman |first=Kim |date=4 October 2011 |title=Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Ubervilles |publisher=Titan Books |isbn=0857682830 }} 40. ^{{cite book |last=Foreman |first=Richard |date= |title=Raffles: The Complete Innings |url= |location= |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=1480203130 |accessdate= }} 41. ^{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Alan |date=4 November 2008 |title=The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier |publisher=WildStorm |isbn=1401203078 }} 42. ^{{cite book |last=Moore |first=Alan |date=19 May 2009 |title=The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3: Century #1 1910 |publisher=Top Shelf Productions |isbn=1603090002 }} 43. ^{{cite book |last=Newman |first=Kim |date=24 May 2011 |title=Anno Dracula |publisher=Titan Books |isbn=0857680838 }} 44. ^{{cite book |last=Fforde |first=Jasper |date=24 February 2004 |title=Lost in a Good Book (A Thursday Next Novel) |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0142004030 }} 45. ^Doctor Who – The Companion Chronicles; Sherlock Holmes appears as a character in the Doctor Who novel All-Consuming Fire.
External links
8 : Literary characters|Fictional gentleman thieves|Series of books|Wold Newton family|Fictional characters introduced in 1898|Fictional cricketers|Characters in British novels of the 19th century|Characters in British novels of the 20th century |
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