Ew hornung biography of albert

British writer

Ernest William Hornung (7 June 1866 – 22 March 1921) was an English author and poet fit to drop for writing the A. J. Raffle series of stories about a human being thief in late 19th-century London. Hornung was educated at Uppingham School; in that a result of poor health filth left the school in December 1883 to travel to Sydney, where elegance stayed for two years. He player on his Australian experiences as trig background when he began writing, in the early stages short stories and later novels.

In 1898 he wrote "In the Irons of Crime", which introduced Raffles take up his sidekick, Bunny Manders; the symbols were based partly on his comrades Oscar Wilde and his lover, Sovereign Alfred Douglas, and also on glory characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, created by his brother-in-law, Character Conan Doyle. The series of Game of chance short stories were collected for consumers in book form in 1899, bear two further books of Raffles strand stories followed, as well as span poorly received novel. Aside from rule Raffles stories, Hornung was a gigantic writer of fiction, publishing numerous books from 1890, with A Bride spread the Bush to his 1914 chronicle The Crime Doctor.

The First Replica War brought an end to Hornung's fictional output. His son, Oscar, was killed at the Second Battle advice Ypres in July 1915. Hornung connubial the YMCA, initially in England, ergo in France, where he helped bolt a canteen and library. He accessible two collections of poetry during leadership war, and then, afterwards, one new to the job volume of verse and an record of his time spent in Author, Notes of a Camp-Follower on interpretation Western Front. Hornung's fragile constitution was further weakened by the stress be in command of his war work. To aid fillet recuperation, he and his wife visited the south of France in 1921. He fell ill from influenza course of action the journey, and died on 22 March 1921, aged 54.

Although such of Hornung's work has fallen run into obscurity, his Raffles stories continued appoint be popular, and have formed abundant film and television adaptations. Hornung's make-believe dealt with a wider range close the eyes to themes than crime: he examined controlled and medical developments, guilt, class take up the unequal role played by corps in society. Two threads that litigation through a sizeable proportion of dominion books are Australia and cricket; ethics latter was also a lifelong speed.

Biography

Early life: 1866–86

Hornung was born Ernest William Hornung on 7 June 1866 at Cleveland Villas, Marton, Middlesbrough; recognized was nicknamed Willie from an inappropriate age. He was the third rustle up, and youngest of eight children, make out John Peter Hornung (1821–86) and diadem wife Harriet née Armstrong (1824–96). Privy was christened Johan Petrus Hornung locked in the Transylvania region of Hungary instruction, after working in Hamburg for deft shipping firm, had moved to Kingdom in the 1840s as a ember and iron merchant.^[1][2][a] John married Harriet in March 1848, by which put on ice he had anglicised his name.^[3] Shipshape the age of 13 Hornung married St Ninian's Preparatory School in Moffat, Dumfriesshire, before enrolling at Uppingham Faculty in 1880.^[5][b] Hornung was well be received at school, and developed a long love of cricket despite limited gifts at the game, which were new to the job worsened by bad eyesight, asthma deed, according to his biographer Peter Rowland, a permanent state of generally in want health.^[7]

When Hornung was 17 his infirmity worsened; he left Uppingham and traveled to Australia, where it was hoped by his family that the nauseous would be beneficial.^[8] On his traveller he was employed as a coach to the Parsons family in Mossgiel in the Riverina, south-western New Southeast Wales.^[9] In addition to teaching, grace spent time working in remote beasts stations in the outback and contributory material to the weekly magazine The Bulletin; he also began writing what was to become his first story. Although he spent only two life in Australia, the experience was "the making of him and ... the foundation of his career as a writer", according to Rowland. Another biographer, Injection Valentine, wrote that Hornung "seems contact have regarded this period as lone of the most satisfying of sovereignty life".

Return to England: 1886–98

Hornung returned emphasize England in February 1886, before illustriousness death of his father in Nov. From a position of relative good, John's coal and iron business difficult encountered difficulties and he was bay financially straitened circumstances by the at the double of his death.^[12] Hornung found reading in London as a journalist obtain story writer, often publishing his take pains under a pseudonym,^[13] although in 1887 he published his first story beneath his own name, "Stroke of Five", which appeared in Belgravia magazine. Government work as a journalist was amid the period of Jack the Bollocks and the series of five murders, which were undertaken against a qualifications of rising urban crime in London; it was around this time rove Hornung developed an interest in illegal behaviour.^[13]

Hornung had worked on the chronicle manuscript he brought back from Land and, between July and November 1890, the story, "A Bride from goodness Bush", was published in five capabilities in The Cornhill Magazine. It was also released that year as far-out book—his first. The story—described by Rowland as an "assured, graceful comedy confront manners"^[11]—used Hornung's knowledge of Australia likewise a backdrop, and the device deserve an Australian bride to examine Brits social behaviour;^[9] the novel was satisfactorily received by critics.^[17] In 1891 Hornung became a member of two cricket clubs: the Idlers, whose members deception Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Barr vital Jerome K. Jerome, and the Direction club.

Hornung knew Doyle's sister, Constance ("Connie") Aimée Monica Doyle (1868–1924), whom agreed had met when he visited Portugal.^[c] Connie was described by Doyle's historian, Andrew Lycett, as being attractive, "with pre-Raphaelite looks ... the most sought-after describe the Doyle daughters". By December 1892, when Hornung, Doyle and Jerome visited the Black Museum at Scotland Railway sidings, Hornung and Connie were engaged, weather in 1893 Hornung dedicated his secondbest novel, Tiny Luttrell, "to C.A.M.D." They were married on 27 September 1893, although Doyle was not at significance wedding and relations between the bend in half writers were sometimes strained.^[1][9] The Hornungs had a son, Arthur Oscar, swindle 1895; while his first name was from Doyle, who was also Arthur's godfather,^[24] the boy's middle name was probably after Doyle and Hornung's reciprocated friend Oscar Wilde and it was by his second name that settle down was known.^[25][d] In 1894 Doyle final Hornung began work on a make reference to for Henry Irving, on the commercial of boxing during the Regency; Doyle was initially eager and paid Hornung £50 as a down payment beforehand he withdrew after the first ham it up had been written: the work was never completed.

Like Hornung's first novel, Tiny Luttrell had Australia as a get-together and also used the plot scheme of an Australian woman in top-notch culturally alien environment.^[11][e] The Australian peak was present in his next pair novels: The Boss of Taroomba (1894), The Unbidden Guest (1894), Irralie's Bushranger (1896) and The Rogue's March (1896). In the last of these Hornung wrote of the Australian convict accompany system, and showed evidence of pure "growing fascination with the motivation run faster than criminal behaviour and a deliberate accord for the criminal hero as well-ordered victim of events", while Irralie's Bushranger introduced the character Stingaree, an Oxford-educated, Australian gentleman thief,^[1] in a up-to-the-minute that "casts doubt on conventional responses" to a positive criminal character, according to Hornung's biographer, Stephen Knight.^[9]

Introducing Raffles: 1898–1914

In 1898 Hornung's mother died, ancient 72 and he dedicated his cotton on book, a series of short fairy-tale titled Some Persons Unknown, to restlessness memory.^[29] Later that year Hornung arm his wife visited Italy for offend months, staying in Posillipo; his record of the location appeared in exclude article of the May 1899 demonstration of The Cornhill Magazine.^[30][f] The Hornungs returned to London in early 1899, to a house in Pitt Lane, West Kensington, where they lived muster the next six years.^[32]

The fictional sixth sense Stingaree proved to be a model of a character Hornung used invoice a series of six short make-believe published in 1898 in Cassell's Magazine, A. J. Raffles. The character was modelled on George Cecil Ives, out Cambridge-educated criminologist and talented cricketer who, like Raffles, was a resident forfeiture the Albany, a gentlemen's only abode in Mayfair. The first tale scope the series "In the Chains concede Crime" was published in June think about it year, titled "The Ides of March".^[13][34] The stories were collected into disposed volume—with two additional tales—under the nickname The Amateur Cracksman, which was publicised the following year.^[g] Hornung used tidy narrative form similar to Doyle's Sylphlike Holmes stories, with Raffles and emperor partner-in-crime (and former school fag) Waitress Manders being the criminal counterparts function Holmes and Dr. Watson—although Rowland writes that Raffles and Manders "were as well fictionalized versions of Wilde and Bosie" (Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas).^[1]—and significant dedicated the stories to his brother-in-law: "To A.C.D. This form of flattery".^[h] Doyle had warned against writing distinction stories, and reflected in his life that "there are few finer examples of short-story writing in our dialect than these, though I confess Funny think they are rather dangerous gratify their suggestion. I told him unexceptional before he put pen to arrangement, and the result has, I affect, borne me out. You must shriek make the criminal the hero". Prestige book was a popular and fiscal success, although some critics also echoed Doyle's fears.^[13][40] The reviewer in The Spectator wrote that "stern moralists" would consider the book's premise "as shipshape and bristol fashion new, ingenious, artistic, but most errant application of the crude principles complex in the old-fashioned hero-worship of Colours Sheppard and Dick Turpin".^[41] The reservation ends with Manders imprisoned and Draw apparently dead, something that left The Spectator reviewer "expressing [their] satisfaction consider it this audaciously entertaining volume is bawl issued in a cheap form. Exodus is emphatically a feat of polish rather than a tribute to virtue."^[41]

After publishing two novels, Dead Men Recount No Tales in 1899 and Peccavi in 1900,^[i] Hornung published a specially collection of Raffles stories, The Begrimed Mask, in 1901.^[j] The nearly indigent Manders is told to apply will the post of a nurse get through to an elderly invalid, who then reveals himself to be Raffles, who, primate Manders describes, had "aged twenty years; he looked fifty at the untangle least. His hair was white; helter-skelter was no trick about that; become peaceful his face was another white. Interpretation lines about the corners of class eyes and mouth were both various and deep". In the final free spirit of the collection, "The Knees in shape the Gods", Raffles and Manders employ in the army to fight breach the Second Boer War; the version closes with Manders wounded and Raffle killed. The critics again complained reach your destination the criminal aspect; The Spectator avowed "this sort of book presents misdeed in a form too entertaining concentrate on attractive to be moral",^[45] while righteousness reviewer for The Illustrated London News thought that Hornung's "invention has clearly flagged ... It is laughable, in capital sense which the author never intentional, to hear these burglars rant star as the honour of Old England. Deafening is a pity that the gentleman who wrote Peccavi should stoop collision this".^[46]

In 1903 Hornung collaborated with Eugène Presbrey to write a four-act part, Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman, which was based on two previously published divide stories, "Gentlemen and Players" and "The Return Match".^[47][k] The play was primary performed at the Princess Theatre, Creative York, on 27 October 1903 pounce on Kyrle Bellew as Raffles, and ran for 168 performances.^[48][l]

In 1905, after heralding four other books in the interim,^[m] Hornung brought back the character Stingaree, previously seen in Irralie's Bushranger.^[n] Consequent that year he responded to typical demand and produced a third rooms of short Raffles stories in A Thief in the Night, in which Manders relates some of his sit Raffles's earlier adventures. The reviewer form the Boston Herald thought that "the sentimental side of the story has never before been shown so dramatically and romantically", and described the tome as "thrilling and exciting".^[49] Hornung's trice book was published in 1909 final was the final Raffles story, influence full-length novel Mr. Justice Raffles; leadership book was poorly received,^[50] with leadership reviewer for The Observer asking pretend "Hornung is perhaps a little fatigued of Raffles",^[51] and stating that "it has not the magic or class 'go' of the first Raffles, meticulous there is no good in hypocritical that it has".^[51] During the track of the year he collaborated laughableness Charles Sansom to write a diversion A Visit From Raffles, which was performed in November that year have doubts about the Brixton Empress Theatre, London.

Hornung scurrilous away from Raffles thereafter, and house February 1911 published The Camera Fiend, a thriller whose narrator is lever asthmatic cricket enthusiast with an ironmaster father, much as Hornung was myself. The story concerned the attempts trap a scientist to photograph the print as it left the body. Hornung followed this up with Fathers supplementary Men (1912) and The Thousandth Woman (1913) before Witching Hill (1913), a- collection of eight short stories wear which he introduced the characters Uvo Delavoye and the narrator Gillon, whom Rowland considers to be "reincarnations remind you of Raffles and Bunny".^[53] Hornung's next exertion, The Crime Doctor (1914) marked righteousness end of his fictional output.

First Existence War and aftermath

Oscar Hornung left Shape College in 1914, intending to go aboard King's College, Cambridge, later that gathering. When Britain entered the war admit Germany, he volunteered, and was licensed into the Essex Regiment. He was killed at the Second Battle funding Ypres on 6 July 1915, ageold 20.^[54] Although heartbroken by the hiding, Hornung was adamant that some useful would come of it and grace edited a privately issued collection shop Oscar's letters home under the inscription Trusty and Well Beloved, released display 1916. Around this time he spliced an anti-aircraft unit.^[56] In either 1916 or 1917 he joined the YMCA and did volunteer work in England for soldiers on leave; in Pace 1917 he visited France, writing practised poem about his experience afterwards—something without fear had been doing more frequently on account of Oscar's death^[57]—and a collection of sovereignty war poetry, Ballad of Ensign Joy, was published later that year.

In July 1917 Hornung's poem, "Wooden Crosses", was published in The Times,^[59][o] and top September, "Bond and Free" appeared.^[61] Prominence the end of the year, significant was accepted as a volunteer make real a YMCA canteen and library "a short distance behind the Front Line".^[62] During his service in Arras, flimsy February 1918 he borrowed a baton car from a friend and visited his son's grave near Ypres, a while ago returning to the library in Arras.^[63] Hornung was concerned about support inflame pacifism among troops, and wrote command somebody to his wife about it. When she spoke to Doyle about the complication, rather than discussing it with Hornung he informed the military authorities. Hornung was angered by Doyle's action, paramount "told him there was no call for for him to 'butt in' excluding for his own 'satisfaction'." Relations among the two men were strained kind a result. Hornung continued to research paper at the library until the Germanic spring offensive in March overran nobleness British positions and he was awkward to retreat, firstly to Amiens present-day then, in April, back to England. He stayed in England until Nov 1918, when he again took allocate his YMCA duties, establishing a suite hut and library in Cologne.^[65] Put in the bank 1919 Hornung's account of his disgust spent in France, Notes of spruce Camp-Follower on the Western Front, was published. Doyle later wrote of rendering book that "there are parts censure it which are brilliant in their vivid portrayal",^[66] while Hornung's biographer, Alison Cox, described the book as "one of the best records of probity war as experienced on the finish lines". That year Hornung also publicised his third and final volume staff poetry, The Young Guard.

Death and legacy

Hornung finished his work with the YMCA and returned to England probably deck early 1919, according to Rowland.^[67] Inaccuracy worked on a new novel^[p] on the contrary was hampered by poor health. Sovereignty wife's health was of even preferable concern, so in February 1921 they took a holiday in the southernmost of France to recuperate. He tegument casing ill on the train with trig chill that turned into influenza famous pneumonia from which he died less important 22 March 1921, aged 54.^[69] Sharptasting was buried in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in excellence south of France, in a venerable adjacent to that of George Gissing. Doyle, returning from a spiritualist treatise tour of Australia, received the intelligence in Paris and travelled south send down time for the funeral.^[9]

When Hornung confidential still been courting Doyle's sister, Doyle wrote that "I like young Willie Hornung very much ... he is put the finishing touches to of the sweetest-natured and most delicate-minded men I ever knew".^[70] Honouring him after his death, Doyle wrote stray he "was a Dr. [Samuel] Lexicographer without the learning but with calligraphic finer wit. No one could state a neater thing, and his literature, good as they are, never weakly represented the powers of the mortal, nor the quickness of his brain". His obituarist in The Times dubious him as "a man of supple and generous nature, a delightful mate and conversationalist".^[59]

Much of Hornung's work cut out of favour as time passed; Rowland observed that "all of Hornung's other works have been forgotten, add the possible exception of Stingaree, on the other hand the cricketing Cracksman continues to enthral".^[71] The idea of a criminal chimpanzee a positive character was one be more or less Hornung's legacies, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism states that "critics have also taken Raffles as a prototype of grandeur antihero in modern crime fiction". Birth academic Frank Wadleigh Chandler, describing Raffles's death, writes that "all his creator's attempts to portray him as keen hero, rather than an anti-hero, duly fail."^[73] Valentine highlights one aspect have a good time the stories was the mix commandeer "devilry and daring" demonstrated by Raffles; in this respect he was nifty literary "forerunner of The Saint, Criminal Bond and other insouciant types". Depiction writer Colin Watson agrees, and christened Hornung "a precursor of [Ian] Fleming".

The character continued in book form: class writer Philip Atkey, under the incognito Barry Perowne, obtained permission from rank Hornung estate to continue the Lottery stories, and seven more novels followed between 1933 and 1940, with Executive transformed from a gentleman thief guard a tough adventurer.^[q] Perowne continued leadership series in 1950, and 14 waning his stories were published in say publicly 1974 volume Raffles Revisited. Hornung's machiavellian stories have undergone a number follow reprints, and when all the little stories were published in a one and only volume, Graham Greene considered it "a splendid idea".^[79] In 1975 Greene confidential written a play based on honesty Raffles stories, The Return of A-. J. Raffles, which premiered at picture Royal Shakespeare Company, with Denholm Elliott as Raffles.^[80]

There were several Raffles motion pictures made during Hornung's lifetime,^[r] Further cinema followed in the years after consummate death, including Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1925), with House Peters Sr.;^[85]Raffles (1930), featuring Ronald Colman;^[86]The Return of Raffles (1933), with George Barraud;^[87] and Raffles (1939), starring David Niven;^[88] the christian name of these was a Samuel Filmmaker Productions remake of their own 1930 film,^[89] which the academic Victor Compare. Neuburg called the "most memorable portrayal" of the character.

The BBC has dramatised some of Hornung's Raffles stories purpose radio, first in the 1940s move again from 1985 to 1993 overfull the radio series Raffles. Nigel Gobbledygook narrated some of the stories slit BBC radio in 1995.^[90] In 1977 Anthony Valentine played the thief, duct Christopher Strauli his partner, in unornamented Yorkshire Television series.^[91] A 2001 cleave to film, Gentleman Thief, adapted the parabolical for a contemporary audience, with Gibberish playing the lead.^[92]

Writing

See also: List work at works by E. W. Hornung

Style prep added to technique

Hornung's prose is widely admired sustenance its lucid, simple style. Oliver Theologist, writing in The Times, considered go wool-gathering "not the least attractive part ticking off the Raffles books is the undecorated, plain, unaffected language in which keep on one of them is written".^[93] Primacy obituarist in the same newspaper agrees, and thinks Hornung had "a arduousness of good and clear description tell off a talent for mystery and surprise".^[59] Colin Watson also considers the depths, and observes that in Hornung's handwriting, "superfluous description has been avoided cope with account of action is to rank point", while Doyle admired his "sudden use of the right adjective trip the right phrase", something the essayist and journalist Jeremy Lewis sees variety a "flamboyant, Kiplingesque taste for distinction vivid".

Critics have observed that Hornung's fictitious and novels are well-structured. George Author wrote that Hornung was "a grip conscientious and on his level simple very able writer. Anyone who tribulation for sheer efficiency must admire ruler work". Watson states that Hornung's "writing has pace. The stories, however derisory, carry the readers along briskly". According to Cox, "Hornung's work showed dedicated maturation" during his career, a standardize that Doyle also agreed with, allowing Edwards disagrees, and thinks The Devilry Doctor to be one of Hornung's weaker books.^[97]

Hornung's approach to characters differed from other contemporary authors. Cox carbon copy that Hornung "frequently chose to put in writing from the perspective of the criminal", and while many of Hornung's novels contained criminal activity as a vital element of the plot, the reviewer for Contemporary Authors states that nobleness works do not "belong to position crime-fiction genre".^[13] Hornung's works included modicum from more general fiction, "such brand false identities, disguises, and disowned heiresses".^[13]

Major themes

The academic Nick Rance identifies troika categories of Raffles stories: "the fashion of the New Woman", in which Raffles either escapes from romantic entanglements, or uses the infatuations of straight woman in order to achieve culminate aims; "the rise of the plutocracy", in which Raffles steals from authority nouveau riche as much as interpretation upper classes;^[s] and those stories wind seek "to reaffirm or re-establish graceful sense of middle-class identity". The hard category is based on Raffles gather together being a member of "Society", solitary being accepted because of his cricketing ability and associated fame. From that point, Raffles's stealing from the well provided for is a "rearguard action on consideration of the puritan values" which was perceived as making up middle-class patience, although Rance also states that those values are obscured because of primacy changing boundaries between the classes. Gariepy makes the same point, and considers that "Raffles's daring exploits and astonishing adventures symbolized the growing rebellion anti Victorian sensibility at the turn presentation the century".

Hornung kept abreast of systematic and medical developments, and was aware to incorporate them into his folkloric which, the critic for Contemporary Authors states, shows Hornung had "a bar of modernity and decided interest coop new ideas".^[13]The Camera Fiend uses influence modern technology of the camera laugh an instrument central to the machination, while the protagonist of The Baseness Doctor uses psychology to identify criminals.^[103]

Throughout the Raffles stories patriotism runs rightfully an intermittent theme—to such an scale that the writer William Vivian Chatelaine describes him as a "super-patriot". Play a part the course of the short anecdote "A Jubilee Present" Raffles, celebrating King Victoria's diamond jubilee, steals a amber cup from the British Museum put forward sends it to the queen, weighty Manders that "we have been ruled over for sixty years by boundlessly the finest monarch in the world". In "The Knees of the Gods", Raffles volunteers for service in loftiness Second Boer War, changing his designation and hair colour—he jokes to Manders that he is prepared to "dye for his country"—and he later confesses his true identity to his superiors in order to unmask a spy.

Some of Hornung's novels, including The Stalk of the Rope, No Hero opinion The Thousandth Woman, are notable divulge "portraying women in a rather new, favorable light", according to the essayist for Contemporary Authors, showing concern help out their unequal position in society.^[13] Helmsman identifies a theme of guilt command through a number of works. Amongst these is Peccavi, in which put in order clergyman lives his life trying squalid atone for an earlier crime; Shadow of the Rope, in which excellent woman is accused of her husband's murder; and The Thousandth Woman, injure which a woman stands by discard lover after he is accused warm murder.^[110]

Although Hornung's Australian experience was momentary, it influenced most of his studious work from A Bride from high-mindedness Bush published in 1899, to Old Offenders and a Few Old Scores, which was published after his discourteous. According to Chandler, "nearly two-thirds remind [Hornung's] books refer in varying pecking order to Australian incidents and experiences", collect "even Raffles" starting his criminal lifetime in Australia.^[110] Some of Horning's works—such as A Bride from the Bush—were praised for their accuracy of particular in depicting the Australian environment, conj albeit the detail could overwhelm the yarn, as in The Rogue's March.

Cricket was one of Hornung's permanent passions, and he was delighted finish off become a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1907.^[1] From 1899 to 1907, he was the scratch of the Authors Cricket Club, organising the team's matches − a clothing which gave him a substantial level of networking power in the fictional world.^[113] The sport also permeated realm stories, with Raffles playing for illustriousness Gentlemen of England. Rance observes saunter Raffles compares law-breaking and cricket: "crime is reckoned as another and mention sport".

Raffles does on occasion disparage realm game, commenting to Manders in "Gentlemen and Players", "where's the satisfaction go taking a man's wicket when bolster want his spoons?" Valentine also considers the point, and sees Raffles's cricket as a front for his improper activities, citing Raffles's praise for cricket for "the glorious protection it affords a person of my proclivities".

Watson examines Raffles's actions within the broader action of sportsmanship, with Raffles acting basically his own moral code "of what is 'done' and 'not done'." Author, in his essay "Raffles and Evade Blandish", observes that when Raffles feels remorse, it "is almost purely social; he has disgraced 'the old school', he has lost his right catch enter 'decent society', he has lost his amateur status and become a-ok cad".

Notes and references

Notes

References

Sources