5 h 59 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
The gentleman welcomed into the finest houses is also the thief who wants their jewels.
In E. W. Hornung’s The Amateur Cracksman, A. J. Raffles plays cricket for England and moves easily through London society. Behind his polished manners lies a taste for theft. When his old schoolfellow Bunny Manders faces debts he cannot pay, admiration draws him toward Raffles and a dangerous double life.
These eight linked stories follow clever plans, tense nights and narrow escapes through Bunny’s nervous, admiring eyes. The Ides of March opens with his desperate troubles; A Costume Piece turns on disguise and timing; Le Premier Pas explores Raffles’s first step into crime. Each tale stands alone, while their strange friendship binds the collection together.
What you’ll discover
- A polished double life Meet a celebrated cricketer whose welcome in fine houses sits beside his secret hunger for jewels.
- Nerve beneath the manners Follow plans that depend on disguise, timing and the courage to risk discovery.
- An uneasy loyal friend See Raffles through Bunny’s eyes, where admiration and guilt make every risk feel personal.
- Jewels under watch Enter a country house party where Inspector Mackenzie tries to protect the guests and their jewels.
- The lure of risk Explore a friendship in which Bunny’s devotion becomes both his weakness and his strength.
Who will love it
For readers who love clever crime, Victorian London and rogues with charm, and anyone curious about the roots of the gentleman thief.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A ruined man turns to his old friend
- The perfect gentleman has a double life
- Disguise and nerve carry the early jobs
- Origins, close calls and rising danger
- Friendship, class and the lure of risk
- A rogue seen through his admiring friend
Who’s who
- A. J. RafflesA famous cricketer and charming gentleman of London society who secretly steals jewels for the thrill and the challenge of it.
- Bunny MandersRaffles's old schoolfellow and the teller of the tales, a loyal but nervous young man pulled into crime by debt and admiration.
- Inspector MackenzieA Scotland Yard detective who appears at a country house party and tries to guard its guests and their jewels.
- Lord AmerstethA wealthy nobleman and cricket lover who hosts Raffles at his country house, Milchester Abbey, and trusts him as a friend.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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The Amateur Cracksman
by E. W. Hornung · 1899
A celebrated cricketer steals jewels by night, drawing an admiring friend into crime, loyalty and shame.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A ruined man turns to his old friend
The first story, The Ides of March, opens in London with Bunny Manders in deep trouble. He has run up debts that he cannot pay, and he is too proud and too ashamed to tell his family. In his despair he thinks of the one person who might help him, his old schoolmate A. J. Raffles.
Raffles lives in rooms at Albany, an elegant set of apartments off Piccadilly. Bunny remembers him as the star of the school cricket team, a man everyone admired. He goes to Albany expecting sympathy and perhaps a loan. He does not expect what he finds, which is a calm, amused host who has plenty of money but no visible way of earning it.
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What is The Amateur Cracksman about?
It is a set of eight stories about A. J. Raffles, a gentleman cricketer who secretly burgles the rich, and his friend Bunny Manders, who joins him and tells each tale in his own voice.
What does cracksman mean?
Cracksman is an old slang word for a burglar, especially one who breaks into houses or cracks safes. The word amateur in the title stresses that Raffles steals for sport and skill, not as a common criminal.
Is Raffles based on Sherlock Holmes?
Raffles is not based on Holmes, but he is a deliberate mirror of him. Hornung, brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle, made a gentleman thief with a loyal narrator, and he dedicated the book to Doyle.
The author
E. W. Hornung
1866–1921 · English crime novelist
Ernest William Hornung (1866–1921) was a British writer born in Middlesbrough, England. He lived in Australia from 1884 to 1886 before returning to England. He wrote the Raffles stories, including The Amateur Cracksman (1899) and A Thief in the Night (1905). He died in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France.
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