Raffles, relevant to your interests ^^
Once again I blame the Baker Street Babes. They mentioned it, and now I'm in love. Damn you, girls! (no, I really love you <3)
I've wanted to flail over this for two weeks now, and I can't imagine a better place than here, because a lot of you probably know what it is, and I need to share it with someone because OMG it's fantastic :D
Quick recap: A. J. Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman is a collection of short stories written around 1900 by E. W. Hornung, friend and brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. The main character is meant as a sort of inverted Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is a gentleman thief and a brilliant cricketer, which he uses as his ticket into the high society circles he doesn't care greatly for and which he frequently robs to annoy them.
And he has a friend who tells us the stories of him and Raffles. Bunny, so nicknamed, who used to be his friend in school, and who seeks him out because he's been so unwise as to waste all his money away and comes to his old friend hoping for a loan. Poor Bunny, who never misses a moment to describe how charming and seductive and irresistible and tantalizing Raffles is and how he can never say no to him when Raffles appears at his door (when they don't live together) or out of the mist (he literally does that once) and smiles his brilliant smile that lights up Bunny's whole world (once when he thinks him dead he describes his life as nightmare), links his arm in his and whisks him off in the middle of the night to some mad adventure that more often than not goes awry.
Bunny is clearly in love with Raffles. He's openly jealous towards both men and women who has anything to do with Raffles. Bunny himself has no female relationships, except that in a much later story he tells us he was engaged to some woman whom he dumped when he met Raffles (yes, that's pretty much his words). Raffles tells Bunny about a woman he once had an affair with, and whom he always thought of as more a man than any other men he knew (!), and while he also tells of a beautiful woman he could have lived happily with in Italy, he does not forget to mention that while he did not miss his "own particular kind" while there, he only wished Bunny had been there to join him in his nightly lonesome swims "when the Bay was all rose-leaves, and last thing at night, when your body caught phosphorescent fire!" Hmmm, sounds rather romantic!
In fact, the whole "criminal lifestyle" of theirs sounds like a big fat metaphor for being gay. The first robbery that Raffles tricks Bunny into doing with him sounds suspiciously like a first sexual encounter, what with things being stuck into holes (when they pick locks), and Raffles even says "If there are two locks there will be a top and a bottom." LMAO! I swear that Hornung is being deliberately vague when he has them talking about their "lifestyle" so that it could mean something else. Bunny says at one point that he has tried to stay away from it even though it was against 'his nature' (LOL!). Bunny says that Raffle just laughed and said that 'human nature was a board of checkers; why not reconcile one's self to alternate black and white? Why desire to be all one thing or all the other, like our forefathers on the stage or in the old-fashioned fiction? For his part, he enjoyed himself on all squares of the board, and liked the light the better for the shade.' I'm sorry, but if he's not saying he's bi and sleeps with whatever he likes, I don't know what he's talking about XD
That whole story is a hoot, btw. The above conversation is from a story where Raffles and Bunny are on a cruise, but Bunny is unable to enjoy it because Raffles spends all his time with this "Colonial minx" as Bunny calls her with disdain. He admits to being jealous and says that the only person more jealous than him was the Captain of the ship they are on board, who has a thing for the girl. He often found the captain stare at him, and writes that they 'ought to have consoled each other'. My god, I think I died laughing at that XD I'm sure I've seen the plot of the two scorned parties "consoling" each other in some romantic movie before XD
I'm amazed how Hornung manages to cram subtext into every word and every paragraph written. I'm even more amazed that this could be published at the time it was. It's more slashy than Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and that caused an outcry, even after he edited the less vague parts out. It's fantastic.
Oh yeah, and Hornung based the character of Raffles on George Cecil Ives, a criminologist and one of the first gay rights activists. He was friends with Wilde, and quite gay himself. Hornung found him a fascinating person, and even if Hornung has never mentioned it (because you couldn't) there's no doubt he must have known about his sexuality and that it's a big part of the Raffles stories.
All in all they are an amazing read, both for us people with a weakness for emotionally intimate male relationships, but also because they are simply really good. It is really a shame that these stories aren't more known than they are, because they are excellently written and highly amusing. Bunny and Raffles are remarkably fleshed out characters, and even though Raffles does not have the brilliant and fascinating mind of Holmes (who has?), Raffles does shine so brightly when described with Bunny's words:
"I had made up my mind not to go near Raffles again, but in my heart I already regretted my resolve. I had forfeited love, I had sacrificed honor, and now I must deliberately alienate myself from the one being whose society might yet be some recompense for all that I had lost. The situation was aggravated by the state of my exchequer. I expected an ultimatum from my banker by every post. Yet this influence was nothing to the other. It was Raffles I loved. It was not the dark life we led together, still less its base rewards; it was the man himself, his gayety, his humor, his dazzling audacity, his incomparable courage and resource."
How can you not adore that ;)
Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman can be downloaded in any format for free here and also downloaded as audio files here, read by the talented Kristin Hughes.
The next collection, The Further Adventures of Raffles can be downloaded in any format here and as audio here.
I've wanted to flail over this for two weeks now, and I can't imagine a better place than here, because a lot of you probably know what it is, and I need to share it with someone because OMG it's fantastic :D
Quick recap: A. J. Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman is a collection of short stories written around 1900 by E. W. Hornung, friend and brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle. The main character is meant as a sort of inverted Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is a gentleman thief and a brilliant cricketer, which he uses as his ticket into the high society circles he doesn't care greatly for and which he frequently robs to annoy them.
And he has a friend who tells us the stories of him and Raffles. Bunny, so nicknamed, who used to be his friend in school, and who seeks him out because he's been so unwise as to waste all his money away and comes to his old friend hoping for a loan. Poor Bunny, who never misses a moment to describe how charming and seductive and irresistible and tantalizing Raffles is and how he can never say no to him when Raffles appears at his door (when they don't live together) or out of the mist (he literally does that once) and smiles his brilliant smile that lights up Bunny's whole world (once when he thinks him dead he describes his life as nightmare), links his arm in his and whisks him off in the middle of the night to some mad adventure that more often than not goes awry.
Bunny is clearly in love with Raffles. He's openly jealous towards both men and women who has anything to do with Raffles. Bunny himself has no female relationships, except that in a much later story he tells us he was engaged to some woman whom he dumped when he met Raffles (yes, that's pretty much his words). Raffles tells Bunny about a woman he once had an affair with, and whom he always thought of as more a man than any other men he knew (!), and while he also tells of a beautiful woman he could have lived happily with in Italy, he does not forget to mention that while he did not miss his "own particular kind" while there, he only wished Bunny had been there to join him in his nightly lonesome swims "when the Bay was all rose-leaves, and last thing at night, when your body caught phosphorescent fire!" Hmmm, sounds rather romantic!
In fact, the whole "criminal lifestyle" of theirs sounds like a big fat metaphor for being gay. The first robbery that Raffles tricks Bunny into doing with him sounds suspiciously like a first sexual encounter, what with things being stuck into holes (when they pick locks), and Raffles even says "If there are two locks there will be a top and a bottom." LMAO! I swear that Hornung is being deliberately vague when he has them talking about their "lifestyle" so that it could mean something else. Bunny says at one point that he has tried to stay away from it even though it was against 'his nature' (LOL!). Bunny says that Raffle just laughed and said that 'human nature was a board of checkers; why not reconcile one's self to alternate black and white? Why desire to be all one thing or all the other, like our forefathers on the stage or in the old-fashioned fiction? For his part, he enjoyed himself on all squares of the board, and liked the light the better for the shade.' I'm sorry, but if he's not saying he's bi and sleeps with whatever he likes, I don't know what he's talking about XD
That whole story is a hoot, btw. The above conversation is from a story where Raffles and Bunny are on a cruise, but Bunny is unable to enjoy it because Raffles spends all his time with this "Colonial minx" as Bunny calls her with disdain. He admits to being jealous and says that the only person more jealous than him was the Captain of the ship they are on board, who has a thing for the girl. He often found the captain stare at him, and writes that they 'ought to have consoled each other'. My god, I think I died laughing at that XD I'm sure I've seen the plot of the two scorned parties "consoling" each other in some romantic movie before XD
I'm amazed how Hornung manages to cram subtext into every word and every paragraph written. I'm even more amazed that this could be published at the time it was. It's more slashy than Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and that caused an outcry, even after he edited the less vague parts out. It's fantastic.
Oh yeah, and Hornung based the character of Raffles on George Cecil Ives, a criminologist and one of the first gay rights activists. He was friends with Wilde, and quite gay himself. Hornung found him a fascinating person, and even if Hornung has never mentioned it (because you couldn't) there's no doubt he must have known about his sexuality and that it's a big part of the Raffles stories.
All in all they are an amazing read, both for us people with a weakness for emotionally intimate male relationships, but also because they are simply really good. It is really a shame that these stories aren't more known than they are, because they are excellently written and highly amusing. Bunny and Raffles are remarkably fleshed out characters, and even though Raffles does not have the brilliant and fascinating mind of Holmes (who has?), Raffles does shine so brightly when described with Bunny's words:
"I had made up my mind not to go near Raffles again, but in my heart I already regretted my resolve. I had forfeited love, I had sacrificed honor, and now I must deliberately alienate myself from the one being whose society might yet be some recompense for all that I had lost. The situation was aggravated by the state of my exchequer. I expected an ultimatum from my banker by every post. Yet this influence was nothing to the other. It was Raffles I loved. It was not the dark life we led together, still less its base rewards; it was the man himself, his gayety, his humor, his dazzling audacity, his incomparable courage and resource."
How can you not adore that ;)
Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman can be downloaded in any format for free here and also downloaded as audio files here, read by the talented Kristin Hughes.
The next collection, The Further Adventures of Raffles can be downloaded in any format here and as audio here.