Eng. Lit.

Raffles and his creator: the life and works of E.W, Hornung

Towards the end of the nineteenth century the British public were dumbfounded by the appearance on the literary scene of the nonchalant, debonair figure of A.J. Raffles, ex-public school (though not a 'Varsity man), who resided at the Albany, played cricket by day and burgled by night. His astonishing adventures, narrated by Harold ('Bunny') Manders, his ex-fag, enthralled Victorian England in the late 1890s, and his fame momentarily eclipsed that of Sherlock Holmes - for Raffles and Bunny were basically Holmes and Watson in reverse, but with an added dash of spice thrown in. The Amateur Cracksman, published in 1899, was the best-seller of its day and passed through scores of editions, as did the two collections of tales which followed - The Black Mask (1901) and A Thief in the Night (1905). These magical tales have rarely been out of print, and the exploits of the most charming rogue in English literature have also featured on the stage, in the cinema and on television.

Everyone has heard of Raffles, and every aspect of his career is dealt with at length in this book. But E.W. Hornung, the master craftsman who created him, was (at the time of its appearance) virtually unknown. If remembered at all, it was merely as the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Yet whereas the creator of Sherlock Holmes has now been celebrated in at least eighteen biographies, this was the very first biography of the creator of A.J. Raffles ever to appear.

The book revealed that Willie Hornung, both as man and writer, was every bit as remarkable as Doyle but was perpetually overshadowed by his brother-in-law. And Raffles, unfortunately, perpetually overshadowed Hornung's other works. Short-sighted, modest, sensitive and self-effacing, but with an impish sense of humour, he produced a vast number of novels, some (such as A Bride from the Bush, his very first) with an Australian background and two (Peccavi and Fathers of Men) which are near-masterpieces. He was also a poet. And, although the extent of their acquaintance is difficult to gauge, the book also examines the extent to which Hornung expressed, as openly as he dared, his close affinity with Oscar Wilde - on whom, indeed, the character of Raffles was very largely based.

NOTE The first hundred pages of this book have now been superseded by 'E.W. Hornung: The Emergence of a Popular Author, 1866 - 1898' (see below).

The Unobtrusive Miss Hawker: The Life and Works of 'Lanoe Falconer', Late Victorian Novelist & Short Story Writer, 1848 - 1908

In 1891 a dazzling fresh star shot to the forefront of Great Britain's literary constellation. An elegant little volume entitled Mademoiselle Ixe, unique in shape and content, appeared in the bookshops. It was hailed, almost instantly, as a miniature masterpiece. The name of its author, Lanoe Falconer, conveyed nothing, for it was an ostentatious pseudonym. Adroitly marketed, it very soon became the hit of the season. The same author speedily produced two more best-sellers - Hôtel d'Angleterre, a collection of short stories, and Cecilia de Noël, a totally original ghost story (and one that still works its magic).

Lanoe Falconer soon came to be regarded as a leading exponent of the art of the short story, and found herself rubbing shoulders in the monthly periodicals with such luminaries as Henry James and Thomas Hardy. There was a huge demand for new tales from this wonderful source, which she did her best to satisfy for some eighteen months. But, to the distress and perplexity of an army of admirers, she suddenly fell silent. Not until 1907, with the publication of Old Hampshire Vignettes, would she be heard from again - and within a year of that book's appearance she was dead.

Mary Elizabeth Hawker (1848-1908), the witty, perceptive and intelligent woman behind the mask of Lanoe Falconer, has a claim to be regarded as the last but not the least of the Victorian storytellers. Living in a Hampshire village for most of her life, she came very close, had it not been for serious illness, to being the equal of another famous Hampshire author. The Unobtrusive Miss Hawker seeks to tell a story every bit as fascinating and compelling as those penned by Mary herself. It recreates the publishing world of the early 1890s, when the three-decker novel was being supplanted by the single volume, and vividly evokes (through Mary's eyes) the authentic life of a rural community in the 1870s and 1880s. [For The Collected Stories of Lanoe Falconer see under Compilation and Editorial.]

Dickensian Digressions: The Hunter, the Haunter and the Haunted

Two major Dickens studies, each of them breaking fresh ground, vie for attention in this volume. The first explores the extent to which Charles Dickens inherited the mantle of Charles Lamb. It demonstrates how heavily he drew upon his predecessor's work for inspiration, adopting Elia's themes and mannerisms and virtually taking his place on the English literary scene - even to the extent of inheriting John Forster as his closest friend and confidant. (And it is shown how the opening scene of Great Expectations was inspired by a chapter in Mrs Leicester's School, written by Lamb's sister.)

The second major study explores the strained relationship between Dickens, the leading novelist of the day, and Thomas Babington Macaulay, the leading historian of the day. It pinpoints the latent simmering animosity and tensions between the two men over a period of twenty-five years and the extent to which their views differed on current issues, as well as celebrating the few occasions on which they were able to join in common cause. (Carlyle, the favorite historian of Dickens, and Thackeray, a close friend of Macaulay, play peripheral roles in this study.)

Other topics include a successful search for Bob Fagin, the prototype (in nomenclature terms) of the villainous Jew in Oliver Twist; the revelation of a public letter addressed to the former Maria Beadnell, Dickens's first love, sharply advising her to keep her distance, and reflections on how H.G. Wells blatantly managed to produce an up-dated version of David Copperfield which went undetected. The book examines the extent to which Dickens truly believed in ghosts and the manner in which his spirit apparently contacted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - in order to explain how The Mystery of Edwin Drood was intended to end. (In which connection, the extent to which Sherlock Holmes became involved in the case is examined - and there is also a 'Droodian fragment' from an unexpected source to take into account, fully the equal of the celebrated 'Sapsea fragment'!)

Mr Hornung's Three Goddesses - a Victorian novelist at work

This is an assessment of the truncated text of Goddesses Three, a novel which E.W. Hornung apparently began writing in 1894 but which he set aside after completing eleven chapters. So far as it goes, the book is an absorbing study of the Pontifex family, and (ultimately) of Anglo-Portuguese relations. Set primarily in an English rectory, it is very much a work in progress, written partly in pencil and partly in in ink, and incorporating a vast number of revisions.

In addition to deciphering 99% of the manuscript, and producing an edited text for the general reader, the book is examined on a chapter-by-chapter basis. This results in a fuller notion of how the story was being shaped and the occasional problems encountered - and pinpoints Hornung's consequent changes and instructions to himself. We are, as it were, looking over his shoulder for the whole time, and gain (as a result) a fascinating insight into how a Victorian novel took shape. Some sources of his inspiration are identified (including, in particular, the business enterprises of an elder brother and the personality of that brother's young Portuguese wife) and tentative conjectures made as to how the book may have been intended to develop and why the author felt unable to continue

E.W. Hornung: The Emergence of a Popular Author, 1866 - 1898

The initial instalment of a fresh biography