The Amateur Cracksman

Bunny Manders, a young man ruined by gambling debts, goes one night to his old school friend A. J. Raffles, the most admired amateur cricketer in England, intending to shoot himself if no help comes. Raffles helps him, and reveals his secret: he pays for his elegant life in London society by stealing jewels from the people who invite him to dinner. Bunny becomes his loyal, nervous partner, and in eight stories he describes their burglaries of country houses and city flats, their narrow escapes from the police, and the strange code of honour of a gentleman who is also a thief.

E. W. Hornung (1866–1921) was the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle and dedicated the book to him, and Raffles and Bunny are a deliberate reversal of Holmes and Watson. Published in 1899, it created the English 'gentleman thief'. Compare The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the French gentleman-burglar of The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin.