#I just love writing school days bunny and raffles

[the-prince-of-professors]

Can you tell me what the raffles series is about?

With pleasure!

A. J. Raffles is a famous and skilled cricketer by day, and a clever thief by night. He plays cricket as an amateur, and is too much of an aesthete to bother with a “real” job, so in order to keep up his expensive life style while at the same time lead an exciting, romantic, and adventurous life, he steals jewels and silver and other stuff from the upper classes. His former fag from school, Harry “Bunny” Manders, comes to him for help at a time when he is in deep debt and on the verge of ruin and/or suicide, and ultimately is let in on Raffles’ secret and becomes his partner. 

Now, I don’t know if you meant the Raffles book series (from 1899-1909), or the Raffles TV series (1975-1977)? The TV series adapted a number of the original short stories into 50-minute episodes; and it’s a very faithful adaptation overall, but sometimes it diverts from canon, especially due to not following quite the same timeline. There are fourteen individual episodes, and they are all pure delight! The actors (Anthony Valentine as Raffles and Christopher Strauli as Bunny) are amazing in every way and have great chemistry, and the series is a lovely mix of drama and humour – just the kind of series that makes you feel purely good. (Personally, I also adore the theatrical setup of it – everything from the sets and the lighting to the very in-the-moment acting and simple cinematography makes it all feel very alive and has a way of keeping you captivated). The biggest difference from the books is that the series is in general very lighthearted, even though it has its darker and more dramatic moments. 

The books are… a lot. They are funny, and thrilling, and romantic, and angsty as hell, and relatable, and poetic, and just very, very beautiful. They more or less follow the crime-of-the-week format; but it’s never really about the crime and it’s always about Raffles and Bunny and their relationship. They love each other unconditionally, they trust each other endlessly; but Raffles is very independent and scheming and Bunny is very emotional and impatient, and they are terrible at communicating with each other – hence, a lot of misunderstandings and pining and angst. But they are also the kind of pairing that just works – as Raffles once said: “Bunny and I are one.” 

A few other things you might want to know are that the books were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law, E. W. Hornung, who partly based Raffles and Bunny on Holmes and Watson (Raffles is intelligent and charismatic, uses disguises etc.; Bunny writes about their adventures). Their relationship is said to be based on that of Oscar Wilde (who was a close friend of Hornung) and Lord Alfred Douglas (”Bosie”). Raffles is also said to have been modeled after homosexual rights campaigner George Cecil Ives, who also lived at the Albany and had a great interest in cricket. The queer subtext of the books is wonderfully unsubtle.

Okay, I didn’t mean to make this answer so long, but I could go on forever (as you probably notice). If you want to know more, there is this wonderful presentation post that pretty much says it all, and here I have written a bit about Raffles and Bunny and why I love them so much. 

So to conclude, whether you meant the books or the TV series: it’s basically about two artistic outlaws who are head-over-heels for each other and who do a lot of clever and insane stuff while dodging the police and living a high society life. The books go a bit further than that, following them into the next stage of their lives when things are no longer quite so easy. It’s full of moral grey zones, and art, and glittering diamonds, and burgling, and cricket, and whiskey, and foggy London nights, and a lot of love and fun and puns and other hilarities, and it’s basically the best thing in the world. 

#crime and cricket #raffles and bunny #answers from toni #pandaofmanyfandoms #aaaaaaaahh i really could go on forever #other important things you should know: #bunny likes to go on and on (and on) about how beautiful and handsome and amazing raffles is (he doesn't have much of a filter dear thing) #and raffles often calls bunny 'my rabbit' or 'my dear rabbit' or just 'my bunny' #they are A Lot

[unwillingadventurer]

Tagged by @rawyld

question meme thing.

Nickname: We don’t really have them. When we were at school we did have people call us some variations of our names sometimes like ‘Kate’ or ‘KT’ or ‘Claire-y’ ‘Claire bear’ that sort of thing but not anything that’s stuck. 

Zodiac: Virgo

Height: Katie is 165 cm and Claire 166 lol or around 5′5-6 ish.

Last movie I saw: We haven’t watched a film the whole way through for at least a few weeks which is quite unusual for us so its hard thinking of what it was. It could’ve been a black and white film on talking pics TV maybe. We remember watching Freakshow but sure that was a couple of months back. And the other day we started a film called The Bookshop but we only managed an hour and drifted off so never saw the end.

Last thing I googled: Think it was ‘Christopher Strauli’ as we needed to check something on his filmography.

Favorite Musician: The Beatles or Frank Sinatra. 

Song stuck in my head: The other day we re-watched the Donny Osmond version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (wait, maybe this counts as our last film! is it a film? A stage-y film?) and we have been singing the songs for days now, especially the lyrics ‘I dreamed that in the fields one day the corn gave me a sign...’ lol.

Other blogs: We have a William Russell blog which is still active but we don’t post on as much as we should. Then there’s an inactive Hartnell one and a really really old ask Ian blog. 

Followers: 2238 on here and 100 ish on the William Russell one.

Following: 115. We can’t follow too many people otherwise we can’t keep up with it all. 

Amount of sleep: 6 or 7 hours prob.

Lucky numbers: Don’t really have any.

Dream job: Writing.  Would love to write a Raffles adaptation for TV as well as other adaptations. We really just love doing adaptations. Also to work for Big Finish lol. But anything in the creative writing world.

What I’m wearing: Katie is wearing a striped jumper, Claire has a grey jumper and we’re wearing comfy joggers as we’re at home and no plans of going anywhere now.

Favorite food: Katie- cake, chocolate :D   Claire- crisps. Not a foodie really, wouldn’t say I had a fave food or dish or anything.

Language: English. We learnt basic french at school but now not so good. Wish we could speak another language!

Can I play an Instrument: Nope. We have a keyboard that our granddad left to us when he died, but he was self-taught and we were never very good at teaching ourselves so we can’t really play :(

Favorite song: It’s hard to pick faves but we both absolutely love Starry Night by Don Mclean. Its beautiful, its about Van Gogh, what more could you want?

Random Fact: Don’t know why this story comes to mind but we were once in a singing group and we were dressed as nuns singing Sister Act songs and were invited by a band to perform at one of their shows. They had got confused and thought we were always dressed as nuns to perform (like why?) and they were quite surprised when our singing group turned up in sparkly halter tops and singing Lady Marmalade! lol. This is a dumb fact but quite funny.

Describe yourself in aesthetic things: Blue sky with white fluffy clouds, a cup of tea and a good book, quill pen and a piece of parchment, a castle with grey clouds looming overhead, sparkly theatre masks- comedy and tragedy, a fluffy bunny jumping over daffodils, a cat asleep by a warm fire. 

Tagging @ilwinsgarden @sciencefictionrenegade @the-prince-of-professors @human-nxture @regshoe @anijsmelk and anyone else who wants to :)

#question thing

[rififis]

hello my friends, i wanted to do so much today but i came home real late and then i had to help my bro study history and wow it’s midnight?? but i’ve compiled here an abridged list of me and @aceoofhearts‘s AUs. I’ll post more about them individually but, in the meantime, enjoy!

Childhood Friends AU (also known as Tinies AU; the neighbour at Bunny’s childhood home is Raffles’s family, so young AJ and Bunny meet each other as kids and spends their childhoods together. They play in the huge gardens of their family properties and eat the peaches Bunny’s father grows. As kids they are educated at home, and later they go to the same public school (AJ is about 2 years older than Bunny so he starts earlier). As teenagers their friendship begins to bloom into something tender and it’s in the summer of Bunny’s 16 years that they share their first kiss, under the shade of a tree. Their relationship will last for all their lives. After he finishes school, AJ goes to play cricket in Australia. They’re apart from months, and write to each other constantly, when suddenly Bunny’s parents die in an accident, and as soon as he hears of it AJ drops his australian life to come back to his friend. Together, they don’t squander Bunny’s inheritance, and live healthily off it. Bunny writes and AJ plays cricket. Having been brought up together, they’ve always known the balance that their relationship brings. They’re there for each other since the beginning, so their life is much more stable. Of course, AJ always loves danger and adventure, but it remains michievous rather than criminal (if we exclude the fact that homosexual relationships were a crime then)– as a child, one night AJ managed to climb to Bunny’s room, and at school they both sneaked out together.

Coffee Shop AU; Harry Manders works at a small coffee shop in London, owned by a certain Mackenzie. One boring day a costumer, a dark and handsome young man, after ordering only a cup of coffee sits at a table and draws in his sketchbook for the whole afternoon. Harry feels as though the man is staring at him, but surely he must be mistaken. This handsome costumer begins to frequent Bunny’s coffee shop often, with his pleasant smile and flirty manners, and eventually Harry finds out that the stranger has been drawing him. At one point, the customer–AJ–asks Harry to become his model. He is an art student, and Harry’s face inspires him greatly, or so he says! Harry can’t understand how that is possible–that someone as gorgeous as AJ could find him worth drawing! But he agrees (he might or might not have the biggest crush on the man) and it doesn’t take them long to have sex on the settee where Harry poses in AJ’s rooms. 

Hogwarts AU; AJ is Slytherin and Bunny Hufflepuff. Their worlds are very well apart, but when one night Bunny wanders through the castle’s corridors looking for the kitchens (having spent the day in the infirmary for some incident involving quidditch) a painting suddenly moves in front of him, and the Slytherin captain-young AJ Raffles-jumps out of it. He sees little Bunny of course, but before either of them can say anything they hear steps coming down the hall. AJ quickly grabs Bunny, hiding the both of them behind the painting. Once danger has passed and Bunny has explained himself in stutters, AJ kind heartedly offers to steal an apple for him. When they part, AJ doesn’t have to tell Bunny to keep quiet about their adventure; he knows he will. It’s the beginning of an unexpected friendship.

Fake Date AU; it’s Swigger Morrison who introduces Bunny to AJ. The latter has a bit of a problem with a girl who won’t stop bothering him with unwanted attentions (I’m sorry but it’s Jacques Saillard once again); he has to find a way to escape from her, definitely break up with her. Morrison brings him a friend: a pretty, single little guy who, he says, is affection starved (Bunny vehemently protests this), and who would be willing to pretend to be his boyfriend until the girl understands that she has no place in AJ’s heart. Needless to say, Bunny wasn’t expecting AJ to be that handsome. One night, out with friends, they share a kiss for appearance’s sake, and they just can’t stop?

Musician AU (also known as Romeo and Juliet AU); AJ is a singer playing a jig in a bar. Bunny is drinking at a table. They notice each other, and when AJ plays a cover of Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits it’s as if he’s dedicating it to Bunny.

Moulin Rouge AU; AJ is the star courtesan and Bunny is the penniless writer, obviously. Jacques Saillard is the weatlhy duchess who wants AJ for herself. 

Medieval AU; Prince Arthur is a fearless knight and Bunny is his loyal valet. Adventures! AJ riding a horse and swinging a sword! Raffles’s sister is also very much present in this AU.

One Night Stand AU; AJ and Bunny meet in a club, and escape the confusion together (holding hands and briskly walking into the night like they’ve done it so many times before) to continue their making out in a more private place. They spend the night in a discreet hotel. When they’re not kissing and out of breath, they speak (they only learn each other’s names in the early hours of the morning), and laugh, and there’s like a magical attraction between the two. Much later, AJ’s phone rings; it’s Teddy, AJ’s friend. AJ has forgotten about Teddy’s cricket match, which he’d promised to present at! Bunny understands that AJ leaving would mean never seeing him again. A sudden panick arises in him and before AJ can answer the phone Bunny is telling him to stay; “I think–I’ve fallen in love with you”. AJ does nothing but stare at Bunny for some moments, then he calmly answers the phone, and tells Teddy that he can’t come after all–the deadline for this art project of his is soon and he’s really behind on it, bye Teddy kick ass. Bunny wants to cry.

Theatre AU; Bunny is a modest playwriter. AJ, a promising actor, gets cast (Bunny is totally not biased by his handsome looks?) as the protagonist. It is a play about homosexuality in the late Victorian age, probably about Oscar Wilde, and AJ proves to be a brilliant actor, excellent at improvising, which saves the whole show more than once. AJ’s character has a few kiss scenes with another man, and Bunny can’t deny that he’s jealous. Luckily for him, they find each other alone often, and Bunny offers to help him with his lines, being the director and all, and they try the kisses as well—AJ is absolutely not smug about it, not at all. After a big success on tour, Bunny climbs on the stage and kisses AJ in front of everyone.

#rafflesweek #there are actually a lot more aus but these will have to do for now #i have to sleep #but i'm happy i love y'all this week is the best #also uh rated t for slight mention of sex in the description i suppose ? #just your average raffles and bunny #i feel like i'm forgetting something important #EDIT i forgot to mention #in all my interpretations of them AJ is not white (usually of indian origins) and bunny is nonbinary #always

[fabricati-diem-pvnc]

The ‘New Woman’ rejected: Women in the Raffles stories

Note: Over the course of #rafflesweek, I will post five excerpts from my master’s thesis on E.W. Hornung’s Raffles stories. While each part can be read on its own, I recommend reading them in the order they are posted.

This is Part 4.

(Please see the end for footnotes and works cited.)

Due to the focus on Bunny’s and Raffles’ homosocial relationship, women do not form a significant part of the main narrative. In fact, women are almost completely absent from the Raffles stories (Freeman 2007: 89). Over the course of 27 stories, only five female characters are represented in some kind of depth, and all of them are primarily defined through their relationship with one of the two male protagonists. These women are: Faustina, Amy Werner, Jacques Saillard, Camilla Belsize (all real or purported love interests of Raffles), and Bunny’s fiancée, who remains unnamed. However small the presence of women in the Raffles stories may overall be, the female characters that do appear are distinctly different from each other and serve as fictional representations of the major concepts of femininity that were available to middle-class women in the late-nineteenth century.

Middle-class femininity in the Victorian era

The traditional concept of Victorian middle-class femininity was based on the philosophical concept of the separate spheres (Moran 2006: 35). ‘Natural’ masculine qualities – among them aggression and the ability for rational thought – were perceived to ideally equip men for the public domain; in contrast, women were believed to be physically and intellectually inferior to men and thus more suited to the domestic sphere (Purchase 2006: 73-74). As guardian of the home, a woman could fulfil her ‘natural’ duties of motherhood and domesticity (Powell 1996: 73). This ideal of middle-class femininity was encapsulated in the phrase ‘angel in the house’, which originated from a poem by Coventry Patmore (Moran 2006: 36).

With this confinement to the domestic sphere, women were all but excluded from the public school system (Purchase 2006: 54). Opponents to education reform often claimed that intellectual pursuits would only distract a woman from her duties as wife and mother (Morgan 2007: 38). Nevertheless, educational opportunities for women gradually increased towards the end of the nineteenth century. The Education Act of 1870 ensured that state-funded primary education was available for all British children (Purchase 2006: 6). By 1890, many private schools offered middle-class women the chance “to enjoy an academic education every bit as rigorous as that undertaken by their male contemporaries” (Powell 1996: 73-74). Still, women’s access to the professions was restricted, and they were usually expected to cease working once they became married (Powell 1996: 70-71)1.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, an emerging feminist movement also began to challenge the social and legal limitations women were faced with. The first campaign was aimed against the laws restricting women’s capability of owning property (Poovey 1995: 173). It was proven successful with the passing of the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882, which established women as their own economic agents and thus put an end to the claim a husband had previously had over his wife’s property (Purchase 2006: 6). From the turn of the century onwards, the suffragette movement fought with increasing militancy for women’s right to vote (Brooks 1995: 82). Finally, while the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 did contain a section on “gross indecency” between men, its main purpose was to protect young women from prostitution by raising the age of consent from 13 to 16.

The rise of the ‘New Woman’

Concurrent with these campaigns for improved social rights, late-nineteenth century feminists also proclaimed a new ideal of femininity: the New Woman (Moran 2006: 124). Feminists exposed the idea of the Victorian family idyll as a false utopia by openly addressing the double standard inherent in middle-class marriages: “sexual virtue was expected of the wife but not of the husband” (Ledger 2007: 157). These feminists were divided into two groups: one constituted a social purity movement that was fighting against prostitution and decadent male sexuality (Ledger 2007: 153), while the other group regarded the demand for sexual equality as their main concern (Dowling 1979: 438). New Woman writers like Olive Schreiner, Mona Caird and Sarah Grand rejected marriage and maternity as the ‘natural’ route towards fulfillment (Moran 2006: 125). Their frank discussion of women’s sexual desire provoked outrage among conservative reviewers (Miller 1994: 14). In their minds, the demand for female sexual autonomy, coupled with a clear reluctance to enter the patriarchal power structure of the family unit, endangered the stability of traditional Victorian gender roles (Showalter 1991: 38-39). Additionally, the New Woman’s strive for higher education was considered by many men to be a direct threat to society: they feared it would distract women from their domestic duties (Morgan 2007: 38). More significantly, scientists at the time purported that serious study would “‘dissipate [women’s] feminine energies’ […] just as an athletic girl would become ‘spare and thin or overmuscular, but in any case misshapen’” (Horn 1992: 65). Essentially, mental and physical exertion were perceived to render women infertile (Showalter 1991: 40).

In the public perception, the New Woman’s challenges to traditional gender roles tied them to the Decadent movement (Sinfield 1994: 77). The ‘mannish’ New Woman and the effeminate Dandy were perceived as the major driving forces behind the lamented “sexual anarchy” of 1890s England (Showalter 1991: 3). Consequently, the New Woman movement was caught up in the moral panic surrounding Oscar Wilde’s conviction as well. After 1895, the publication of New Woman writings dramatically decreased, to the point where an article in Punch could triumphantly announce “The End of the New Woman” (Ledger 2007: 167). Even though the genre of New Woman fiction had lost its significance by the turn of the century, the figure of the ‘masculine woman’ (Showalter 1991: 174) remained a part of literature in general.

Jacques Saillard

This is exemplified by the depiction of women in the Raffles stories, which has been interpreted as the raising and subsequent exorcism of “the spectre of the New Woman” (Rance 1990: 5). The most obvious representation of a New Woman in the stories is the Spanish artist Jacques Saillard in “An Old Flame”. The story establishes her as a successful painter who lives in a fashionable flat near Piccadilly with her husband. When she is unexpectedly confronted by a burglar2, she doesn’t scream or faint but remains perfectly in control of her emotions: “[…] like marble she stood, or rather like some beautiful pale bronze; for that was her coloring, and she lost none of it that I could see, neither trembled […]. So she stood without flinching before a masked ruffian […].” (Hornung 2013: 189). Once she has recognised Raffles, she doesn’t report him to the police, but simply lets him leave. Back at their flat, Raffles reveals the true nature of his relationship with Jacques Saillard to Bunny:

‘An old flame?’ said I, gently.

‘A married woman,’ he groaned.

‘So I gathered.’

‘But she always was one, Bunny,’ said he, ruefully. ‘That’s the trouble.’ (Hornung 2013: 193)

When Bunny comments that Jacques Saillard seems to be a clever woman, Raffles’ reaction is quite revealing: “I don’t call Jacques Saillard clever outside her art, but neither do I call her a woman at all. She does man’s work over a man’s name, has the will of any ten men I ever knew, and I don’t mind telling you that I fear her more than any person on God’s earth.” (Hornung 2013: 193; emphasis added).

That Raffles’ fear of Jacques Saillard is not unfounded becomes clear soon afterwards when she turns up on his doorstep, having followed him home from her flat. She now starts to actively pursue Raffles, ignoring all sense of propriety: “It was some weeks since the first untimely visitation of Jacques Saillard, but there had been many others at all hours of the day […].” (Hornung 2013: 195; emphasis added). Not only is Raffles clearly uninterested in her advances, her knowledge of his true identity actively endangers his disguise as Mr. Maturin. So, in order to finally get rid of her, Raffles stages his own death: “Jacques Saillard had made his life impossible, and this was the one escape.” (Hornung 2013: 204).

Thus, Jacques Saillard is established as a threatening “spectre of the New Woman” (Rance 1990: 5). Her profession as a painter allows her a certain amount of financial independence3. Raffles’ admission that he was engaged in an affair with her while she was already married reveals that Jacques Saillard ignores the social norm of a woman having to remain celibate outside the confines of marriage (Showalter 1991: 38)4. Finally, her aggressive pursuit of Raffles shows a blatant disregard for the social conventions of the time: a woman visiting a man’s rooms alone was considered to be engaging in lewd conduct (Morrissey 2014: <http://www.rafflesredux.com/an-old-flame/>). Her open transgression of gender boundaries – exemplified by her adoption of a man’s name (“Jacques”) – threatens Raffles’ own sense of masculinity, which is made clear by his comment, “I fear her more than any person on God’s earth” (Hornung 2013: 193).

The fact that Jacques Saillard is a foreigner is also quite significant. Especially in the first two volumes of the Raffles stories, the New Woman is represented as a ‘foreign’ element endangering the masculinity of the English middle-class man (Rance 1990: 8).

Amy Werner

While Jacques Saillard’s story is featured in The Black Mask, The Amateur Cracksman also contains an example of the ‘foreign’ New Woman. In “The Gift of the Emperor”, the reader is introduced to Amy Werner, an adventurous young woman who has finished her secondary education at a German school and is now on her way back home to Australia alone (Hornung 2013: 101). Amy Werner is doubly foreign: her Australian nationality leads Bunny to disparagingly refer to her as a “Colonial minx” (Hornung 2013: 103), and her German surname and upbringing identify her as distinctly non-English (Rance 1990: 5). Her readiness to openly flirt with two men – Raffles and Captain von Heumann – at the same time reveals her to be a romantically and sexually forthright woman. This frank display of desire again ties the New Woman to the concept of foreignness: non-Europeans were considered to lack the sexual self-control that was hailed as a truly ‘British’ virtue by imperial theorists at the time (Marcus 2012: 425).

Having established the ‘New Woman’ as a foreign danger to an English gentleman’s masculinity, the story then exorcises this spectre through the application of violence. At the end of the story, Raffles and Bunny have been uncovered and are about to be marched off the ship by the police when Raffles asks for a few minutes alone with Amy Werner to say goodbye to her. As Bunny and the inspectors watch, they become witness to one of Raffles’ more violent (certainly his most unchivalrous) acts: “Suddenly – an instant – and the thing was done – a thing I have never known whether to admire or to detest. He caught [Amy Werner] – he kissed her before us all – then flung her from him so that she almost fell.” (Hornung 2013: 113; emphasis added). This physical rejection of the feminine is then immediately followed by a reassertion of the character’s masculinity (Rance 1990: 8). Among the confusion caused by Raffles’ actions, he manages to flee the ship by leaping overboard: “[…] I saw his hands shoot up and his head bob down, and his lithe, spare body cut the sunset as cleanly and precisely as though he had plunged at his leisure from a diver’s board!” (Hornung 2013: 113; emphasis added). Raffles’ elegant dive into the Mediterranean sea serves both to reestablish his masculinity and to reject the threat of foreignness: his “lithe, spare body” reveals his athleticism and thus, as physical strength was considered a key element of gentlemanly masculinity, encapsulates his ‘true’ Englishness (Godfrey 2011: 33).

Faustina

While stories like “An Old Flame” and “The Gift of the Emperor” can be read as outright rejections of the New Woman ideal, “The Fate of Faustina” represents an attempt to claim the superiority of more ‘traditional’ forms of femininity (Rance 1990: 8-9). Following his discovery and subsequent escape in “The Gift of the Emperor”, Raffles spends two years in Italy, where he works as a “tame sailorman and emergency bottle-washer” on a beautiful small island (Hornung 2013: 144). During his time there, he falls in love with a young peasant woman named Faustina. Relating the events to Bunny years later, Raffles evokes the biblical concept of paradise when describing their romance: “[…] it was the oldest story in literature – Eden plus Eve. The place had been a heaven on earth before, but now it was heaven itself.” (Hornung 2013: 147). According to Raffles, Faustina was the only woman he ever seriously considered marrying: “I tell you that she was the one being who ever entirely satisfied my sense of beauty; and I honestly believe I could have chucked the world and been true to Faustina for that alone.” (Hornung 2013: 146). The focus on her physical attractiveness reveals Raffles’ traditional views on women: far from admiring her character or her intellect, Raffles instead merely loves Faustina for her beauty5.

However, the bucolic idyll envisioned by Raffles for Faustina and himself is soon disrupted. When her fiancé, having learned about Faustina’s affair with Raffles, kills her, Raffles in turn shoots Faustina’s murderer and ends up nearly killing the owner of the vineyard, Count Corbucci, who is an eminent member of the Camorra (Rowland 1999: 124). The destruction of Raffles’ version of paradise is answered by him with the enactment of biblical vengeance: “I had taken blood for blood […].” (Hornung 2013: 153).

Ultimately, “The Fate of Faustina” establishes that the ideal of the ‘natural’ moral virtue and submissiveness of women was not only challenged by the middle-class concept of the New Woman, but by a general shift in female identity that pervaded all classes (Powell 1996: 96-97). The portrayal of the working-class Faustina as sweet and innocent is soon revealed to be unfounded. Her willingness to enter into a relationship with Raffles even though she is engaged to another man reveals her to be just as sexually transgressive as Jacques Saillard. Faustina also exhibits an enthusiasm towards violence: “[…] I taught her how to use [a revolver] in the cave down there by the sea, shooting at candles stuck upon the rock. […] So now Faustina was armed with munitions of self-defence, and I knew enough of her character to entertain no doubt as to their spirited use upon occasion.” (Hornung 2013: 149; emphasis added)6. Even though her beauty is praised by Raffles as surpassing that of all the women in London7, her unwomanly interest in guns and her adulterous behaviour ultimately disqualify Faustina as an example of traditional femininity.

Bunny’s fiancée

The three stories discussed so far have approached the New Woman ideal as a direct threat to masculinity and tried to exorcise it by connecting it to foreignness and/or violence. Contrary to this outright rejection of new concepts of femininity that is present in both The Amateur Cracksman and The Black Mask, the two later volumes of Raffles stories paint a more complex picture of femininity at the turn of the century. A Thief in the Night introduces Bunny’s fiancée to the reader, while Mr. Justice Raffles marks the first (and last) appearance of Camilla Belsize, who is arguably the most affirmative representation of New Woman ideals in the Raffles stories.

Bunny’s fiancée first appears in “Out of Paradise”. The reason why she remains unnamed is given by Bunny at the beginning of this story: “The affair was not only too intimately mine […]. One other was involved in it, one dearer to me than Raffles himself, one whose name shall not even now be sullied by association with ours.” (Hornung 2013: 234)8. The story establishes that, even before Raffles manipulated Bunny into burgling his fiancée’s home, their engagement was already laden with problems. Bunny’s fiancée is an orphan with no inherited fortune, which makes her financially dependent on her uncle, Hector Carruthers (Hornung 2013: 235). As Bunny also has no regular income at his disposal – apart from what little he earns as a journalist and writer9 – they are both dependent on Mr. Carruthers to facilitate their marriage by providing his niece with a significant enough dowry (Morrissey 2014: <http://www.rafflesredux.com/out-of-paradise/>). However, Mr. Carruthers strongly disapproves of Bunny, which is why he restricts his access to his niece and refuses to give his consent to their engagement (Hornung 2013: 234). When Bunny’s fiancée catches him in the act of burgling her uncle’s house, their engagement receives its final blow. Her first reaction on recognising Bunny as the burglar is to faint (Hornung 2013: 242). Soon afterwards, however, she helps Bunny escape safely from her house (Hornung 2013: 243) and subsequently conceals his criminal identity from both her family and the police (Hornung 2013: 246).

While “Out of Paradise” had established Bunny’s fiancée as a dependent woman who was not allowed to make major decisions without consulting her uncle, “The Last Word” shows that this has changed. Set nine years after “Out of Paradise”, the story is unique in that it mainly consists of a letter written to Bunny by his former fiancée (Hornung 2013: 362-366). This makes her the only woman in the Raffles stories who is allowed to directly speak to the reader with her own voice. Her letter reveals that she has since inherited a considerable amount of money from her aunt, Lady Melrose10, which has enabled her to move into a small flat of her own: “[…] I am living my own life now in the one way after my own heart.” (Hornung 2013: 365). Her financial independence also means the end of her uncle’s legal guardianship over her; free now to make her own decisions, she intends to follow in Bunny’s footsteps by becoming a writer (Hornung 2013: 365).

Contrary to Amy Werner and Jacques Saillard, Bunny’s fiancée overall adheres to the social conventions of her time. Instead of defying her uncle and marrying Bunny without his consent, she submits herself to his will. However, as she is still unmarried nine years after the events of “Out of Paradise”, it is not unreasonable to assume that she resisted her uncle’s attempts to find a more suitable husband for her. “The Last Word” portrays her as a young unmarried woman who is eager to participate in the public domain through her writing (be it journalism or fiction) (Hornung 2013: 365). With this, she becomes representative of the many unmarried middle-class women who entered the professions around the turn of the century (Powell 1996: 70). While Bunny’s fiancée is thus not a representation of the New Woman per se, she does embody the gradual opening of the public domain towards women at the turn of the century.

Camilla Belsize

Finally, Mr. Justice Raffles (1909) features the most rounded and the most sympathetic realisation of a New Woman character in the Raffles stories. Miss Camilla Belsize is introduced to the reader as the fiancée of Teddy Garland, an amateur cricketer who is friends with Raffles. She is also the daughter of the impoverished Lady Laura Belsize, which places her in the social context of the genteelly poor (Purchase 2006: 23)11. Despite her limited financial means, Camilla Belsize is invariably well-dressed. Bunny admires her distinguished taste when he first meets her: “She was simply but exquisitely dressed, with unostentatious touches of Cambridge blue and a picture hat that really was a picture.” (Hornung 2013: 404). More significantly, the novel establishes her as a highly intelligent woman. Early on, Bunny comments on her unusual perceptiveness: “But I was to discover that Camilla Belsize was never easily deceived […].” (Hornung 2013: 406). In fact, Camilla is one of only a few people in the Raffles stories who manage to see through Raffles’ disguises: “He didn’t know I recognised him; he was disguised – absolutely! […] But he couldn’t disguise himself from me […].” (Hornung 2013: 499). At the same time, Camilla is revealed to be quite audacious. During her first conversation with Bunny, Camilla admits to smoking cigarettes in public (Hornung 2013: 407) – a habit that was closely associated with New Women at the time (Ledger 2007: 155). Even more daringly, Camilla repeatedly follows Raffles and Bunny by steering a canoe along the river in the middle of the night. She reveals this to Bunny in a later conversation:

‘I told you I sometimes did weird things that astonished the natives of these suburban shores. Well, last night, if it wasn’t early this morning, I made my weirdest effort yet. I have a canoe, you know; just now I almost live in it. Last night I went out unbeknownst after midnight, partly to reassure myself, partly – […] You know what I’m going to say?’

Of course I knew, but I dragged it from her none the less. […] She had seen us – searched for us – each time. (Hornung 2013: 500)

Camilla reveals here that she is aware of the potentially shocking nature of her nocturnal ventures. At the same time, her ability to steer a boat by herself hints towards her athletic disposition and towards a possible previous training at a women’s college12.

Bunny and Raffles both express their admiration for Camilla Belsize, albeit in different ways. While Bunny openly admits that he became her “admirer on the spot” when she smiled at him during their first conversation (Hornung 2013: 403), Raffles’ demonstration of his respect for her is much more convoluted. Raffles spends the majority of the novel battling Dan Levy, a Jewish moneylender that both Teddy Garland and his father are in considerable debt to (Hornung 2013: 415-416). In the end, Raffles’ scheme proves successful and Teddy’s and his father’s debts are fully dispensed with. The penultimate chapter of the novel reveals Raffles’ true motivation for helping Teddy. In a conversation with Bunny, Raffles expresses his doubts that Teddy’s marriage with Camilla will be a happy one. When Bunny asks why, Raffles answers that he thinks Teddy to be beneath her: “[Gambling and running up debts] was all right in a pal of ours, Bunny, but all wrong in the man who dreamt of marrying Camilla Belsize.” (Hornung 2013: 507).

Far from denouncing Camilla’s audacity and intelligence, the novel hails her as a supreme representative of her sex. This is exemplified in Bunny’s remark to Raffles: “She was the only woman I ever met […] who was your mate at heart – in pluck – in temperament!” (Hornung 2013: 507). And yet, even Camilla Belsize isn’t allowed to freely pursue her romantic and sexual desires. The novel clearly establishes that both Camilla and Raffles are attracted to each other (Hornung 2013: 507), yet Camilla Belsize still ends up marrying Teddy Garland, who has been established as being morally inferior to her. In the last chapter, which is set ten years after the main narrative, Camilla does not appear at all, and when Bunny and Teddy refer to her, it is only in the form of “Mrs. Garland” (Hornung 2013: 516). Thus, the novel ultimately upholds the patriarchal ideal of society that New Women tried to work against: by marrying Teddy Garland, Camilla’s identity as a free-spirited young woman has been subsumed by that of a domestic wife, and she is no longer a person of her own.

Footnotes:

1This was obviously not true for working-class women, who were often required to supplement their husband’s wage with one of their own (Poovey 1995: 124-125).

2At this point in the story, Jacques Saillard doesn’t know yet that it is Raffles who has broken into her home.

3Saillard’s artistic success is illustrated by Raffles’ evaluation of her room: “See the festive picture over the sideboard? Looks to me like a Jacques Saillard. But that silver-table would be good enough for me.” (Hornung 2013: 189). What Raffles implies here is that her paintings are valuable enough to fetch a good price on the black market.

4The fact that Bunny doesn’t comment on Raffles’ adulterous behaviour also reveals the double standard inherent in the Victorian perception of sexual virtue (Ledger 2007: 157).

5Raffles’ claim that perfect beauty would be the only thing that could possibly induce him to marry someone is yet another example of his “streak of aestheticism” (Hornung 2013: 6).

6The story reveals its racist undertones here, as Faustina’s readiness to practice shooting is explained by Raffles with her “racial tolerance for cold steel” (Hornung 2013: 247).

7“It was the most exquisite face I ever saw or shall see in this life. […] I tell you, Bunny, London would go mad about a girl like that.” (Hornung 2013: 146).

8The omission of his fiancée’s name is another example of Bunny’s narrative control.

9Shortly after Bunny and Raffles have become partners in crime, Bunny picks up journalism as a cover profession (Hornung 2013: 96).

10This is the very same Lady Melrose whose necklace Raffles steals in “Gentlemen and Players” (Hornung 2013: 365).

11Bunny’s description of the Belsizes’ home in chapter 17 reveals their financial straits: “The wooden gate had not swung home behind me before I was at the top of a somewhat dirty flight of steps, contemplating blistered paint and ground glass fit for a bathroom window, and listening to the last reverberations of an obsolete type of bell.” (Hornung 2013: 496; emphasis added).

12This women’s college would probably have been at Cambridge, as those were among the first colleges that introduced rowing as part of their curriculum (Holt 1992: 121).

Works cited:

Brooks, David. The Age of Upheaval: Edwardian Politics, 1899-1914. New Frontiers in History. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.

Dowling, Linda. “The Decadent and the New Woman in the 1890s.” Nineteenth- Century Fiction, 33.4 (1979): 434-453.

Freeman, Nick. “Double Lives, Terrible Pleasures: Oscar Wilde and Crime Fiction in the Fin de Siècle.” Formal Investigations: Aesthetic Style in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Detective Fiction. Ed. Paul Fox and Koray Melikoğlu. Studies in English Literature 4. Stuttgart: ibidem, 2007. 71-96.

Godfrey, Emelyne. Masculinity, Crime and Self-Defence in Victorian Literature. Crime Files. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Holt, Richard. Sport and the British: A Modern History. 1989. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.

Horn, Pamela. High Society: The English Social Élite, 1880-1914. Stroud: Sutton, 1992.

Hornung, E.W. A.J. Raffles – The Gentleman Thief Series: The Amateur Cracksman; The Black Mask; A Thief in the Night; Mr. Justice Raffles. Leipzig: Amazon Distribution GmbH, 2013.

Ledger, Sally. “The New Woman and feminist fictions.” The Cambridge Companion to the Fin de Siècle. Ed. Gail Marshall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 153-168.

Marcus, Sharon. “Sexuality.” The Cambridge History of Victorian Literature. Ed. Kate Flint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 422-443.

Miller, Jane Eldridge. Rebel Women: Feminism, Modernism and the Edwardian Novel. London: Virago Press, 1994.

Moran, Maureen. Victorian Literature and Culture. Introductions to British Literature and Culture. London: Continuum, 2006.

Morgan, Simon. A Victorian Woman’s Place: Public Culture in the Nineteenth Century. International Library of Historical Studies 40. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2007.

Morrissey, Genevieve L., and Sarah Morrissey. Raffles Redux. 2014. 16 January 2016. <http://www.rafflesredux.com/>.

Poovey, Mary. Making a Social Body: British Cultural Formation, 1830-1864. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Powell, David. The Edwardian Crisis: Britain 1901-1914. British History in Perspective. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996.

Purchase, Sean. Key Concepts in Victorian Literature. Palgrave Key Concepts. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Rance, Nick. “The Immorally Rich and the Richly Immoral: Raffles and the Plutocracy.” Twentieth-Century Suspense: The Thriller Comes of Age. Ed. Clive Bloom. Insights. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1990. 1-21.

Rowland, Peter. Raffles and His Creator: The Life and Works of E.W. Hornung. London: Nekta, 1999.

Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1991.

Sinfield, Alan. The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde and the Queer Moment. London: Cassell, 1994.

#rafflesweek #crime and cricket #raffles #amy werner #jacques saillard #camilla belsize #a.j. raffles #bunny manders #delicious meta #my stuff

[the-prince-of-professors]

How good is the Raffles fandom at writing fanfiction, you ask? The answer is frickin’ amazing! There is some real high quality fanfics out there - tender and sensitive, humoristic, romantic, thrilling, dark and painful, funny and lighthearted. I’ve been reading some great stuff lately, so I thought I should do a rec list for Raffles week (first time I’m doing this, so bear with me). Of course, there is a lot I still haven’t read, but here are some that really stuck with me.

Green Light Fics (a.k.a. no canon spoilers beyond the basic) - in order of word count

♦ On the Wings of Melpomene – dr_lumieres Length: 13,581 words/5 chapters Rate: Teen Summary: Raffles and Bunny get to know one another better in the context of the school production of Romeo and Juliet. Note: I can’t even begin to describe how much I love this one. Great characterisation, a Bunny struggling with bullying, a protective Raffles, Shakespeare, lovely parallels to canon, nightly adventures, sweet first kisses… and the writer perfectly captures that wonderful feeling of teenage romance, when everything is new and magical and larger than life.

♦ A Moment of Bucking Up – clearinghouse Length: 3,601 words Rate: Teen Summary: Inspector MacKenzie interrupts a tender moment between Raffles and Bunny. Note: Sooo tender and intimate. Ingredients include an asexual MacKenzie and a jealous and somewhat insecure Raffles. The conversation keeps poor Bunny, along with the reader, on edge.

♦ Alone – sootonthecarpet Length: 3,563 words Rate: Not rated Summary: After The Return Match, but before The Gift of the Emperor. Bunny is unexpectedly confronted by a drunken Raffles in the very early morning of a sleepless night. Note: This one has such a beautiful balance between love and pain. A difficult point in their relationship, where they will either fall together or fall apart. A vulnerable Bunny and maybe even more vulnerable Raffles. Truly bittersweet, and very beautiful.

♦ The Stranger – smaychel Length: 2,778 words Rate: Mature Summary: Bunny takes an interest in a handsome stranger, which prompts Raffles to take an interest of his own. Note: Friends to lovers, first time. Bunny is brave, and Raffles takes command. Intense and captivating.

♦ Danger – sootonthecarpet Length: 1,582 words Rate: Teen Summary: After Bunny receives a minor injury, Raffles mistakenly fears for his friend’s life. Note: Similar to the famous Garridebs moment in Holmes. Raffles overreacts, and thus reveals some long hidden feelings for his dear rabbit.

♦ Light and Shadow – Merisas Length: 1,347 words Rate: Teen Summary: Bunny is thinking about his relationship with Raffles. Note: There is a dreamlike feeling about this one, like when you are half awake and the lights are dim. Soft, tender and peaceful, with some beautiful poetic imagery.

♦ Quiet Reflection – synonym Length: 848 words Rate: Gen Summary: Bunny reflects on Raffles at a train station one rainy afternoon. Note: I loved the details in this quiet, intimate moment. The ambiguity at the end is lovely.

♦ I am a Bunny – sumhowe_sailing Length: 831 words Rate: Gen Summary: Raffles gives Bunny a present; Bunny doesn’t react the way he thought he might. Note: School days, protective Raffles and just… so sweet.

♦ A Creeping Thief – sumhowe_sailing Length: 785 words Rate: Gen Summary: Raffles misses Bunny’s poetry, so Bunny writes him a poem. Note: … the poem. It’s beautiful.

Red Light Fics (a.k.a. you should have read past book 2 of canon to avoid spoilers) - in order of word count

♦ Errata and Addenda – SERIES – AwkwardAnnie Length: Currently 18,570 words/4 works (last updated 2012, but the stories work well as stand-alones) Rate: Teen/Mature Summary: My accounts of my long friendship with Mr A J Raffles have not always been entirely accurate or comprehensive. Here I share for the first time some of those stories of our adventures which, for one reason or another, I thought it best to obfuscate or exclude altogether, not least those concerning the exact nature of our relations. Note: Bunny writes down the more intimate tales of his and Raffles’ partnership, and the reader is let in on some pivotal moments of their relationship. It’s tender and sensitive, with a bit of angst and lots of sweetness. The last one is humoristic and sweet! Well written and well in character.

♦ House Advantage – clearinghouse Length: 10,375 words/2 chapters Rate: Teen Summary: As part of the Ham Common crime spree, Raffles singles out a large, lonely estate on Witching Hill for their next adventure. However, the house has a nefarious, supernatural presence that ensnares Raffles in its grip. Naturally, only Bunny can save him. Note: With supernatural powers at large and with the beautiful intimacy with which clearinghouse writes Raffles and Bunny, this story had me completely enchanted. It’s eerie and dark, romantic and thrilling. Brave Bunny and hopelessly irresistible Raffles.

♦ Snapshots of Domesticity – SERIES – sumhowe_sailing Length: Currently 5,812 words/7 works Rate: Gen Summary: A series of very short pieces about Bunny and Raffles being cute and happy. Note: I love this series. Feel-good, sweet, and lots of fluff. ♥

Happy reading, and don’t forget those kudos and comments! ☺

#raffles and bunny fanfic #raffles fanfic #rafflesweek #fic rec #raffles fic rec #crime and cricket #raffles and bunny #toni's fic rec