Early life: 1866–1886 , Rutland, where Hornung developed his love of cricket Hornung was born Ernest William Hornung on 7 June 1866 at Cleveland Villas,
Middlesbrough; he was nicknamed Willie from an early age. He was the third son, and youngest of eight children, of John Peter Hornung and his wife Harriet Armstrong. John was christened Johan Petrus Hornung in the
Transylvania region of
Hungary and, after working in Hamburg for a shipping firm, had moved to Britain in the 1840s as a coal and iron merchant. John married Harriet in March 1848, by which time he had anglicised his name. At the age of 13 Hornung joined
St Ninian's Preparatory School in
Moffat, Dumfriesshire, before enrolling at
Uppingham School in 1880. Hornung was well liked at school, and developed a lifelong love of cricket despite limited skills at the game, which were further worsened by bad eyesight,
asthma and, according to his biographer Peter Rowland, a permanent state of generally poor health. When Hornung was 17 his health worsened; he left Uppingham and travelled to Australia, where it was hoped by his family that the climate would be beneficial. On his arrival he was employed as a tutor to the Parsons family in
Mossgiel in the
Riverina, south-western
New South Wales. In addition to teaching, he spent time working in remote sheep stations in the outback and contributing material to the weekly magazine
The Bulletin; he also began writing what was to become his first novel. Although he spent only two years in Australia, the experience was "the making of him and ... the making of his career as a writer", according to Rowland. Another biographer,
Mark Valentine, wrote that Hornung "seems to have regarded this period as one of the most satisfying of his life".
Return to England: 1886–1898 '', Hornung's first novel, a "graceful comedy of manners" Hornung returned to England in February 1886, before the death of his father in November. From a position of relative prosperity, John's coal and iron business had encountered difficulties and he was in financially straitened circumstances by the time of his death. Hornung found work in London as a journalist and story writer, often publishing his work under a
pseudonym, although in 1887 he published his first story under his own name, "Stroke of Five", which appeared in
Belgravia magazine. His work as a journalist was during the period of
Jack the Ripper and the series of
five murders, which were undertaken against a background of rising urban crime in London; it was around this time that Hornung developed an interest in criminal behaviour. Hornung had worked on the novel manuscript he brought back from Australia and between July and November 1890 the story, "
A Bride from the Bush", was published in five parts in
The Cornhill Magazine. It was also released that year as a book—his first. The story—described by Rowland as an "assured, graceful comedy of manners"—used Hornung's knowledge of Australia as a backdrop, and the device of an Australian bride to examine British social behaviour; the novel was well received by critics. In 1891 Hornung became a member of two cricket clubs: the Idlers, whose members included Arthur Conan Doyle,
Robert Barr and
Jerome K. Jerome, and the Strand club. Hornung knew Doyle's sister, Constance ("Connie") Aimée Monica Doyle, whom he had met when he visited Portugal. Connie was described by Doyle's biographer,
Andrew Lycett, as being attractive, "with pre-Raphaelite looks ... the most sought-after of the Doyle daughters". By December 1892, when Hornung, Doyle and Jerome visited the
Black Museum at
Scotland Yard, Hornung and Connie were engaged, and in 1893 Hornung dedicated his second novel,
Tiny Luttrell, "to C.A.M.D." They were married on 27 September 1893, although Doyle was not at the wedding and relations between the two writers were sometimes strained. The Hornungs had a son, Arthur Oscar, in 1895; while his first name was from Doyle, who was also Arthur's
godfather, the boy's middle name was probably after Doyle and Hornung's mutual friend
Oscar Wilde and it was by his second name that he was known. In 1894 Doyle and Hornung began work on a play for
Henry Irving, on the subject of boxing during
the Regency; Doyle was initially eager and paid Hornung £50 as a down payment before he withdrew after the first act had been written: the work was never completed. Like Hornung's first novel,
Tiny Luttrell had Australia as a backdrop and also used the plot device of an Australian woman in a culturally alien environment. The Australian theme was present in his next four novels:
The Boss of Taroomba (1894),
The Unbidden Guest (1894), ''Irralie's Bushranger
(1896) and The Rogue's March
(1896). In the last of these Hornung wrote of the Australian convict transport system, and showed evidence of a "growing fascination with the motivation behind criminal behaviour and a deliberate sympathy for the criminal hero as a victim of events", while Irralie's Bushranger'' introduced the character Stingaree, an Oxford-educated, Australian
gentleman thief, in a novel that "casts doubt on conventional responses" to a positive criminal character, according to Hornung's biographer, Stephen Knight.
Introducing Raffles: 1898–1914 .'' In 1898 Hornung's mother died, aged 72 and he dedicated his next book, a series of short stories titled
Some Persons Unknown, to her memory. Later that year Hornung and his wife visited Italy for six months, staying in
Posillipo; his account of the location appeared in an article of the May 1899 edition of
The Cornhill Magazine. The Hornungs returned to London in early 1899, to a house in Pitt Street, Kensington, where they lived for the next six years. The fictional character Stingaree proved to be a prototype of a character Hornung used in a series of six short stories published in 1898 in ''
Cassell's Magazine'',
A. J. Raffles. The character was modelled on
George Cecil Ives, a Cambridge-educated criminologist and talented cricketer who, like Raffles, was a resident of the
Albany, a gentlemen's only residence in Mayfair. The first tale of the series "In the Chains of Crime" was published in June that year, titled "The Ides of March". The stories were collected into one volume—with two additional tales—under the name
The Amateur Cracksman, which was published the following year. Hornung used a narrative form similar to Doyle's
Sherlock Holmes stories, with Raffles and his partner-in-crime (and former school
fag)
Bunny Manders being the criminal counterparts to Holmes and
Dr. Watson—although Rowland writes that Raffles and Manders "were also fictionalized versions of Wilde and Bosie" (Wilde's lover,
Lord Alfred Douglas).—and he dedicated the stories to his brother-in-law: "To A.C.D. This form of flattery". Doyle had warned against writing the stories, and reflected in his memoirs that "there are few finer examples of short-story writing in our language than these, though I confess I think they are rather dangerous in their suggestion. I told him so before he put pen to paper, and the result has, I fear, borne me out. You must not make the criminal the hero". The book was a popular and financial success, although some critics also echoed Doyle's fears. The reviewer in
The Spectator wrote that "stern moralists" would consider the book's premise "as a new, ingenious, artistic, but most reprehensible application of the crude principles involved in the old-fashioned hero-worship of Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin". The book ends with Manders imprisoned and Raffles apparently dead, something that left
The Spectator reviewer "expressing [their] satisfaction that this audaciously entertaining volume is not issued in a cheap form. It is emphatically a feat of virtuosity rather than a tribute to virtue." , introduced in 1898 After publishing two novels,
Dead Men Tell No Tales in 1899 and
Peccavi in 1900, Hornung published a second collection of Raffles stories,
The Black Mask, in 1901. The nearly broke Manders is told to apply for the post of a nurse to an elderly invalid, who then reveals himself to be Raffles, who, as Manders describes, had "aged twenty years; he looked fifty at the very least. His hair was white; there was no trick about that; and his face was another white. The lines about the corners of the eyes and mouth were both many and deep". In the final story of the collection, "The Knees of the Gods", Raffles and Manders enlist in the army to fight in the
Second Boer War; the story closes with Manders wounded and Raffles killed. The critics again complained about the criminal aspect;
The Spectator declared "this sort of book presents crime in a form too entertaining and attractive to be moral", while the reviewer for
The Illustrated London News thought that Hornung's "invention has obviously flagged ... It is laughable, in a sense which the author never intended, to hear these burglars rant about the honour of Old England. It is a pity that the man who wrote
Peccavi should stoop to this". In 1903 Hornung collaborated with Eugène Presbrey to write a four-act play,
Raffles, The Amateur Cracksman, which was based on two previously published short stories, "Gentlemen and Players" and "The Return Match". The play was first performed at the
Princess Theatre, New York, on 27 October 1903 with
Kyrle Bellew as Raffles, and ran for 168 performances. In 1905, after publishing four other books in the interim, Hornung brought back the character Stingaree, previously seen in ''Irralie's Bushranger
. Later that year he responded to public demand and produced a third series of short Raffles stories in A Thief in the Night'', in which Manders relates some of his and Raffles's earlier adventures. The reviewer for the
Boston Herald thought that "the sentimental side of the story has never before been shown so dramatically and romantically", and described the book as "thrilling and exciting". Hornung's next book was published in 1909 and was the final Raffles story, the full-length novel
Mr. Justice Raffles; the book was poorly received, with the reviewer for
The Observer asking if "Hornung is perhaps a little tired of Raffles", and stating that "it has not the magic or the 'go' of the first
Raffles, and there is no good in pretending that it has". During the course of the year he collaborated with Charles Sansom to write a play
A Visit From Raffles, which was performed in November that year at the Brixton Empress Theatre, London. Hornung turned away from Raffles thereafter, and in February 1911 published
The Camera Fiend, a thriller whose narrator is an asthmatic cricket enthusiast with an ironmaster father, much as Hornung was himself. The story concerned the attempts of a scientist to photograph the soul as it left the body. Hornung followed this up with
Fathers of Men (1912) and
The Thousandth Woman (1913) before
Witching Hill (1913), a collection of eight short stories in which he introduced the characters Uvo Delavoye and the narrator Gillon, whom Rowland considers to be "reincarnations of Raffles and Bunny". Hornung's next work,
The Crime Doctor (1914) marked the end of his fictional output.
First World War and aftermath Oscar Hornung left
Eton College in 1914, intending to enter
King's College, Cambridge, later that year. When Britain entered the war against Germany, he volunteered, and was commissioned into the
Essex Regiment. He was killed at the
Second Battle of Ypres on 6 July 1915, aged 20. Although heartbroken by the loss, Hornung was adamant that some good would come of it and he edited a privately issued collection of Oscar's letters home under the title
Trusty and Well Beloved, released in 1916. Around this time he joined an anti-aircraft unit. In either 1916 or 1917 he joined the
YMCA and did volunteer work in England for soldiers on leave; in March 1917 he visited France, writing a poem about his experience afterwards—something he had been doing more frequently since Oscar's death—and a collection of his war poetry,
Ballad of Ensign Joy, was published later that year. In July 1917 Hornung's poem, "Wooden Crosses", was published in
The Times, and in September, "Bond and Free" appeared. Towards the end of the year, he was accepted as a volunteer in a YMCA canteen and library "a short distance behind the Front Line". During his service in
Arras, in February 1918 he borrowed a staff car from a friend and visited his son's grave near Ypres, before returning to the library in Arras. Hornung was concerned about support for
pacifism among troops, and wrote to his wife about it. When she spoke to Doyle about the matter, rather than discussing it with Hornung he informed the military authorities. Hornung was angered by Doyle's action, and "told him there was no need for him to 'butt in' except for his own 'satisfaction'." Relations between the two men were strained as a result. Hornung continued to work at the library until the
German spring offensive in March overran the British positions and he was forced to retreat, firstly to
Amiens and then, in April, back to England. He stayed in England until November 1918, when he again took up his YMCA duties, establishing a rest hut and library in
Cologne. In 1919 Hornung's account of his time spent in France,
Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front, was published. Doyle later wrote of the book that "there are parts of it which are brilliant in their vivid portrayal", while Hornung's biographer, Alison Cox, described the book as "one of the best records of the war as experienced on the front lines". That year Hornung also published his third and final volume of poetry,
The Young Guard.
Death and legacy Hornung finished his work with the YMCA and returned to England probably in early 1919, according to Rowland. He worked on a new novel but was hampered by poor health. His wife's health was of even greater concern, so in February 1921 they took a holiday in the south of France to recuperate. He fell ill on the train with a chill that turned into influenza and pneumonia from which he died on 22 March 1921, aged 54. He was buried in
Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the south of France, in a grave adjacent to that of
George Gissing. Doyle, returning from a
spiritualist lecture tour of Australia, received the news in Paris and travelled south in time for the funeral. When Hornung had still been courting Doyle's sister, Doyle wrote that "I like young Willie Hornung very much ... he is one of the sweetest-natured and most delicate-minded men I ever knew". Honouring him after his death, Doyle wrote that he "was a Samuel Johnson|Dr. [Samuel] Johnson without the learning but with a finer wit. No one could say a neater thing, and his writings, good as they are, never adequately represented the powers of the man, nor the quickness of his brain". His obituarist in
The Times described him as "a man of large and generous nature, a delightful companion and conversationalist". '', with
John Barrymore Much of Hornung's work fell out of favour as time passed; Rowland observed that "all of Hornung's other works have been forgotten, with the possible exception of
Stingaree, but the cricketing Cracksman continues to enthral". The idea of a criminal as a positive character was one of Hornung's legacies, and
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism states that "critics have also interpreted Raffles as a prototype of the antihero in modern crime fiction". The academic Frank Wadleigh Chandler, describing Raffles's death, writes that "all his creator's attempts to portray him as a hero, rather than an anti-hero, deservedly fail." Valentine highlights one aspect of the stories was the mix of "devilry and daring" demonstrated by Raffles; in this respect he was a literary "forerunner of
The Saint,
James Bond and other insouciant types". The writer
Colin Watson agrees, and called Hornung "a precursor of Ian Fleming|[Ian] Fleming". The character continued in book form: the writer Philip Atkey, under the pseudonym
Barry Perowne, obtained permission from the Hornung estate to continue the Raffles stories, and seven more novels followed between 1933 and 1940, with Raffles transformed from a gentleman thief to a tough adventurer. Perowne continued the series in 1950, and 14 of his stories were published in the 1974 volume
Raffles Revisited. Hornung's original stories have undergone a number of reprints, and when all the short stories were published in a single volume,
Graham Greene considered it "a splendid idea". In 1975 Greene had written a play based on the Raffles stories,
The Return of A. J. Raffles, which premiered at the
Royal Shakespeare Company, with
Denholm Elliott as Raffles. There were several Raffles films made during Hornung's lifetime, Further films followed in the years after his death, including
Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1925), with
House Peters Sr.;
Raffles (1930), featuring
Ronald Colman;
The Return of Raffles (1933), with
George Barraud; and
Raffles (1939), starring
David Niven; the last of these was a
Samuel Goldwyn Productions remake of their own 1930 film, which the academic
Victor E. Neuburg called the "most memorable portrayal" of the character. The BBC has dramatised some of Hornung's Raffles stories for radio, first in the 1940s and again from 1985 to 1993 in the radio series
Raffles.
Nigel Havers narrated some of the stories on BBC radio in 1995. In 1977
Anthony Valentine played the thief, and
Christopher Strauli his partner, in a
Yorkshire Television series. A 2001 television film,
Gentleman Thief, adapted the stories for a contemporary audience, with Havers playing the lead. ==Writing==