Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of E. W. Hornung

In Short

This index catalogs the substantial body of work by a writer best known for creating the gentleman cracksman A.J. Raffles, a literary icon who inverted the Sherlock Holmes archetype. Beyond these famous burglaries, the collection reveals a versatile career spanning detective fiction, Australian bush stories, public school novels, and war poetry. By mapping these diverse narratives, the index preserves a clear record of an author who captured the anxieties and shifting class loyalties of the Edwardian era, remaining a cornerstone of late-Victorian and early-twentieth-century popular fiction.

The Story

The narrative arc of these combined works stretches from the sun-scorched outposts of the Australian colonies to the rain-slicked streets of London. In the bush-based novels, the story often centers on the clash between raw, frontier reality and the rigid expectations of British social hierarchy. Figures like Stingaree, a bushranger, or the title character in A Bride from the Bush, disrupt the quiet order of polite society, forcing a confrontation between authentic, if rough, colonial life and the stifling traditions of the English upper class. These stories often conclude with a reconciliation of these opposing worlds, where the "outsider" earns a place within the establishment through grit or unexpected moral clarity.

Parallel to these frontier tales are the urban exploits of A.J. Raffles, the protagonist who serves as both a public hero and a private villain. The Raffles saga begins with the thrill of the heist, establishing his double life as a celebrated cricketer and a master thief. As the series progresses, the tone darkens. What begins as a game of wits against stuffy aristocrats evolves into a desperate struggle for survival and relevance. The arc concludes with the inevitable dissolution of his partnership with his loyal confederate, Bunny, and the eventual exhaustion of his criminal career.

The collection also tracks darker, more psychological territories. Works like The Shadow of the Rope and The Crime Doctor move away from pure adventure toward investigative drama, focusing on the stains of past sins and the weight of inherited guilt. In these stories, the arc is one of unmasking; the truth is a slow-emerging force that eventually shatters the protagonist’s facade. Whether it is a man reckoning with his past in Peccavi or the schoolboys in Fathers of Men navigating the transition to adulthood, the common thread is the movement from ignorance to hard-won self-knowledge. The final entries in the collection, including war-themed poetry and reflections on the Great War, bring this expansive bibliography to a somber close, shifting the focus from individual adventure to the collective tragedy of a lost generation.

How It Unfolds

The colonial encounter The stories frequently begin by placing an unassuming or displaced character into a new, demanding environment. Whether it is a bush-bred bride arriving in London or a stranger wandering into a remote Australian settlement, the initial beat is always one of cultural collision.

The rising tension The middle sections of these works focus on the secret life of the protagonist. Whether it is a secret crime, a hidden identity, or a brewing social scandal, the narrative tightens as the central character struggles to maintain their precarious facade against prying neighbors or lawmen.

The crisis point The climax is almost always defined by an act of forced disclosure. The mask slips, the stolen item is recovered, or the long-buried secret is spoken aloud, pushing the protagonist toward a moment of total ruin or radical transformation.

The resolution The concluding chapters provide a sense of finality, often through the lens of moral judgment or social integration. The characters are rarely left as they were; they are either hardened by their trials, cast out of their social circles, or finally reconciled to a new, diminished reality.

The People

A.J. Raffles remains the most enduring figure, a man of immense charm and chilling detachment. He is driven by a desire for excitement rather than simple greed, constantly pitting his wits against the security of the elite. Bunny, his companion, serves as the reader’s surrogate, motivated by a desperate, misplaced loyalty that eventually forces him to confront the moral vacuum left by his mentor’s influence.

In the Australian tales, Stingaree emerges as a complex anti-hero. Unlike the petty criminals of the city, he embodies the lawlessness of the bush, operating with a code of honor that sets him apart from both the authorities and the common ruffians he encounters. He seeks to maintain his autonomy in a world that is rapidly becoming too small for him.

Then there are the protagonists of the domestic novels, such as the characters in A Bride from the Bush or The Shadow of the Rope. These figures are often defined by their struggles against reputation and social expectation. They want to be accepted for who they are, but the judgment of the "crowd"—the narrow-minded, gossip-hungry society—stands in their way. They end up as either victims of their own stubbornness or survivors who find peace by abandoning the pursuit of approval altogether.

In Its Own Voice

"My name's Stingaree!"

A classic moment of self-assertion from a bushranger who forces the world to acknowledge his presence.

"I think she must have seen us, even in the dim light."

The breathless, immediate danger of a Raffles burglary, where one wrong move could end the game.

"The ragged trousers stripped from an evening pair."

A fleeting detail that highlights the gritty, unglamorous reality behind the gentleman-thief's polished appearance.

What It's Really About

These works explore the thin, porous border between respectability and criminality. They ask whether a person can truly belong to a social class while secretly despising its rules. The underlying argument suggests that the "gentleman" is often a mask worn to hide predatory instincts. Throughout the various settings—from the isolation of the outback to the drawing rooms of London—the author probes the question of identity: are we the people we pretend to be for the sake of society, or are we defined by the secret acts we commit when no one is watching? The stories consistently suggest that internal integrity is rarely found in the places where others expect it.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy the brisk, economical prose of the late Victorian era will find much to admire here. The pacing is sharp, and there is a genuine pleasure in the author’s ability to conjure an entire scene with just a few well-chosen details. Those interested in the historical development of the "gentleman thief" archetype will find the Raffles stories indispensable, as they offer the original blueprint for many modern anti-heroes.

However, readers should be prepared for the realities of the time. The period attitudes regarding race, class, and colonial expansion are embedded in the text and may strike a modern reader as dated or exclusionary. Furthermore, the reliance on regional dialects—particularly in the Australian-set novels—can occasionally pose a challenge to the flow of reading. Yet, for all its occasional rigidity, there is a refreshing lack of sentimentality in these pages. The author approaches his subjects with a cool, detached eye that avoids easy moralizing. What remains with you after closing these books is the sense of a man who was deeply observant of the masks people wear. It is a compelling, if sometimes uncomfortable, look at the tensions of a society that was beginning to unravel even as it tried to maintain the appearance of perfect, polite order.