The Black Mask

What makes Raffles so appealing? He’s a gentleman, a man of principles. He’s handsome and in excellent athletic form—a cricket champion of England. At the same time, he is a brilliant fraudster, pulling off cons so subtle and complex that the reader can hardly breathe. Raffles doesn’t use violence, doesn’t take away his victim’s last thing; his unlawful deeds are on the edge of high art. Preparing and carrying out crimes, above all he values the beauty of the idea and the virtuosity of its execution.

“Black Mask” (1901) is the second collection of stories by Hornung, describing in detail the adventures of the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles. His crimes remain inventive and keep stirring the well-fed, measured life of high society.

Stories about Raffles have repeatedly been adapted for theatre and film, and a TV series titled “Raffles” (1975) was made based on them.

Ernest William Hornung (1866–1921) was an English writer, author of a series of works about Raffles—the amateur burglar of Victorian England. These stories brought him nationwide fame.