Raffles Part III

Hornung had a somewhat on and off relationship with his brother in law, Arthur Conan Doyle  but he admitted that some of the inspiration for the friendship between Bunny and Raffles came from the relationship between Holmes and Watson.

His Raffles stories sold well but he did not want to be tied to one form of story.  He may have felt that there was some merit in the criticism about his making a thief the hero of his stories.  He also wrote on the “woman question”, as it was the era of women campaigning for the Vote…

He wrote a set of stories which ended with the 2 criminals being caught.  Raffles escapes by jumping off the ship they are on and being presumed drowned.  Bunny ends up in prison for a year.  When he gets out, he is very badly off and takes a job as a male nurse to an invalid.   Raffles had managed to fake his own death and lived in Europe for a time under a false name.  He has suffered and aged a good deal.  He and Bunny now continue their partnership and their life of crime in a muted fashion.   After a time they both volunteer to fight in the Second Boer war and Raffles is killed.  Bunny begins to write up stories about their life together.

Hornung may have felt that Raffles had to be punished for his crimes by death... Bunny has also been punished.. He was wounded in the war and had been to prison.   But some critics found the whole ending of the series incongruous.