On the question of whether he wrote literature - I ain't
gonna go there, but don't dismiss Hornung so quickly. Surely
he was the father of the gentleman thief genre. I'm thinking
the Saint, Bernie the Burglar (to bring us back to the
subject of Block) Peter Cheyney's Alfonzo MacTavish,and Im
sure there are those of us who can name quite a few more.
(There is a very famous French example that completely
escapes my memory for the moment) Raffles, like Holmes,
hasn't bitten the dust yet. There has been more than one
author who has contributed new Raffles stories. There has
been at least one British TV series and there are pastiches
of 'Raffles meets Holmes' and that kind of thing.Obviously
something about the Raffles concept is still quite appealing.
The books are very readable. The only problem with them is
that there is a little too much Cricket.
Eric
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Patrick King
<abrasax93@...> wrote:
>
> And for certain Poe, Wilkie Collins and Doyle
are
> classic literature and they're the absolute
father's
> and grandfathers of the genre. The question is,
is
> E.W. Hornung classic literature? He was
Doyle's
> brother-in-law. His characters, Raffles the
Amateur
> Cracksman, and Stingeree the Austrailian
bushranger,
> were very popular, made into a highly
successful
> movies. But does anyone read him now?
>
> Some make it, some don't.
>
> Patrick King
> --- Jack Bludis <buildsnburns@...>
wrote:
>
> > JIM DOHERTY said, among other
things:
> >
> > >>On the other hand, as William has
pointed out, if
> > some
> > people are too small-minded to see the worth of
a
> > Hammett, or a Chandler, or a Conan Doyle, or,
for
> > that
> > matter, a Spillane, so what?
> >
> > >>Why should we care? As far as I'm
concerned, the
> > whole question of whether or not crime fiction
is
> > literature is settled. We
won.<<
> >
> > I'm not sure who "we" is, but I'm also not sure
that
> > whether Crime Fiction can be literature has
been our
> > question. The question is, I think, WHICH
pieces of
> > crime
> > fiction are literature, and which authors do
others
> > as well
> > as we on Rara consider literature?
> >
> > Remember that part of the m-w definition
of
> > literature:
> > "Writings having excellence of form or
expression
> > and
> > expressing ideas of permanent or
universal
> > interest."
> >
> > Hammett and Chandler have already made the
grade, at
> > least
> > I think they have. I'd bet dollars to dimes,
that
> > most on
> > Rara consider them lierature.
> >
> > Jack Bludis
> >
> >
__________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
> > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best
spam
> > protection around
> > http://mail.yahoo.com
> >
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 07 Nov 2007 EST