RARA-AVIS: E W Hornung.

From: Eric Chambers ( nqexile@yahoo.com.au)
Date: 11 Nov 2007


Glad to hear it, Patrick. But I'm still confused. Does an Author need to be in print to be considered 'Classic'? Or to be influential? In the 21st Century how many 'Classic' authors ( or even good ones) are in print at any given time? Many of the authors and books discussed here are currently out of print. Those of us who are interested, ( A healthy and hopefully growing literate minority) will still ferret them out. And, hey, it depends on your definition of 'in print'. Hornung, like Doyle, is out of Copyright. That means that a thorough web search will find most of his works as ebooks just a click away.It also means that you or I or anybody else can publish him should we choose to do so.
  And just because I can't resist the symmetry, Here's a Hornung quote from Graham Greene!

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/e-w-hornung/complete-short-stories-of-raffles.htm

Eric.

      "Patrick King"
       abrasax93@yahoo.com
                 wrote:
> I don't dismiss Hornung at all. I love Hornung. But

his books are our of print. Does anyone else read him

except you and me? I literally found ancient editions

of his books used in a barn bookseller. Most people

today don't know anything about him. This guy did

create a new genre, yes, of the gentleman theif, but

also of the criminal protagonist. The suspense in

Hornung's books wasn't about how do we catch the

crook, it was how does the crook get away. I think it

was a very interesting twist. His writing is

excellent, his characters are vivid, but his work is

nearly forgotten while Holmes and Watson are classics.

I also love Edgar Wallace. His books, too, are nearly

impossible to find in the US. Only used editions. Last

time I was in London they were still available. How

about now? He was a writer that managed to be both

gripping and eerie.

Patrick King

--- nqexile <nqexile@yahoo. com.au> wrote:

> 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

       National Bingo Night. Play along for the chance to win $10,000 every week. Download your gamecard now at Yahoo!7 TV. http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/national-bingo-night/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11 Nov 2007 EST