Raffles is certainly the best-known of the English Gentleman
Thieves, but he wasn't the first--that was Grant Allen's
Colonel Clay, followed by Guy Boothby's Simon Carne. The
Colonel Clay stories are better-written, lacking the moral
confusion and incoherence of the Raffles stories as well as
the egregious Bunny Manders.
None of them are as good as Maurice Leblanc's Arsene Lupin
stories, of course, and although the dozens of international
Gentlemen Thieves appearing before 1945 used the outlines of
Raffles for their own characters, it was the particulars of
Lupin, especially his relationship with the police, which
were most imitated.
So I'd have to say that it was Lupin and not Raffles who was
most influential. Although Hornung was working in imitation
of Allen and Boothby, he eclipsed them in terms of fame. But
Leblanc eclipsed Hornung in terms of influence.
jess nevins
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 11 Nov 2007 EST