Art for art's sake is a vile catchword, but I confess it appeals to me' Gentleman by day and thief by night, A. J. Raffles lives a double life. Taking 'Art for art's sake' as his motto, Raffles supports his debonair lifestyle by performing lucrative, artistic, and ingenious burglaries of the wealthy elite of Victorian London. Dedicated to his brother-in-law Arthur Conan Doyle, Hornung's first collection of Raffles stories, The Amateur Cracksman (1899), can be seen as an inverted spin-off of the former's celebrated detective stories. But it is Raffles' outlaw status that has drawn generations of readers to these swift-paced tales of a charismatic and cool-headed thief and his less worldly partner, Bunny. Hornung had Oscar Wilde in mind as much as Sherlock Holmes when he created Raffles, and the account of their double life offers one of the turn of the century's most touching accounts of a same-sex couple. Frequently adapted for stage and screen, Hornung's original stories have never lost their power to captivate readers. Admired by writers like George Orwell, Graham Greene, and Anthony Powell, Hornung's crisp prose evokes a late Victorian London of clubland bachelors, hansom cabs, champagne suppers, Australian heiresses, and South African diamond moguls. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

E.W.ホーナングが描いたのは、正義の象徴への鮮烈な反逆です。ラッフルズは犯罪を「芸術」と捉え、昼は紳士、夜は盗賊という二重生活を謳歌します。作品の深層には、相棒バニーとの濃密な絆や、ヴィクトリア朝末期の退廃的な美学が息づいており、単なる冒険譚を超えた、禁断の情熱と社会への反逆が織りなす文学的余韻が読者を魅了して止みません。 映像化作品では華麗な手口が際立ちますが、原作にはテキストでしか味わえない繊細な心理描写と、行間に漂う危うい熱情が満ちています。映像が提供するスリルと、書物が描き出す孤独な内面的葛藤を併せて味わうことで、この伝説的盗賊のカリスマ性はより鮮明に、かつ立体的に読者の心へと迫ってくるはずです。