Download A Thief in the Night by E. W. Hornung. A 1905 crime and mystery and classic fiction work about A. J. Raffles, Bunny Manders, gentleman crime, loyalty, betrayal, moral ambiguity and the darker side of criminal glamour. Available in PDF, EPUB, MOBI and AZW3 formats.
About A Thief in the Night
A Thief in the Night by E. W. Hornung is a 1905 crime and mystery and classic fiction work about A. J. Raffles, Bunny Manders, gentleman crime, loyalty, betrayal, moral ambiguity and the darker side of criminal glamour. Ideal for readers interested in Raffles, gentleman thieves, crime fiction, Australian settings, romance, thrillers, school stories, supernatural mystery and Hornung's Edwardian popular fiction.
Genres: Crime and Mystery | Classic Fiction
Why Read A Thief in the Night?
A Thief in the Night is worth reading because it shows Hornung's fascination with crime, secrecy, motive, social performance and the ambiguous appeal of people who live outside ordinary respectability. First published in 1905, the work is concerned with A. J. Raffles, Bunny Manders, gentleman crime, loyalty, betrayal, moral ambiguity and the darker side of criminal glamour. Hornung is best remembered for Raffles, but his wider output also includes Australian fiction, romance, school stories, psychological crime, thrillers and wartime non-fiction.
Readers may value the title for its mixture of polish and unease. Hornung often writes about people who stand between respectability and danger: thieves who behave like gentlemen, lovers shadowed by secrets, colonial figures judged by metropolitan standards, young men under pressure, and outwardly orderly households where guilt or suspicion has already entered. His plots can be brisk, but they are often powered by questions of loyalty and honour.
The book is also useful for understanding late Victorian and Edwardian popular fiction. Hornung's career sits close to detective fiction, adventure romance, imperial settings, sporting culture and the short-story market. Modern readers should approach period assumptions critically, especially where empire, class, gender, race or criminality appear. Even so, the work remains historically valuable because it records how readers of the period negotiated admiration for charm, nerve and rule-breaking.
This title adds to the larger E. W. Hornung collection by showing another angle on a writer whose fiction repeatedly tests the boundary between heroism and wrongdoing. A Thief in the Night can be read for plot, atmosphere, genre history and moral ambiguity, but it is especially rewarding because Hornung makes charm suspect. His best stories ask why readers are drawn to people they know they should distrust.
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