A.J. Raffles

fictional character

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Article History

A.J. Raffles, fictional character, a charming thief who was originally featured in a series of short stories by E.W. Hornung that appeared in the Strand and other popular British magazines beginning in the late 1880s.

The Raffles stories are narrated by his accomplice and former schoolmate Bunny Manders. They recall the manner in which Raffles, who plays cricket and belongs to a club, steals from members of his own class. Originally published in two volumes in 1899 and 1901, the collected stories later appeared as Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (1906). In 1932 Barry Perowne began a new series of Raffles stories that were published in various mystery magazines and were later collected in several volumes, including Raffles in Pursuit (1934), Raffles vs. Sexton Blake (1937), and Raffles Revisited (1974).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.