Mr Justice Raffles by E. W. Hornung
Oct. 5th, 2020 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeReturning to the Hornung read-through...
Mr Justice Raffles (1909) is the final Raffles book, and the only novel. It was the first thing Hornung published for several years, apart from collections and adaptations of his earlier works, and I do have to wonder if he was a bit rusty. It's not really up to the standards of the Raffles short stories: reading it again, the reveal of what Teddy was doing when the cricket match was supposed to start, and Levy's ultimate fate, feel like especially weak contrivances. And, unlike the short stories in A Thief in the Night, it fits very awkwardly into the timeline previously established for the Raffles stories, and there are a few other weird continuity issues—like Bunny calling Raffles 'A.J.', which he rarely does in the earlier stories.
Probably the most egregious flaw is of course the antisemitism in the portrayal of Dan Levy. I've complained before about Hornung's apparent ability to examine critically and undermine the simplistic stereotypes of his time from one direction only: characters from favoured groups, like Raffles as an upper-class white British gentleman, are portrayed as flawed and anti-heroic if not outright villainous in complex, interesting and very human ways; while characters from unfavoured groups too often still only get to be one-dimensional villains. It's even more frustrating here because Levy isn't a one-dimensional villain—he gets some genuinely good moments and interesting characterisation, and some real and not undeserved respect from the narratorial Bunny for them, but Hornung can't actually let go of the offensive stereotypes and write him properly. It's a shame.
However, all that said, there is a lot to like about this book! Hornung's prose is as sparkling as ever, and I really get the impression that he was enjoying a return to the distinctive style of the Raffles stories—there's more self-aware commentary on Raffles's dialogue style than there was before. And, of course, there are some lovely relationship moments for Raffles and Bunny, from Raffles's casual statement that 'Bunny and I are one' to the bit on the train at the end where Bunny says he'd follow Raffles anywhere and Raffles gets so emotional he has to go and stick his head out of the window to calm down. More substantially, I appreciated better on this re-read what Hornung was trying to do by writing this book the way he did: having Raffles play the part of the hero, acting to foil the villain Levy out of generous and unselfish motivations, while acting more villainous than ever. I enjoyed it from that angle—I thought it was interesting and a subject worth exploring, even if the execution leaves something to be desired.
That's it for the Raffles parts of the read-through, then! I have just six Hornung books to go, only one of which I've read before (apart from his early short story collection Under Two Skies, which I've still not managed to find anywhere...!).
Mr Justice Raffles (1909) is the final Raffles book, and the only novel. It was the first thing Hornung published for several years, apart from collections and adaptations of his earlier works, and I do have to wonder if he was a bit rusty. It's not really up to the standards of the Raffles short stories: reading it again, the reveal of what Teddy was doing when the cricket match was supposed to start, and Levy's ultimate fate, feel like especially weak contrivances. And, unlike the short stories in A Thief in the Night, it fits very awkwardly into the timeline previously established for the Raffles stories, and there are a few other weird continuity issues—like Bunny calling Raffles 'A.J.', which he rarely does in the earlier stories.
Probably the most egregious flaw is of course the antisemitism in the portrayal of Dan Levy. I've complained before about Hornung's apparent ability to examine critically and undermine the simplistic stereotypes of his time from one direction only: characters from favoured groups, like Raffles as an upper-class white British gentleman, are portrayed as flawed and anti-heroic if not outright villainous in complex, interesting and very human ways; while characters from unfavoured groups too often still only get to be one-dimensional villains. It's even more frustrating here because Levy isn't a one-dimensional villain—he gets some genuinely good moments and interesting characterisation, and some real and not undeserved respect from the narratorial Bunny for them, but Hornung can't actually let go of the offensive stereotypes and write him properly. It's a shame.
However, all that said, there is a lot to like about this book! Hornung's prose is as sparkling as ever, and I really get the impression that he was enjoying a return to the distinctive style of the Raffles stories—there's more self-aware commentary on Raffles's dialogue style than there was before. And, of course, there are some lovely relationship moments for Raffles and Bunny, from Raffles's casual statement that 'Bunny and I are one' to the bit on the train at the end where Bunny says he'd follow Raffles anywhere and Raffles gets so emotional he has to go and stick his head out of the window to calm down. More substantially, I appreciated better on this re-read what Hornung was trying to do by writing this book the way he did: having Raffles play the part of the hero, acting to foil the villain Levy out of generous and unselfish motivations, while acting more villainous than ever. I enjoyed it from that angle—I thought it was interesting and a subject worth exploring, even if the execution leaves something to be desired.
That's it for the Raffles parts of the read-through, then! I have just six Hornung books to go, only one of which I've read before (apart from his early short story collection Under Two Skies, which I've still not managed to find anywhere...!).
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Date: Oct. 5th, 2020 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 5th, 2020 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Oct. 5th, 2020 05:21 pm (UTC)(I've been poking around Z-Library today, and look!)
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Date: Oct. 5th, 2020 06:00 pm (UTC)You know, I was just thinking, I bet
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Date: Oct. 5th, 2020 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: Oct. 6th, 2020 07:57 pm (UTC)