The Stories

The Original Stories

Reading Order

The Raffles stories were published largely out of chronological order, but are generally grouped into three collections and a novel in order of publication. However, most are self-contained and can easily be read individually.

Illustration of Raffles from Collier's Magazine, by J.C. Leyendecker.
Illustration of Raffles from Collier's Magazine, by J.C. Leyendecker, 1904.
  1. The Amateur Cracksman
    1. The Ides of March
    2. A Costume Piece
    3. Gentlemen and Players
    4. Le Premier Pas
    5. Wilful Murder
    6. Nine Points of the Law
    7. The Return Match
    8. The Gift of the Emperor
  2. The Black Mask, or Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman
    1. Narrator's Note
    2. No Sinecure
    3. A Jubilee Present
    4. The Fate of Faustina
    5. The Last Laugh
    6. To Catch a Thief
    7. An Old Flame
    8. The Wrong House
    9. The Knees of the Gods
  3. A Thief in the Night
    1. Out of Paradise
    2. The Chest of Silver
    3. The Rest Cure
    4. The Criminologists' Club
    5. The Field of Philippi
    6. A Bad Night
    7. A Trap to Catch a Cracksman
    8. The Spoils of Sacrilege
    9. The Raffles Relics
    10. The Last Word
  4. Mr Justice Raffles (novel)

Ways to Read

The Raffles stories are now in the public domain, which means anyone can reproduce them. As such, they have been published in print and digitally many times.

Raffles Redux: In my opinion, the most comprehensive annotated version of the Raffles stories. Contains fantastic historical and cultural information alongside the story, so you understand everything that goes on. Edited by Sarah and Genevieve Morrissey. Their annotated version is now also available as an eBook or paperback on Amazon.

Project Gutenberg: Here you can find eBooks of each Raffles book. They can be read straight on your browser, or downloaded as epub files.

If you’re after a physical copy, I can recommend the Penguin Classics edition of The Amateur Cracksman, originally published in 2003. It comes with an introduction, chronology of Hornung’s life, commentary, and notes by Richard Lancelyn Green. A scanned copy is also available here on the Internet Archive.

Audiobooks

The Librivox recordings are all in the public domain and can be downloaded or listened to in your browser.

There are also audiobooks on Audible.