An Old Flame (short story)

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"An Old Flame"

Raffles (Scribner 1906) -pg172.png

Raffles and Saillard, 1906 illustration by F. C. Yohn
Author E. W. Hornung
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series A. J. Raffles
Genre(s) Crime fiction
Publisher Charles Scribner's Sons
Media type Print (Magazine)
Publication date June 1901
Preceded by "To Catch a Thief"
Followed by "The Wrong House"

"An Old Flame" is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and features the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in Scribner's Magazine in June 1901. [1] The story was also included as the sixth story in the collection The Black Mask , published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901. [2]

E. W. Hornung British writer

Ernest William Hornung was an English author and poet known for writing the A. J. Raffles series of stories about a gentleman thief in late 19th-century London. Hornung was educated at Uppingham School; as a result of poor health he left the school in December 1883 to travel to Sydney, where he stayed for two years. He drew on his Australian experiences as a background when he began writing, initially short stories and later novels.

Bunny Manders

Harry Manders is a character in the popular series of Raffles novels by E.W. Hornung. He is the faithful companion of Raffles, a cricketer and gentleman thief, who makes a living robbing the rich in late Victorian British High Society.

Contents

Plot Summary

Part one

Bunny pulls Raffles, disguised as the ailing Mr. Maturin, in a wheelchair through a relatively low-class residential area, when Raffles demands they stop near one peculiarly large, well-furnished house. They observe a couple dining inside. Raffles dashes away burgle the house. Bunny, unhappily, prepares himself to extricate Raffles, but Raffles climbs up to the house's balcony and enters without incident.

Bunny is able to watch both the dining couple and Raffles. The woman discovers Raffles, and recognizes him. Both disappear from sight. Bunny waits around the corner, unseen, until Raffles returns and urges them home.

At home, Raffles admits that the woman was Jacques Saillard, a famous painter, who once cheated on her husband with Raffles. Raffles had ended the relationship, and now fears that Saillard will blackmail him into reuniting with her. He has tried to lose her. Shortly, however, Saillard arrives at the flat, furious.

Part two

Saillard visits Raffles frequently for weeks, driving him ragged. Raffles tells Bunny that, because of the intolerability of both Saillard and Dr. Theobald, Bunny must leave and find them a new place to live. Raffles promises he will contact Bunny in ten days, or never at all.

Bunny stays at a hotel until he find a cottage for rent in Ham Common for him and Raffles. After a full ten days have passed without any sign from Raffles, Bunny impatiently returns to Earl's Court, where he finds Dr. Theobald, lamenting the death of Mr. Maturin, from typhoid.

Ham Common, London Common land in London

Ham Common is an area of common land in Ham, London. It is a conservation area in, and managed by, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It comprises 48.69 hectares, the second largest area of common land in the borough, 2 acres (0.81 ha) smaller than Barnes Common. It is divided into two distinct habitats, grassland and woodland, separated by the A307, Upper Ham Road. It is an area of ecological, historical and recreational interest, designated a Local Nature Reserve.

Here was a new excitement in which to drown my grief; here was something to think about; and I should be spared the intolerable experience of a solitary return to the little place at Ham.

— Bunny, welcoming his apparent arrest [3]

Bunny is devastated. He attends Raffles's funeral. There, a Scotland Yard official quietly arrests Bunny, and takes him away in a hansom. However, to Bunny's joy, the official quickly reveals himself to be Raffles. He has paid off Dr. Theobald and faked his death to throw off Saillard. Together, Raffles and Bunny continue to Ham Common.

Adaptations

BBC Radio adapted the story into the fifteenth episode of its Raffles radio drama, "An Old Flame", which first aired on 15 August 1992. [4] The drama features Jeremy Clyde as Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny. The plot of the episode largely follows that of the original story, with some changes:

Jeremy Clyde English actor and musician

Michael Jeremy Thomas Clyde is an English actor and musician. During the 1960s, he was one-half of the folk duo Chad & Jeremy, who had little success in the UK but were an object of interest to American audiences. He has enjoyed a long television acting career and continues to appear regularly, usually playing upper-middle class or aristocratic characters.

Michael Dundonald Cochrane is an English actor who specialises in playing suave upper class characters.

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References

Notes
  1. ↑ William G. Contento (12 August 2017). "Series List". The FictionMags Index. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  2. ↑ Rowland, page 280.
  3. ↑ Hornung, page 205.
  4. ↑ Frank M. Passage (20 May 2004). "Raffles". Old-Time Radio. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
Sources
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