The Ides of March (short story)

"The Ides of March"
"The Ides of March"
by E. W. Hornung
	1898 Collier's illustration by E. V. Nadherny
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	A. J. Raffles
Genre(s)	Crime fiction
Publisher	Cassell & Co
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	June 1898
Chronology
← Preceded by; —	Followed by →; A Costume Piece

Last updated August 01, 2023

"The Ides of March" (also published as "In the Chains of Crime") is a short story by E. W. Hornung, and the first appearance of the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, and his companion and biographer, Bunny Manders. The story was first published in June 1898 by Cassell's Magazine .^[1] The story was also included in the collection The Amateur Cracksman , published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.^[2]

Plot

Part one

"Bunny" Manders returns to the flat in the Albany where he just lost over two hundred pounds in a game of baccarat, earlier that evening. The famous cricketer A. J. Raffles, who lives there and who Bunny once fagged for at school, greets him. Bunny confesses to Raffles that he is hopelessly in debt. The checks he wrote for Raffles and the others are worthless. When Raffles does not express sympathy, Bunny tries to leave. Raffles detains him. Agitated, Bunny raises a pistol to his head to kill himself. However, Raffles unexpectedly admires the bold move, which stymies Bunny.

"Do you see what day it is?" he added, tearing a leaflet from a Shakespearian calendar, as I drained my glass. "March 15th. 'The Ides of March, the Ides of March, remember.' Eh, Bunny, my boy? You won't forget them, will you?"

— Raffles, before bringing Bunny to Bond Street^[3]

Raffles promises to help Bunny. He takes away Bunny's gun. However, Raffles is also hard-up; he and Bunny must now work together to find income. Bunny is astonished, but eagerly agrees to the partnership. Bunny recalls how he had helped Raffles break curfew at school; Raffles remembers this also. Raffles leaves with Bunny, ostensibly to ask for money from a friend of his.

Part two

Raffles brings Bunny to the unnamed friend's flat in Bond Street, which sits above a jeweler's shop. Bunny is reluctant, but with his own key Raffles leads him into the dark flat. Raffles takes Bunny quietly upstairs, then lights a match. Abruptly Bunny sees that the house is empty. The truth is revealed: there is no friend. Raffles is actually planning to burgle the shop of the jeweler, named Danby, underneath. Though Bunny is shocked to learn that Raffles is a burglar, he reaffirms his commitment to Raffles.

Raffles takes Bunny to the cellar, then across an outside yard to a door that Raffles forces open with a jimmy. They ascend more stairs, to another door. Raffles uses a brace and drill bit to cut around the lock. He slips his arm through and picks the iron gate behind the door with a skeleton key.

Next is an empty lobby, separated from the shop by an iron curtain. The curtain will be noisy to remove. Raffles asks Bunny to return to the empty room above, and beat the floor to communicate when the street is clear. Bunny signals when a policeman and a watchman pass by outside. Later, Bunny returns to Raffles, who has pocketed some of the shop's valuables, some port, and cigars. They clean themselves in the shop's lavatory and leave.

At the Albany, Raffles cajoles Bunny into promising to stand by Raffles for future crimes.

Publication history

When printed in Cassell's Magazine , the story was renamed to "In the Chains of Crime". It included an introduction clarifying that Bunny was presently a prisoner, as well as an illustration showing Bunny Manders being dragged by a skeleton in cloak and hood. The magazine was hesitant to publish a story that featured criminals as the protagonists, and these changes were intended to make it clear that it was a cautionary tale. Cassell's would reprint this same illustration in each of its six Raffles issues.^[5]

Adaptations

Television

The story was adapted into the first episode of the Raffles television series, with Anthony Valentine as A. J. Raffles and Christopher Strauli as Bunny Manders. The episode, titled "The First Step", first aired on 25 February 1977.

Radio

BBC Radio adapted the story into the first episode of its Raffles radio series, "The Ides of March", which first aired on 20 October 1985.^[6] The drama features Jeremy Clyde as Raffles and Michael Cochrane as Bunny. The episode closely follows the plot of the original story, with some changes, including:

In the original story, Raffles hosted the game of baccarat. In the radio drama, the game is hosted by a different man in another room in the Albany, and Raffles takes no part.
In the original story, Bunny threatens to kill himself with a pistol. In the radio drama, Bunny goes to Waterloo Bridge with the aim of throwing himself into the Thames.
In the drama only, Raffles injures his hands with the iron curtain.
In the drama, the constable and watchman block the exit, and Bunny uses a rope to lower the injured Raffles and himself down a window, similar to how he had lowered and raised the rope for Raffles at school.

"The Ides of March" was adapted as the first episode of Raffles, the Gentleman Thief , a series on the American radio show Imagination Theatre . The episode first aired in 2004.^[7]

Related Research Articles

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Raffles is a 1977 television series adapted from the A. J. Raffles stories by E. W. Hornung. The stories were adapted by Philip Mackie.

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

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The Amateur Cracksman is an 1899 short story collection by E. W. Hornung. It was published in the UK by Methuen & Co., London, and in the US by Scribner's, New York. Many later editions expand the title to Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman. Some editions such as Penguin Books, 1948, retitle the collection simply, Raffles.

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Arthur J. Raffles is a fictional character created in 1898 by E. W. Hornung, brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, an inversion of Holmes – he is a "gentleman thief", living at the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing cricket as a gentleman for the Gentlemen of England and supporting himself by carrying out ingenious burglaries. He is called the "Amateur Cracksman" and often, at first, differentiates between him and the "professors" – professional criminals from the lower classes.

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"Gentlemen and Players" 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 August 1898 by Cassell's Magazine. The story was also included in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.

"Le Premier Pas" 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 as the fourth story in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899. This and "Wilful Murder" were the two stories in the collection not published previously in magazine format.

"Wilful Murder" 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 as the fifth part of the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899. This and "Le Premier Pas" were the two stories in the collection not published previously in magazine format.

"Nine Points of the Law" 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 September 1898 by Cassell's Magazine. The story was also included as the six story in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.

"The Return Match" 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 October 1898 by Cassell's Magazine. The story was also included as the seventh story in the collection The Amateur Cracksman, published by Methuen & Co. Ltd in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1899.

"No Sinecure" 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 January 1901. The story was also included as the first story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

"To Catch a Thief" 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 May 1901. The story was also included as the fifth story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

"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. 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.

"The Wrong House" 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 September 1901. The story was also included as the seventh story in the collection The Black Mask, published by Grant Richards in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1901.

"Out of Paradise" 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 December 1904 by Collier's Weekly in New York, and in January 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the first story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

"The Chest of Silver" 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 published in January 1905 by Collier's Weekly in New York, and in February 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. It was also included as the second story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

"A Bad Night" 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 published in June 1905 by Pall Mall Magazine in London. The story was also included as the sixth story in the collection A Thief in the Night, published by Chatto & Windus in London, and Charles Scribner's Sons in New York, both in 1905.

References

Notes

↑ Rowland, page 282
↑ Rowland, page 283.
↑ Hornung (1899), p. 18.
↑ "E(rnest) W(illiam) Hornung". Contemporary Authors . Gale . Retrieved 25 January 2014.(subscription required)
↑ Rowland, page 119.
↑ Passage, Frank M. (20 May 2004). "Raffles". Old-Time Radio. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
↑ Wright, Stewart (30 April 2019). "Raffles, the Gentleman Thief: Broadcast Log" (PDF). Old Time Radio. Retrieved 10 March 2020.

Sources

Hornung, E. W. (1899). The Amateur Cracksman. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Rowland, Peter (1999). Raffles and His Creator. London: Nekta Publications. ISBN 0-9533583-2-1.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Rowland, page 282

[2] Rowland, page 283.

[3] Hornung (1899), p. 18.

[Gale_CA-4] "E(rnest) W(illiam) Hornung". Contemporary Authors . Gale . Retrieved 25 January 2014.(subscription required)

[5] Rowland, page 119.

[6] Passage, Frank M. (20 May 2004). "Raffles". Old-Time Radio. Retrieved 8 October 2017.

[7] Wright, Stewart (30 April 2019). "Raffles, the Gentleman Thief: Broadcast Log" (PDF). Old Time Radio. Retrieved 10 March 2020.

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v t e E. W. Hornung's A. J. Raffles
Raffles stories and adaptations
Books	The Amateur Cracksman "The Ides of March" The Black Mask A Thief in the Night Mr. Justice Raffles
Characters	A. J. Raffles Bunny Manders
Films	The Van Nostrand Tiara (1913) Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1917) Mr. Justice Raffles (1921) Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman (1925) Raffles (1930) The Return of Raffles (1932) Raffles (1939) Raffles (1958)
Television	Raffles (TV series) (1975/1977) Gentleman Thief (2001)
Stage	The Burglar and the Lady (1905) The Return of A. J. Raffles (1975)
Radio	Raffles (radio series) (1985–1993) Raffles, the Gentleman Thief (2004–present)

v t e The Amateur Cracksman by E. W. Hornung
"The Ides of March" "A Costume Piece" "Gentlemen and Players" "Le Premier Pas" "Wilful Murder" "Nine Points of the Law" "The Return Match" "The Gift of the Emperor"
The Amateur Cracksman The Black Mask A Thief in the Night Mr. Justice Raffles