SOURCE: "A Very Decent Sort of Burglar," in Snobbery with Violence: Crime Stories and Their Audience, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1971, pp. 41-52.

In the following excerpt, Watson examines the Raffles character, questioning George Orwell's contention that Raffles's sense of propriety renders him superior to other lawbreakers in crime novels.

[A. E. W.] Mason, the boy-at-heart, produced heroes of a rugged, mannish kind. His detective, Hanaud, is a big middle-aged man who is dedicatedly professional and whose very clowning intimidates. By paradox of an opposite order, E. W. Hornung created a character who was the antithesis of the 'formidable Edwardian gentleman who didn't like teenagers very much' remembered by Nigel Morland. This is how Homung, brother-in-law of Conan Doyle, conceived the exciting life:

His own hands were firm and cool as he adjusted my mask for me, and then his own. 'By jove, old boy,' he whispered cheerily, 'you...