Dashing man-about-town by day and thief by night, A. J. Raffles offered Victorian readers a new kind of hero, a morally ambiguous character who anticipated the hardboiled detectives of 20th-century crime fiction. Raffles' position as a professional cricket player and prominent member of society provides the perfect cover for his burglaries. These sparklingly witty stories, narrated by Raffles' admiring accomplice, inspired numerous stage and screen adaptations.