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The joy of burglary
入室盗窃的乐趣
In the early 1900s, a fictional “gentleman burglar” named Raffles fascinated British readers, reflecting popular ideas about crime,, and justice.
20世纪初，一位名叫莱佛士的虚构“绅士窃贼”吸引了英国读者，反映了人们对犯罪、阶级和正义的普遍看法。
We all know how Sherlock Holmes captured the hearts of people in Britain and around the world by cleverly solving crimes. Less remembered is a fictional contemporary who was equally beloved for cleverly committing crimes. As historian Eloise Moss writes, Arthur J. Raffles, the gentleman burglar invented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother-in-law, Earnest William Hornung, broke the rules of and propriety in a way that harmonized with changing norms.
我们都知道夏洛克·福尔摩斯是如何通过巧妙地破案来赢得英国和世界各地人们的心的。较少人记得的是一个虚构的当代人，他因巧妙地犯罪而同样受到人们的喜爱。正如历史学家埃洛伊斯·莫斯所写，阿瑟·柯南·道尔爵士的姐夫欧内斯特·威廉·霍农发明的绅士窃贼亚瑟·J·莱佛士以一种与不断变化的规范相协调的方式打破了阶级和礼仪规则。
In twenty-five stories, plus one novel, written between 1898 and 1909, Raffles spent his days as a cricketing master and gentleman of leisure and his nights gleefully stealing from his fellow London elites, accompanied by his sidekick Bunny Manders.
在1898年至1909年间创作的25个故事和一部小说中，莱佛士白天是一名板球大师和休闲绅士，晚上在他的伙伴邦尼·曼德斯的陪同下，愉快地从伦敦的精英们那里偷东西。
“The moral code of the stories fully endorsed the criminals’ escape from punishment,” Moss writes, “guiding the reader to see, through Bunny’s eyes, how committing a burglary could provide all the thrill and excitement of a legitimate sport (with material benefits).”
莫斯写道：“故事的道德准则完全支持罪犯逃脱惩罚，引导读者通过邦尼的眼睛看到，入室盗窃如何提供合法运动的所有刺激和兴奋（以及物质利益）。”
Some critics recoiled at presenting young readers with stories in which, as one put it, “one’s notions of right and wrong are turned topsy-turvy.” But Moss writes that they played to a widespread questioning of social hierarchies. In the 1880s and ’90s, members of the British aristocracy came under fire from both political radicals and salacious newspapers. Reporting followed the involvement of gentlemen of leisure in messy divorces, illicit gay relationships, and prostitution scandals. Hypocritical upper-class villainy also drove other fictional stories, including the Sherlock Holmes novels, in which Holmes’s opponents were most often West End elites.
一些评论家在向年轻读者呈现故事时退缩了，正如一位评论家所说，“一个人的是非观念被颠倒了。”但莫斯写道，这些故事迎合了人们对社会等级制度的普遍质疑。在19世纪80年代和90年代，英国贵族成员受到了政治激进分子和淫秽报纸的抨击。在报道之后，休闲绅士卷入了混乱的离婚、非法同性恋关系和卖淫丑闻。虚伪的上层阶级邪恶也推动了其他虚构故事的发展，包括夏洛克·福尔摩斯的小说，在这些小说中，福尔摩斯的对手往往是西区的精英。
An explanation for his life of crime that Raffles offers in one story is roguish with a hint of social critique.
莱佛士在一个故事中对他犯罪生涯的解释是淘气的，带有一丝社会批判的意味。
“Why should I work when I could steal? Why settle down to some humdrum uncongenial billet, when excitement, romance, danger, and a decent living were all going begging together?” he asks. “Of course it’s very wrong, but we can’t all be moralists, and the distribution of wealth is very wrong to begin with.”
他问道：“当我可以偷东西的时候，我为什么要工作？当兴奋、浪漫、危险和体面的生活都在一起乞讨的时候，为什么要安定下来，住在一些单调乏味的住所里？”“当然，这是非常错误的，但我们不可能都是道德家，财富分配从一开始就是非常错误的。”
Raffles wasn’t the first criminal hero in British fiction, but Moss writes that he differed from earlier depictions in his suave, upper-class style and the fact that his stories did not end in his capture and execution. His remarkable intelligence and physical abilities, along with his general avoidance of violence, made him easy for audiences to admire, even if they questioned the lionization of a criminal.
莱佛士并不是英国小说中的第一位犯罪英雄，但莫斯写道，他与早期的描述不同，他温文尔雅、上层阶级的风格，而且他的故事并没有以被捕和处决告终。他非凡的智慧和身体素质，以及他对暴力的普遍回避，使他很容易让观众钦佩，即使他们质疑对罪犯的崇拜。
Theatrical and film adaptations across Europe and the United States brought Raffles to new audiences and gave him a love interest: a glamorous, aristocratic woman named Gwendoline Conrad, who becomes the burglar’s accomplice, helping him evade capture. While some movie versions of Raffles toned down his criminality—having him donate ill-gotten profits to charities, for example—these tended to be the least successful depictions of a character designed to be delightfully antisocial.
欧洲和美国各地的戏剧和电影改编将莱佛士带到了新的观众面前，并给了他一个爱情对象：一个名叫格温多琳·康拉德的迷人贵族女人，她成为了窃贼的同谋，帮助他逃避抓捕。虽然莱佛士的一些电影版本淡化了他的犯罪行为，例如让他将不义之财捐给慈善机构，但这些往往是对一个令人愉快的反社会角色最不成功的描述。
【Source】www.daily.jstor.org
【Translated by】Spark Liao (廖怀宝)
【Illustration】From Bing
