Holmes and Raffles in Arms: Death, Endings, and Narration

Abstract

Sherlock Holmes's influence on A. J. Raffles has been widely acknowledged. This essay makes the case for a re-examination of the Holmes-Raffles connection by suggesting that their two creators, Conan Doyle and his brother-in-law E. W. Hornung, were more actively in conversation. Holmes and Raffles may not have met in a shared story co-written by the two authors, but Raffles's death is, I argue, an informing presence for the ending that Conan Doyle writes for Holmes. My reading of Hornung's ‘The Knees of the Gods’ (1898) and Conan Doyle's ‘His Last Bow’ (1917) analyses the extent of this influence, which begins at the level of narrative, but which can also be seen in Conan Doyle's treatment of honour and questions of Englishness.