#letters from bunny

[vulgarweed]

So this is a public service announcement in case there are any Raffles & Bunny fans who don't know that in 1975, well-respected literary fiction/espionage/crime author Graham Greene (The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, The Third Man, etc) wrote a play called The Return of A.J. Raffles, which is essentially a fix-it fic that not only does what it says on the tin, it makes their relationship canonically a romantic one, and humiliates the Marquess of Queensberry to avenge Oscar Wilde.

Internet Archive link (also links to find paper copies online)

Audio drama on Youtube

GDoc version posted by myqueenmycroft

Wikipedia entry with plot summary and interview quotes from Greene

I hope this can spackle over some cracked hearts somewhere.

[theonekierce]

"Gravel makes a noise, and flower-beds tell a tale. Wait—I must carry you across this." It was the sweep of the drive, and in the dim light from above the door, the soft gravel, ploughed into ridges by the night's wheels, threatened an alarm at every step. Yet Raffles, with me in his arms, crossed the zone of peril softly as the pard. -Out of Paradise

[teaspoonnebula]

Enjoy receiving emails from besotted biographers about their genius associates?

Then have I got some email bookclubs starting in 2024 for you!

[IMG A cartoon of Holmes and Watson running side by side, dressed in country tweeds. Holmes is pointing. Lettering reads Letters from Watson, the Novels]

Letters from Watson is reading through the Sherlock Holmes short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle throughout 2023.

In 2024 we'll be reading the novels starting January 1st, with A Study in Scarlet. Hold on for more mystery and adventure with the Great Detective and his dashing doctor.

[IMG A cartoon of Raffles and Bunny running side by side, dressed in formal suits and top hats and wearing masks. Raffles is clutching some pearls and has jewels in his pockets. Lettering reads Letters from Bunny]

But perhaps you'd rather take a little trip to the other side of the law?

Letters from Bunny will be reading the Raffles stories by EW Hornung, featuring gentleman thief (and cricketer) AJ Raffles and his burglar companion Bunny Manders, from the Ides of March (March 15th)

[IMG A cartoon of Jeeves and Wooster walking side by side, Wooster dressed in colourful clothes and a boater, Jeeves in a monocrome suit. Lettering reads 'Letters Regarding Jeeves']

For something a little lighter, Letters Regarding Jeeves will be reading the uproarously funny public domain stories featuring chap about town Bertie Wooster and his bulging-brained valet Jeeves, starting February 14th.

Reblogs appreciated to spread the word!

[lettersfrombunny]

Who here likes ✨crime✨??

This Ides of March, make it special by not only stabbing Caesar 23 times, but by robbing from the rich for the sake of the poor. Or, at least, reading gay stories about it.

The Raffles Stories were written by E. W. Hornung in the early 1900s-10s, following the felonious exploits of AJ Raffles and his besotted chronicler, Bunny Manders. You can read all of these excellent stories, conveniently delivered to your email inbox for free, by subscribing to the Letters From Bunny Substack. The first story, The Ides of March will start the series off on, as you may have guessed, March 15th, otherwise known as our favorite Tumblr holiday. More information can be found at the link below:

💎🏏💎

I hope you will consider subscribing if you have not yet. Cheers to the death of Caesar! 🗡️

[posingsodomite]

URGENT MESSAGE: I'm on my knees begging you guys to SIGN UP FOR WHAT MANNER OF MAN before it starts on friday!!! 🙇🙇🙇

look me in the eyes! I'm grasping you urgently by the lapels! it's like if Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde were taking notes from my ao3 bookmarks. it has all the authentically victorian vibes I've never found in queer historical fiction and all the hot gay sex they couldn't put in the real stuff. I wish I could eat it!!

IT HAS:

erotic vampirism

hot priest

catholic guilt

celtic paganism-flavored fantasy vibes

CATHOLIC GUILT

lesbian swashbuckling

did I mention the guilt????

please!! you have to help me! I have a fatal disease and the only cure is more people talking about WHAT MANNER OF MAN ⬇️⬇️⬇️

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

[stephensmithuk]

Late Victorian firearms

Some quick notes that might be of interest on the subject of things that shoot bullets and other things in late Victorian literature.

Artillery weapons were improving pretty rapidly at this point, but your big guns at this point generally needed to be physically moved back into place after each round was fired as the recoil made them physically move back a number of feet. One job of a gun crew would be to push the weapon into place. Most weapons remained muzzle-loaders, i.e. you put the shell in the barrel.

Improved cannons had resulted in the disappearance of the rocket artillery popular in the earlier part of the centre. It also became possible to engage in indirect fire i.e. shoot without having a direct line of fire to the target.

The Maxim machine gun arrived in 1886. This was a fully-automatic weapon; the Gatling and earlier guns had required someone to crank them. These could fire off six hundreds a minute and while they could be operated solo, you generally needed four to six soldiers to carry the weapon, ammo and water for keeping it cool.

The psychological effect of these weapons was more devastating than their actual physical impact, often embellished. In colonial wars, breaking one of these out meant you could easily defeat a much bigger indigenous force, who at best would have rifles.

The main infantry weapons at this point switched from breech-loading single-shot rifles (stick bullet in top of rifle, fire, repeat) to bolt-action rifles with multi-round capability. The Winchester and some lever-action rifles saw some military use, but bolt-action rifles won out due to their lower cost.

Pump-action weapons were a thing as well by this time.

Most handguns in this period would be revolvers and references to "pistols" would include those. The semi-automatic handgun properly arrive with the Mauser C96 (aka Han Solo's gun) in 1896; in time to feature in the Second Boer War.

In terms of revolvers, Europeans preferred the double-action, where one trigger pull cocked and fired the weapon. The Americans preferred single-action weapons, where you have to pull the hammer between each shot. Hence the shooters in Westerns pulling the hammer back with their palm in repaid succession.

Bullet calibres could vary wildly; going shopping for ammo would be an interesting experience.

The UK required a gun licence from 1870 for many people to carry weapons outside their own property; Watson and Holmes would need one. They cost 10 shillings and could be bought at a post office over the counter. You also needed a licence for a dog until 1988, although the requirement was widely ignored, and still need a permit for certain types of fishing in England and Wales.

[dathen]

Blorbo-in-law mention!!

[un-monstre]

I genuinely think about my old blorbos all the time. I’ll go into a shop that opened in the Victorian era and think “Holmes and Watson could have shopped here!” I’ll stay at an old hotel and think “Bunny and Raffles could have stayed here!” I’ll shave with a brush and safety razor and think “Bertie Wooster could have shaved like this!”

[serial-serializednovelreader]

What other novels to your inbox do you recommend? I have done Dracula Daily for years and I want to expand my horizon. War is pretty much the only thing that I don't like. Thanks

Hi!

So funny story, contrary to my username and bio…I have not been keeping up with the classic novels in my emails lately. BUT. That does not mean I don’t have some recommendations for you!

Also, since you did mention you don’t like war, I made sure not to recommend any novels that heavily involve war (War & Peace & Emails, for instance). However, I do know some characters in these recommendations have history with war (e.g. Watson was a war doctor) and I’ve made sure to make mention of that wherever possible. So, I apologize if that comes off as annoying or stating the obvious, I just want you to be fully informed before you read. I’m also listing general content warnings as a rule to inform anyone who might be interested in these Substacks. :)

On to the recommendations!

If you’re looking for mystery…

Learn about the greatest detective of all time from his faithful partner — that’s right! Read Letters from Watson to get the scoop on Sherlock and solve mysteries alongside the legendary duo. I thought this was such a cool concept and I wish I had been able to keep up with it. But it was very fun for the time I did. It goes through the entire chronology of Sherlock stories (which is a lot, by the way) and they just started going through the “more complex cases” (aka, the 4 Sherlock novels) back in January. So, it might be a good time to start! There isn’t war in these cases (at least as far as I know, each email does have a list of content warnings for specifics), but Watson was a war doctor and this does come up frequently, just as a heads up.

If you’re looking for epistolary stories…

Literary Letters takes obscure epistolary novels from the public domain and puts them into your inbox! Right now they’re reading The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is about a guy who’s in love with a girl who’s betrothed to another and writes very passionate letters on the subject.

For a content warning, I’ve included the publisher’s note on this one: “There are passages where the book discusses Werther’s depression, despair, rationalizations for suicide, and the suicide itself at length, so please take whatever precautions you need to read the book safely, which may include buddy reading, mental health breaks, or skipping it altogether.”

So with that being said, the reason I got into this email chain was actually for their first novel they emailed - The Lightning Conductor. I absolutely loved this novel and I heavily recommend going back into the archives to read it and its sequel if you can (that one is in the “Side Stories” archive). It’s a very lighthearted read and a romance, told in epistolary format! Basically, it’s about this smart (yet a bit scatterbrained — not judging, because, same) woman who goes to Europe for the first time and she ends up meeting a gentleman when her car breaks down. Said gentleman is mistaken for a chauffeur and he goes along with it, just because she’s dreamy and he’s already smitten with her. Then there’s her “best guy friend” and her mom trying to throw a wrench in their plans. It’s utter chaos and I love it. I could go on for hours about this novel, but I won’t! I do highly recommended reading it if you ever get the chance.

If you’re looking for a read in verse format…

Check out Divine Comedy Weekly! It’s telling Dante’s Divine Comedy every Tuesday and Thursday. There’s not much to say about this one because I dropped out pretty early in the game, unfortunately. For some reason, stories told in a lyrical/verse format don’t seem to be my thing, but maybe they’re your thing! I think it’s a great concept and for that reason, I will recommend this.

If you’re looking for an all-new read…

North and South by Jane Austen is coming to your inbox this June! It’s apparently a bit like Pride and Prejudice but with the Industrial Revolution and labor relations. I actually just subscribed to this one and I’m excited to see how I enjoy it!

If you’re looking for a long haul read…

Buckle in! It’s time for Whale Weekly! That’s right, you’re in for a THREE YEAR TRIP with this bad boy because Ishmael is emailing you the tale of Moby Dick. Life has gotten in the way and I’ve fallen behind (though this is motivating me to catch up again), but this is actually really good as an email read because this guy goes on so many tangents, it’s more fun for me to absorb his thoughts in spaced out emails, rather than if I tried to read the book.

The memes are very fun with this one, but please keep in mind there is racism and foul language in this, as well as other heavy topics I can’t remember off the top of my head. Also, this does not take place in a war setting, but I do believe some characters have been in war in the past, so that is probably something to keep in mind with this one!

This one is coming to an end fairly soon (I didn’t realize we were on chapter 113/135 OOF), so I don’t know if they’re going to do another round after this or leave it. I imagine it would probably be hard to catch up at this point, but I’m going to link it anyway because I typed all of this up before realizing how far along we were and I do still recommend the read in email format rather than a novel format.

If you’re looking for horror…

I would recommend “The Beetle Weekly”. I wasn’t able to finish this one because LifeTM got in the way, but it is, for sure, one of the reads of all time. Probably the best and worst thing you could read ever tbh. It’s not very enjoyable and I’m not pitching it well at all, but for some reason, I am legitimately recommending this because it is hilarious to read with Tumblr memes by your side. As a heads up, this book does include racism, gore, sexism, transphobia (iirc?) and likely more content warnings I can’t remember. The reason I’m recommending it at all is because it does carry some of the same themes as Dracula and the characters are interesting. Plus, love it or hate it, I reacted while reading this book - a lot. Did I mention I have a bug phobia? Also, fun fact: it was published at the same time as Dracula and was actually MORE POPULAR than Dracula for a while before fading into obscurity.

The only thing is, it did just end last April so you might have to wait until December for it to crawl back into your inbox if you’re interested.

If you’re looking for a thriller…

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly. I absolutely LOVED THIS ONE!!!! Very much vibes of Dracula Daily. Immaculate stuff right there. This one has a lot more comedy than you’d think and was very enjoyable. Content warnings for violence against a child (mentioned, not shown), body horror, and there is one more I can’t say without spoiling the book (feel free to DM me if you’re interested in knowing).

Again, this is pretty short and it’s not currently active; it runs November through January, so that’s when you can look out for it!

I was hoping to recommend some more via a masterlist, I know someone made a post waaay back in 2022 when this serialized email novel thing first got started, but it looks like it got deleted, so if there is a new one, I would love for anyone to share it just for future reference!

I do have a couple of honorable mentions I’ll link that I haven’t read and know next to nothing about, but just so you can have even more recommendations. Please feel free to share your favorites!

[thefisherqueen]

It was the old man's last orgy before his annual cure, and he let the whole room know it.

Once again Struck Senseless by another Victorian word that has a sexual meaning now, but didn't back then. There are so many I've come across while reading these victorian books - knocking someone up, using someone roughly, molesting, and, apperently, orgy as well. There have to be words who moved into the other direction! What gems am I missing?? I'd be delighted by any examples! The only one I can think of is wick. Possibly bugger as well - I think most still know its old sexual meaning, but it's only really used as a swear word today

[theonekierce]

I have fair hair, and at the time it was rather long. With a pair of Mrs. Crutchley's tongs and a discarded hair-net, I was able to produce an almost immodest fringe. A big black hat with a wintry feather completed a headdress as unseasonable as my skating skirt and feather boa; -The Rest Cure

[thethirdromana]

I'm really enjoying the Raffles stories (bar the anti-Semitism in Mr. Justice Raffles, anyway), but I was startled by this, from Wikipedia:

[Hornung's biographer] writes that Raffles and Manders were also fictionalised versions of Oscar Wilde and his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas.

To me, at first, it didn't seem like they had much in common, other than (implicit) queerness.

Wilde and Bosie's relationship was marked by a large age gap (16 years); Raffles and Bunny were at school together so can be no more than 6 years apart in age.

There was also a distinction of class between Wilde (upper middle class) and Bosie (the son of a nobleman). Raffles and Bunny are both gentlemen of the same class.

Wilde was a noted wit; Raffles is quick-witted, certainly, but not particularly witty.

Raffles and Wilde have fame in common, but even then Raffles' achievements on the cricket pitch don't feel like the same sort of thing as being a writer.

So I did a bit of reading! The connection, apparently, is partly through the double life that Raffles leads as a celebrity but also a criminal (cricketer/thief), in comparison with Wilde's double life (writer/homosexual). That makes sense in the context of homosexuality as perceived as a secret crime.

And it's partly through Raffles' and Bunny's aestheticism. That's the argument that really rings true with me. Raffles and Bunny lead a life of romance, of jewels, and of fine dinners in clubs they don't belong to. Raffles commits crimes - artistic, elegant ones - not just for money, but as art for art's sake. Raffles might not look or sound very much like Wilde, but his tastes and desires resemble Wilde's a great deal.

The connection isn't so much about specific traits, especially not demographic ones, which is what came to mind for me. It's about their approach to life.

[reine-du-sourire]

This is literally the face of Bunny Manders.

[eirinstiva]

"I had no man."

The second part of "The Rest Cure" arrived today, and because this is one of my favourite stories of the Rafflesian Canon (?), it's harder than usual to comment because [heavy breathing].

What with his flourishing beard and the increasing shabbiness of the only suit he had brought with him to the house, there was no denying that Raffles had now the advantage of a permanent disguise.

This is the start of Bunny's revenge, and this time Manders left the idea mature all the night. This is not something that he's doing on impulse, this is Bunny showing his own criminal ability.

She was a tall woman; I was not too tall a man. Like Raffles, I had not shaved on Campden Hill. That morning, however, I did my best with a very fair razor which the colonel had left behind in my room; then I turned out the lady's wardrobe and the cardboard boxes, and took my choice.

Bunny knows that he's short, he can't grow a proper moustache and beard, and maybe he needed a haircut soon. He used all of this as resources to his disguise. Bunny used makeup, curled his hair and dressed with almost all the necessary (I'm sure the shoes like the gloves didn't fit him) to get what he wanted:

My idea was first to give him the fright he deserved, and secondly to show him that I was quite as fit to move abroad as he.

But Murphy's Law strikes! And the drama starts.

I had no man. I was alone, had broken in alone. There was not a soul in the affair (much less the house) except myself. So much I stuttered out in tones too hoarse to betray me on the spot. 

Who can save this poor lady Bunny in distress? Raffles! He got hurt but at least they kepy everything controlled.

It was Raffles at his worst, Raffles as I never knew him before or after—a Raffles mad with pain and rage, and desperate as any other criminal in the land. Yet he had struck no brutal blow, he had uttered no disgraceful taunt, and probably not inflicted a tithe of the pain he had himself to bear. 

I would love to see Bunny and Raffles running away while keeping their disguises just like ACD's story The Man with the Watches. At least in this story nobody dies.

This is the one of the most queer moments of Raffles and Bunny's stories with them sharing a house like a couple and Bunny dressed as a woman. Sometimes I think that Manders is too comfortable with this costume except for the clothes being not appropiate for the season and my bi-fi screams "genderqueer" and "non binary". Also this reminds me of Sherlock Holmes dressing as a woman in The Mazarin Stone, so this feels like Bunny left for a moment his Boswell role and become the protagonist.

I was thinking that Raffles getting so dangerous when Bunny or Faustina are in danger reminds me of saiyans leveling up and unlocking new powers.

By the way, I want to read this reference cited on Wikipedia: Yue, Isaac (2015). Translating Culture: Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese. London: National Taiwan University Press. pp. 19–36. ISBN 978-986-350-070-4.

Hong Kong University Professor Isaac Yue has noted that some elements of "The Rest Cure" hint at a homosexual relationship between Raffles and Bunny. For example, Bunny shows a strong desire for Raffles's attention, while there is no female character diverting Bunny's attention. Moreover, the contrast between Bunny's female dress and Raffles's long beard suggests that Bunny is characterized in the role of the female and Raffles is characterized in the role of the male in their relationship.[5] Yue argues that Hornung's portrayal of the relationship between Raffles and Bunny violates the traditional Victorian family values of strict and separate gender roles for men and women.

I'm tempted to write more about this, maybe a fanfic, but English is so hard! See ya~

[lettersfrombunny]

I've been collecting my memoirs and my dear friend Dr. Watson has encouraged me to send them out - I'm preparing to begin in 2024. You can subscribe to my publication here. I look forward to having you, dear readers.