A hugely popular character in foreign pulp fiction was Lord Lister, also known as Raffles, Master Thief or The Great Unknown. Surprisingly, Lord Lister has never appeared in English until Joseph Lovece did a translation of the first Lord Lister story, The Great Unknown in his “Dime Novel Cover” series. Now he has done the next two stories.
To recap, the character was created in Germany in 1908 by Kurt Matull and Theo Blankensee.
Matull had experience writing and translating Nick Carter stories. (Carter was an early U.S. dime-novel hero who was published around the world and later became a pulp hero and men’s adventure series character. I’ve covered him before.)
Blankensee had written unauthorized Sherlock Holmes stories, including the ones that would later become Harry Dickson (again, I’ve covered him as well here). The German series lasted 110 weekly issues until 1910. Issues have been reprinted several times since, and I’ve read that in some countries they added further stories.
John C. Raffles, Lord Edward Lister, seems named after A.J. Raffles, the well-known British “gentleman thief” who was created in 1898. That may be one of the reasons he never appeared in English. A real English lord, he becomes a master of disguise and a thief for a few reasons. First, it seems for the fun of it, as being a thief would be more challenging than being a detective. Then, it seems it’s more to take from those who stole from others, as we learn his parents had their fortunes taken from them by a stock swindler. So Lister goes after such people, having created the John Raffles identity. This makes him more of a Robin Hood type, similar to other gentlemen-thieves. He also tweaks the nose of Scotland Yard, in particular Inspector Baxter, who is his main foil.
The stories also have an element of social criticism that elevated the series above the normal crime-adventure series.
There are very few continued characters. There is his nervous assistant Charlie Brand and Miss Edna Walton, whom he saved in the first story and is his love interest.
As noted, we get the next two stories, also in the Dime Novel Cover series. Lord Lister #2 is titled The Fake Jeweler’s Punishment, and is by Matull and Blankensee. Lord Lister #3 is The Royal Palace Medal Robbery, and is by only Matull. These comprise #16 and 17 of the Dime Novel Cover series.
In The Fake Jeweler’s Punishment, Lister and his assistant are back in England, but are pretending to be French. In particular, Lister is presenting himself as an elderly French banker, looking to purchase diamonds and pearls from Mr. Collgate (no first name given). Collgate is not as honest as he presents, selling jewelry with fake diamonds. One of his victims was Lord Lister, who lost several thousand pounds due to this. Thus Lister will engage in a battle of wits to torment his victim. He purchases a group of diamonds and pearls, making sure they are real, but due to paying with a check, he leaves the jewels with Collgate in a small box, sealed in wax, along with his check. Once the check clears, he is to send the box to the French banker, and if they are found to be fake, owes him an additional 500 pounds!
So does the box contain the jewels? Will the jeweler be able to cash the check? Well, this is a Lord Lister story! And Lister, who for some reason is not disguished, is chased by the police. The cover actually shows an incident from this. Will he be able to get away, and reconnect with Brand and Edna?
As a bonus, this volume also has a list of the entire 110 issue series.
In The Royal Palace Medal Robbery, things start off without Lister. A young lady is rescued by a constable from a group of “gentlemen” who seemed to want to assault her. Inspector Baxter takes the attitude of believing anything told to him by the upper class. Then he is asked to guard a safe by a Sir Woorman as he fears Raffle will steal from it, and he has to go away for the night. The inspector brings along the constable as well. But it turns out the constable is actually Lister in disguise!
Getting away, he discovers a lady and her maid murdered in the room next door. And when he visits the home of a young man who had come to steal from Sir Woorman, he finds his sick mother murdered. And it seems there is an attempt at framing the young man. Looking into it further, he finds that the woman has a connection to Sir Woorman, and he may have killed her, and her son may be the son of Sir Woorman.
This all ties to a secret society of the upper class called the “Ribbon Men” or “Band Men.” The reference is to various chivilary orders such as the Order of the Garter, and while the group seems like the Hellfire Club, it’s being used here as a satire on the various orders and the jeweled insignia of these orders.
Can Lister expose the murder, as well as the Ribbon Men, all while avoiding Inspector Baxter? But this is Lister, what do you expect? And if that’s not enough, Lister then takes on a dare of breaking in and stealing the royal medals to win a bet — which he does. The cover is based on a scene of this.
These are interesting works. The writing is a little crude, in part due to having to dash these out for weekly publication. It’s clear the original author didn’t know too much about English society, as if you have read Doyle’s works, you’d get a better impression. I also wish Lovece had done more adaptions than translations, but that would probably have taken more time.
We are promised the fourth Lister story, The Coffin’s Story, next, though I have no idea when. If you want to ensure it, please get these prior volumes! It would be interesting to see someone try their hand at new Lord Lister/Raffles stories, maybe for The Tales of the Shadowmen.
