A Prince of Swindlers

by Guy Newell Boothby, Gary Hoppenstand (Introduction)

One of literature’s first, greatest, and most dastardly gentleman rogues finally joins the Penguin Classics crime list

First published in 1900, A Prince of Swindlers introduces Simon Carne, a gentleman thief predating both E. W. Hornung’s A. J. Raffles and Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin. The British Viceroy first meets Carne while traveling in India. Charmed, he invites the reclusive hunchbacked scholar to London, little suspecting that his guest is actually an adventurer and a master of disguise. Carne—aided by his loyal butler, Belton—embarks on a crime spree, stealing from London’s richest citizens and then making fools of them by posing as a detective investigating the thefts. Now back in print after over a century, Guy Boothby’s tale promises to delight a new generation of crime fans.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Mystery, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, 20th Century, Crime

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1900

About the author

Guy Newell Boothby was born in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Thomas Wilde Boothby, a Member of the South Australian House of Assembly. At six years of age he travelled with his mother to England and was educated at Lord Weymouth's Grammar School, Salisbury and at Christ's Hospital, London between 1874 and 1883.

When his education was over he returned to Australia where he eventually became secretary to the Mayor of Adelaide, Lewis Cohen. He was dissatisfied with his prospects in Adelaide and consequently he moved to Brisbane where he hoped his prospects would be better.

In the meantime he wrote a series of comic operas and plays, all of which were relatively unsuccessful.

He was of a roving disposition and at age 24 he travelled across Australia from north to south and later he travelled extensively in the East.

By 1894 he had married Rose Alice Bristowe and he and his wife moved to England in that year, which was notable for the publication of his first book, 'On the Wallaby, or, Through the East and Across Australia', an account of his and his brother's travels in Australia.

He was given advice and encouragement in his writing by none other than Rudyard Kipling and the year 1895 saw the publication of three novels, the most significant of which was 'A Bid for Fortune: or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta'. This introduced probably his best known character, Dr Nikola, a ruthless, unscrupulous figure, with his ubiquitous large cat, who was to feature in five of his novels over the ensuing years. The book was an instant success and brought him a certain amount of fame. Dr Nikola had first appeared in serial form in the Windosr Magazine.

Over the next 10 years he was to write another 50 books and a further five were published posthumously, the last of which was 'In the Power of the Sultan' (1908). He was so prodigious that the story circulated that he spoke his tales into a phonograph, from which they were later transcribed by secretaries.

He is perhaps remembered also for introducing one of the early gentlemen crooks of literature when he featured Simon Carne in 'A Prince of Swindlers' in 1897. Carne had originally appeared in Pearson's Magazine and as a gentleman crook he pre-dated another of his kind in A J Raffles by two years.

Boothby's novels were often set in Australia (not surprisingly) and were classed as 'fast-paced thrillers' although some felt that although exciting in plot they were 'hastily and carelessly written'. In addition they were said to have been enjoyed by those who 'care for frank sensationalism carried to its furtherest limits'. Despite these comments his books were extremely popular and made him one of the most successful novelists of his day.

Boothby, who was also a successful breeder of prize dogs, died suddenly of pneumonia at his home, Winsley Lodge, Watkin Road, Bournemouth in 1905. He left a widow and three children.

Gerry Wolstenholme
February 2012

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gentleman thief archetype has rather fallen out of fashion in modern times (though still can be seen in recent films like Oceans 11 and its interminable sequels/spinoffs/imitators) but during the early 1900s it was a rather big deal. These anti-Sherlock Holmes, likable rouges and villains with a heart of gold (well, at least the gold… maybe the heart if they could steal those as well) found many a spot in the public’s eye, most notably with Arsène Lupin and A.J. Raffles, both of whom still have their places in pop-culture. In contrast Simon Carne seems to have been rather forgotten, this is in spite of Penguin re-releasing this collection in 2015 to the public under their classic line (yet still at the time of this review there are only 57 ratings). This is a true shame in my opinion as this book is a lot of fun.

Carne is the true anti-Sherlock Holmes. In fact, the best way to describe the book, is to ask the reader to imagine “what if Sherlock Holmes was a master criminal, and used his detective fame to mislead the police/public and frame others for his own crimes.” That is how Carne operates, as both criminal and detective.

I won’t rate each story as I often do with collections, as I’d be giving them all pretty much the same rating. They are all fun, and follow a fairly interesting variety in terms of the heists he pulls. There is a bit of a formula to them (Carne hears about something interesting to steal, he plans out the heist/hires whatever aid he needs, pulls said heist, then gives a false lead as a detective), yet whenever I felt the formula could potential get dull, there’s a spin on it in the next story.

Carne himself is rather a charming character, who often recaps his plans aloud to the reader in dialogue, giving him a rather cartoonish villain quality that added to the charm of it all for me. Much of the humor is clearly intention with rather sarcastic descriptions that show Carne’s personality wonderfully. For example: “He felt a glow with virtue as he remembered that he was undertaking the business in order to promote another’s happiness, but at the same time reflected that, if fate were willing to pay him fifty thousand pounds for his generosity, well, it was so much the better for him.” He’s not below doing a good deed if it pays enough, but he’s just as happy doing the opposite.

My only real complaint is that I found the opening a bit convoluted. It contains a preface of the classic “how I came upon the manuscript” variety, from a character who seems more important from the intro than he actually is over the course of the stories. Then there’s an introduction that acts as a prologue that sets up the events yet again from a different point of view. It felt a little awkward, but fortunately the book made up for this by the main content.

In closing: this one is a forgotten gem of a classic and well worth a look if you can find it. While Simon Carne may not be the greatest of the gentlemen thieves, he deserves a chance to win you over… just make sure to check you wallet afterwards.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of a master thief who has conned all of London. I really enjoyed these stories, for that's what they were, a group of stories listed as "chapters". The boldness and chutzpah that this thief has was truly amazing. The story was light-hearted fun.

Read if you like lighthearted crime stories or historical fiction but maybe pass if you don't like old-fashioned language.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chance encounter between a British diplomat and a con man leads to a series of adventures.

I thought this book was really good – the central character was an ‘honourable crook’ and I found myself liking him. All the swindles were believable.

As I read it I kept thinking of a criminal version of Sherlock Holmes.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon Carne is an ingenious thief, con man, and master of disguise. In the guise of a charming social gadfly collector of antiquities with a hunchbacked deformity, yet attractive looks he and his butler slice their way through London's rich, titled, and pompous society and plunder riches beyond belief and pop the hot air balloon-like egos of the swanky set they hob nob with. This book is told as a reminiscence by a duped Lord who receives a confessional manuscript by Carne. The reader is treated to several stories in short form of the criminal and his subterfuge. Carne steals jewels, wedding gifts, foils a terrorist plot to the crown, yet makes a fortune from it, and even steals a race horse in order that his horse win's the Crown Derby.

It's fun and funny and a treat to try to see how he'll plan out his crimes, but after awhile some of the plans depend on chance and it ruins the fun a little bit. Still this was a welcome unknown quantity in the history of crime fiction featuring the gentleman thief of 20th century literature.

[Sistermagpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're ever looking for a good example of the "gentleman thief" prototype Simon Carne is your man. This book is really a collection of short stories, each one detailing one of his exploits. He steals a famous necklace, money for earthquake victims (that one was hard to enjoy given the terrible earthquake that just happened, even if the story makes clear that the hurricane victims do get the money), a racehorse--and along the way he foils a Fenian terrorist plot.

The book also pokes fun at the amateur detective genre, as Carne pretends to be a Sherlock Holmes-type figure who "solves" his own crimes.

The stories aren't quite biting or hilarious enough to make them classics. The moment that made me laugh the most was the description of Carne. Since the stories are allegedly being written by a man who was fooled by Carne, but are actually written by Carne himself, his gushingly flattering descriptions of his own gorgeousness are pretty great.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous read. Follow the adventures of Simon Carne as he arrives in England in the auspicious year 18--. Outwardly a respectable member of the upper class, he is, in fact, king of disguise and at least prince of swindlers, getting clean away with jewels, gold and other precious items. No mean thief he, with subterfuge and complicated plots so that no suspicion ever falls upon him when the crimes are discovered.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining stories about gentleman burglar Simon Carne, welcomed into London society at the turn of the 20th century as a peer, and the crimes he commits while posing as a rich member of England's upper crust. Something like what Sherlock Holmes could have done if he chose to use his gifts for crime.

[Bill FromPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six connected storied of gentleman thief Simon Carne, whose alter ego is the private detective Klimo, “as great as Lecoq, or even the late lamented Sherlock Holmes.” Though not quite a Robin Hood, as he keeps his stolen goods for his own uses, Carne's villainy is not of a hue dark enough to put off most readers. He steals from those with too much money and without wit enough to hold on to it, and does no one any permanent physical injury nor engages in wanton destruction.

1. The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds (included in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes) - A clever heist story Carne fits out a trick jewel case and Klimo picks up the goods when the jewels apparently disappear,.
2. How Simon Carne Won the Derby - A fairly routine tale of horse-napping,
3. A Service to the State - A Klimo story - the detective serves both himself and the safety of the British public by robbing Fenian's of their bomb fund.
4. The Wedding Guest - Carne steals the expensive wedding gifts of a nouveau riche title huntress.
5. A Case of Philanthropy - Carne robs a hundred thousand pound fund for earthquake victims, but then, in his role as an upstanding member of society, sees that matching contributions come forth to aid the unfortunate.
6. An Imperial Finale - Carne disguises himself as the Emperor of Westphalia to effect a ship-to-ship theft of gold plates.

[Nicholas Martens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read “The Duchess of Wiltshire’s Diamonds” two decades ago in Hugh Greene’s superlative anthology The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Ever since then I’d hoped to catch up with further adventures of Simon Carne / Klimo, but hadn’t tracked down The Prince of Swindlers until now. The overall premise is genius, but none of the adventures approach Wiltshire’s Diamonds for sheer brilliance. Some of the plot devices may be outlandish, but they’re never boring, even when they repeat themselves.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A real novelty; the Australian author wrote 50 books in 10 years before dying aged 37.
Almost forgotten now - he was a sensation in his day and gave us many archetype villians.
This is an easy melodramatic read - packed full of imagination and real escapism.

[Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous little read! If you like the movies Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ocean’s 11, and The Thomas Crown Affair then you will like this book. Very entertaining -I just wish the ending wasn’t so abrupt.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I read the complete Sherlock Holmes stories earlier this year I was surprised to learn the quality of the writing was lower than I would’ve expected. Guy Boothby, writing at the same time and about at the same level, but at the disadvantage of creating a character who didn’t endure, who was basically a parody of Holmes, and whose legacy turned out to better fit the confines of filmed adventures such as the Ocean’s Eleven films (the thief as protagonist), is worth reading, as a result, about as half, as in half this small volume (I did power through all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, at a magnitude of three times greater or so), as much. I don’t know why Penguin would bother trying to resurrect this as some kind of lost classic. A fine curiosity, but readers will end up as painfully swindled as everyone else in these stories.

[Jake · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for Penguin Classic paperbacks. So, when I saw this at the dollar store, I got it. It was written in 1900 and is almost an anti-Sherlock Holmes. The "hero" is a very smart criminal. He fools the English upper class and comes away with millions. The upper crust dialogue is fun, but this kind of thing is not really my bag.

[Katie and Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always love a good Raffles-esque type story. Not quite as engaging as some others of the genre but a really interesting character and story of crime.

[natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought this would be fun but it wasn't.

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read so far:

The Duchess of Wiltshire's diamonds --3
How Simon Carne won the Derby --2
Service to the State --2
The Wedding guest --2
A Case of philanthropy --2
An Imperial finale--2

[Rob Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5 stars]

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written detective novel.

[Tim McKay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sickly amusing tale suitable for the Hallmark channel.

[Rodrigo Calegari · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is a romance, eh?

[Varad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I noticed this book in the library and it caught my eye for two reasons: it was short and it was a Penguin Classic, two traits which are always strong recommendations. I'd never heard of Boothby before and I'm sure most readers of this book were similarly ignorant, so Penguin deserves credit for rescuing Boothby and Simon Carne from oblivion.

Carne is the gentleman thief who is the eponymous "prince of swindlers" of this collection of six tales – short stories, really. Carne is living alone (well, alone except for his valet and servants) in the Indian countryside when the earl of Amberley, the Viceroy of India, rides onto the grounds of the palace he's staying in. Charmed by the beautiful and refined hunchback, who is apparently living in isolation in order to research a book on Indian art and pottery, Amberley invites Carne to visit him the next time he is in England. Carne takes up the invitation because he knows Amberley will introduce him to high society. Whereupon the fox will not be only guarding the chicken coop, he'll be inside it.

Once in England, Carne embarks on a series of schemes which finds him stealing a famous diamond necklace, arranging the theft of a horse so his own can win the most important race of the season, filching the wedding gifts at a wedding, swindling the proceeds of a charity campaign, and swimming off with a visiting royal's best gold plate. He also manages to thwart a Fenian plot, pocketing the Fenians' operating fund of nearly fifty thousand pounds in the process. He even makes sure the beneficiaries of the charity get their money, but considering he spends ten thousand to net ninety, he has little cause to begrudge the expense.

Two thirds of the way through the book readers may feel their credulity begin to strain. Apart from his exploit with the Fenians, undertaken in his guise as the private detective, Klimo, all of Carne's thefts take place in the same social circle. You'd think that eventually someone would notice that he was involved in all the occasions in which the thefts occurred. He was at the wedding that was robbed, he was on the board of the charity campaign, he had custody for several hours of the jewel case from which the diamond necklace was stolen, etc. The coincidences are too good to be true, but no one questions Carne, who no one had heard of until he showed up in England. Perhaps England's high and mighty are simply too aghast at being robbed blind to inquire into this newcomer who is curiously present whenever a valuable piece of property disappears.

Boothby's style is spare and economical. His is the kind of writing where in one paragraph you are told that the characters are going to take a train trip and then in the next paragraph they have reached their destination. There is no middle paragraph describing the train journey, which in another book might take several pages. It's very much tell, not show, in this respect. But when exposition is necessary Boothby provides it. I suspect this may have to do with the fact that this is more a collection of short stories than it is a singular novel.

Carne wears a prosthetic that makes him appear to be a hunchback. He seems to wear this even in the privacy of his own home, removing it only when he needs to wear a different disguise to execute his schemes. You'd think Victorian high society would be less welcoming of someone which such an obvious deformity. But Boothby does little with this, even to the extent of suggesting this is why no one suspects Carne. As for why his ailment is overlooked, Boothby offers a simple explanation: Carne is strikingly handsome. On their first meeting, Amberley describes Carne has having "one of the most beautiful countenances I have ever seen in my fellow men," one that is "as perfect as that of the bust of the Greek god, Hermes" (6). The incongruity between Carne's looks and intellect and his shape no doubt disarms many of those he meets. He takes full advantage.

I do wish Penguin, as they do in many of their Classics, had included some sort of scholarly apparatus beyond an introduction. Some obscure words could have used definitions, as are provided in other Penguin Classics. Without it, Simon Carne, reading his own adventures in this book, will have to steal a dictionary. Though given that he is a scholar in addition to being a gentleman thief, he probably wouldn't need it.


Posted Sunday, September 20, 2015

[Rozonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading a couple stories of Boothby's rogue-detective Simon Carne, I was looking for a complete edition of this character's stories for a long time, because I loved them. Finally I found this Penguin edition. The quality of the stories is very irregular, but Carne's personality is engaging enough to make the book worth reading. Entertaining crime stories, very nicely written.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction B7257p 2015

[Robert Muir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonably good compilation of short magazine stories.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was just okay, and it didn't really draw me in. When I sat done and read it more closely, I enjoyed it. But again, it didn't make me want to read it.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third or fourth set of stories I've read recently of various Victorian-era criminals. The most famous of these was probably Raffles, who I haven't even gotten to yet. This particular "prince of swindlers" is Simon Carne, who is both a master criminal and then, under disguise, the detective called to solve a few of the heists! The schemes he cooks up are good--believable and yet at times intricate (and always impressive). The writing itself is a bit sparse--the plots develop rapidly and seem over before they've hardly begun (I suppose that's often a good sign of a short story--the reader wishing it were longer! Although these seem even more clipped than a good short story.) In sum, this is a collection of half a dozen fun stories that would hold any reader's attention. They are not literary masterpieces, yet worthwhile nonetheless.