The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime: Con Artists, Burglars, Rogues, and Scoundrels from the Time of Sherlock Holmes

Collected here for the first time, are the best crime fiction from the gaslight era. All the legendary thieves are present – Arsene Lupin and A. J. Raffles, Colonel Clay and Simon Carne, Romney Pringle, Get Rich Quick Wallingford, and the Infallible Godahl – burgling London and Paris, conning New York and Ostend, laughing all the way to the bank. Also featured in this title are stories by distinguished writers from outside the mystery and detective genres, including Sinclair Lewis, Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells, and William Hope Hodgson.

Author Biography Michael Sims has edited two other collections for Penguin Classics: The Annotated Archy and Mehitable and Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief. His research for the latter inspired The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime. His most recent non-fiction book is Apollo’s Fire: A Journey through the Extraordinary Wonders of an Ordinary Day, which National Public Radio chose as one of the Best Science Books of 2007. He is also the author of Adam’s Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form, which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Library Journal Best Science Book; and Darwin’s Orchestra: An Almanac of Nature in History and the Arts. His writing has appeared in New Statesman, Gourmet, Orion, the Washington Post, and many other periodicals in the United States and abroad. Learn more at www.michaelsimsbooks.com.

Author Biography

Michael Sims is the author of In the Womb- Animals (adapted from two National Geographic Channel documentaries). He is also the author of Apollo’s Fire- A Journey Through the Extraordinary Wonders of an Ordinary Day, which NPR chose as one of the best science books of 2007; Adam’s Navel- A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form, which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Library Journal Best Science Book; and Darwin’s Orchestra- An Almanac of Nature in History and the Arts. For Penguin Classics he also edited The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel,Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief, andThe Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime. He has written for many periodicals, from the Washington Post to New Statesman.