Writings

Grant Allen
Year Unknown
Photo by Elliott & Fry

Grant Allen was born on February 24, 1848 on Wolf Island in what today is known as Ontario, Canada. He was home schooled until the age of thirteen and later studied in the United States, the United Kingdom and France, as his parents relocated a number of times during his later years. After a short attempt at finding success as a college professor, Allen turned to writing and produced a large number of books and articles dealing with science, nature and socialism. Some sources suggest that his decision to begin writing fiction, in addition to non-fiction in the early 1880s, was born out of financial necessity—his non-fiction works brought him acclaim, but did not pay as well. One of the high points of Allen’s fiction career was the serial An African Millionaire, which was serialized in The Strand from June of 1896 through May of 1897. In this tale, Allen created the first “gentleman bandit” (sometimes referred to as a “gentleman rogue”) in the person of Colonel Clay.

An African Millionaire:
Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay
1897
Grant Richards, London
Cover reconstruction

Prior to Colonel Clay, the crime stories of the time featured descendants of Poe’s C. August Dupin, considered to be the first detective in fiction, who appeared in 1841 in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” The focus in these tales was on those who investigated and solved crimes—their brilliance and intuitiveness—particularly when confronted with criminal acts that seemed unsolveable. In most all cases, the detective sifts through all the evidence and finds a solution as to “how” or “why,” with the criminals themselves being of secondary importance.

Colonel Clay, unlike his predecessors and contemporaries is a sort of master criminal, possibly inspired by Doyle’s Professor Moriarty, who made his first appearance in “The Adventure of the Final Problem.” Allen makes Clay central to the story and, in another twist on the standard formula, there is no detective or police agency that can capture him. That he is a thief and criminal is a given, but he does not resort to violence (meaning guns, kidnapping or murder) to achieve his goals. Rather, Clay creates schemes to separate the wealthy from their wealth and unlike Moriarty, takes a “hands on” approach to his activities. No one is ever harmed or placed in dire peril by his actions and the results of his machinations show that the only “victim” of his schemes are the bank accounts of the wealthy. Needless to say, the police all over Europe are perplexed by Clay’s actions and it is implied throughout these stories that the events of African Millionaire are only the most current of Clay’s adventures.

The true appeal of this series lies in the complexity of the schemes Clay sets in motion. Many of these focus on identity in an era when no one had identity cards, passports or any other way to prove who they were. Clay takes advantage of this and is a chameleon of sorts, able to blend into whatever situation fits his purpose, and a master of disguise. He shows up when least expected or doesn’t show up when expected. Some schemes are simple, some are extremely complex, but all are intricate and well-planned from beginning to end. Exactly why he chooses Sir Charles Vandrift (the millionaire of the title) and his secretary, Seymour Wentworth, as his targets is eventually revealed in the course of the narrative and it is often Vandrift’s vanity—his belief in his privileged status as a man of wealth—that allows Clay to bring his plots to fruition. As if recognizing the bumbling nature of his quarry, Clay even sends mocking letters to the pair reminiscent of the letters Jack the Ripper sent to Scotland Yard some years earlier. That Allen should choose Vandrift and Wentworth as Clay’s “marks” is not surprising, as their characters gave Allen, a life-long Socialist, a chance to poke fun at the class structure that permeated Victorian England of the time.

In the hands of another author, the episodes that make up An African Millionaire might have become formulaic or just downright boring. Allen, however, is able to create a different scenario for each tale. The reader, and our two central characters, are led down different paths, into dead ends, past a few red herrings and into an ending that leaves one questioning the rights and wrongs of society and relationships.

Once the serial had seen print in The Strand, it was collected into book form in July of 1897 as, An African Millionaire: Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay. This edition contained the full text of the serial along with all the illustrations. If Allen had chosen to produce another series about the character, Colonel Clay might be better remembered today, however one is led to suspect that Allen had said all he had to say about the Colonel and the state of the class system in England. Although Clay was the first gentleman bandit, he is today largely forgotten in favor of Raffles, known as a gentleman thief, created in 1898 by E. W. Hornung, the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

We hope you enjoy it.