Read Michael Sims's posts on the Penguin Blog

An exclusive collection—the first-ever gathering of rogues from the gaslight era

Collected here for the first time: the best crime fiction from the gaslight era. All the legendary thieves are present—Arsène 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 are stories by distinguished writers from outside the mystery and detective genres, including Sinclair Lewis, Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells, and William Hope Hodgson.