This early work by Ernest William Hornung was originally published in 1900 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. ‘Peccavi’ is a novel about a well-bred clergyman and his struggle to adjust to life on his own without servants. Ernest William Hornung was born in Middlesbrough, England in 1866. After working briefly as a journalist, and publishing a series of poems in The Times, Hornung created the character for which he is best-remembered: A. J. Raffles, a ‘gentleman thief’ plying his trade in Victorian London.