"Caesar. Charlemagne.
William the Conqueror. Richard the Lionheart.
Louis XI. François 1st. Henri IV. Louis XIV. Arsène Lupin.
What pride I felt the day I set foot in this forgotten place.
To have found the lost secret of the Kings of France,
to become its master, its only master, to receive such inheritance!"
("L'Aiguille Creuse"- Chapter 10)
Created by: Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941).
Easily the
equal of Gaston Leroux (creator of Rouletabille) or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in fame, and arguably superior
in style, Maurice Leblanc (1864-1941)
was the creator of the character of gentleman-burglar Arsène Lupin who, in France, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world.
There were twenty volumes in the Lupin series written by Leblanc, and five sequels written by the notorious mystery
writing team of Boileau-Narcejac, better
known for Diabolique and the novel on
which Alfred Hitchcock based Vertigo.
While the Arsène Lupin saga only occasionally featured any fantasy elements, its preeminence in French pulp
fiction warrants its inclusion in any serious genre study.
The character
of Lupin was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine "Je
Sais Tout", starting in 1905. A literary descendent of Ponson du Terrail's Rocambole, Lupin was, like Holmes, a literary archetype.
Although he was on the other side of the law, he was clearly a force for good, and those he defeated, always with
characteristic gallic style and panache, were worse villains than he. In other words, Lupin was the Simon Templar
of early 20th century France.
Indeed, the two characters were bound to meet and, in an unprecedented act of literary pastiche and cross-over,
Sherlock Holmes himself appeared several times in the Lupin novels, first as himself, then in the transparent guise
of "Herlock Sholmes," after some legal objections from Conan Doyle. (FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OTHER FRENCH
ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.)
TO FIND OUT MORE, BUY THESE BOOKS
ABACCI
BOOKS (E-BOOKS VERSIONS OF ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OIF SOME OF THE LUPIN NOVELS)
1. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Cambrioleur [Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar]
(JST, 1905/07; rev. Lafitte, 1907)
6. Les Confidences d'Arsène Lupin [The Confidences Of Arsene Lupin aka The
Confessions of Arsene Lupin] (JST, 1911-13; Lafitte, 1913)
12. La Comtesse de Cagliostro [The
Countess Of Cagliostro] ("Le Journal" 1923-24; rep. Lafitte, 1924)
16. La Barre-y-va ("Le Journal", 1930; Lafitte,
1931)
By Boileau-Narcejac:
