Maurice Leblanc
Personal Information
Description
Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (11 December 1864 – 6 November 1941) was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French counterpart to Arthur Conan Doyle's creation Sherlock Holmes. The first Arsène Lupin story appeared in a series of short stories that was serialized in the magazine Je sais tout, starting in No. 6, dated 15 July 1905. Clearly created at editorial request, it’s possible that Leblanc had also read Octave Mirbeau's Les 21 jours d'un neurasthénique (1901), which features a gentleman thief named Arthur Lebeau, and he had seen Mirbeau's comedy Scrupules (1902), whose main character is a gentleman thief. Leblanc's house in Étretat, today the museum Le clos Arsène Lupin. By 1907, Leblanc had graduated to writing full-length Lupin novels, and the reviews and sales were so good that Leblanc effectively dedicated the rest of his career to working on the Lupin stories. Like Conan Doyle, who often appeared embarrassed or hindered by the success of Sherlock Holmes and seemed to regard his success in the field of crime fiction as a detraction from his more "respectable" literary ambitions, Leblanc also appeared to have resented Lupin's success. Several times he tried to create other characters, such as private eye Jim Barnett, but he eventually merged them with Lupin. He continued to pen Lupin tales well into the 1930s. Leblanc also wrote two notable science fiction novels: Les Trois Yeux (1919), in which a scientist makes televisual contact with three-eyed Venusians, and Le Formidable Evènement (1920), in which an earthquake creates a new landmass between England and France. Leblanc was awarded the Légion d'Honneur for his services to literature, and died in Perpignan in 1941. He was buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery. Georgette Leblanc was his sister.
Books
Le Bouchon de cristal
Arsène Lupin’s attempted robbery of the deputy Daubrecq has gone horribly wrong, leaving behind a murdered man and two of his accomplices in the hands of the police. Now he finds himself pulled into an ever more conspiratorial spiral as he attempts to gain leverage over the people who can free his men. Set before the events of the preceding 813, this again portrays Lupin in a much different light to the earlier books. At times almost coming to despair, this story shows him grappling with his personal morals whilst trying to do the best for those closest to him. The story was originally serialised in Le Journal in 1912, before being published as a novel in both the original French and this English translation by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos in 1913.
L' aiguille creuse
A bizarre crime happens in castle Ambrumésy in France. Thieves break into the parlour, kill a man, steal something but nothing did disappear. One of the men is trapped in the garden with no possibility to escape but can't be found, even after days of research. The investigating judge and the police are perplexed when they get unfortunate help from a grammar school pupil. A book featuring the well known gentleman-like burgler Arsène Lupin.
813
When Arsène Lupin disappeared at the end of The Hollow Needle the public and police assumed he was dead; but it turns out he was just biding his time and waiting for the right opponent to face off against. Luckily, a secret involving a stash of hidden papers and Europe’s aristocratic families is more than enough to pique the interests of Lupin and his unknown competitor. This novel is told more from Lupin’s point of view than the previous stories, and that reduces some of the omnipotence bestowed upon him by Leblanc while highlighting his more emotional qualities. Originally serialized in Le Journal, 813 was published in novel form in 1910. At more than 500 pages, it was deemed a little heavy and was subsequently split into two volumes in 1917 along with slight editing to increase the timely anti-German sentiment. Presented here is the 1910 English translation.
Memoirs of Arsene Lupin
In the process of writing his memoirs, Arsène Lupin takes us back to his early twenties and his first love: Clarice d’Etigues. Although forbidden by her father to meet, that doesn’t stop Ralph d’Andresy—Lupin’s nom du jour—from wooing Clarice. But when he finds evidence on the d’Etigues estate of a conspiracy to murder a woman, he cannot help but be drawn into the ensuing three-way race to a legendary treasure. Memoirs of Arsène Lupin was originally published in France in 1924 under the name La Comtesse de Cagliostro; this English translation was published the following year. Maurice Leblanc was not the only author to call on the myth of Cagliostro as a framing device: both Goethe and Dumas had written famous novels on the subject. This story showcases a Lupin who is growing into his abilities, and with the swings between outright confidence and self-doubt that would be expected of so comparatively young a protagonist.
Great Classic Mysteries
[The purloined letter]( / by Edgar Allan Poe -- Hunted down / by Charles Dickens -- [Silver blaze]( / by Arthur Conan Doyle ; -- The blue cross / by G.K. Chesterton -- The second bullet / by Anna Katherine Green -- Naboth's vineyard / by Melville Davisson Post -- Cheating the gallows / by Israel Zangwill -- My first experience with the great logician / by Jacques Futrelle -- The queen's necklace / Maurice Leblanc -- The York mystery / by Baroness Orczy -- The detective detector / by O. Henry -- The Giaconda smile by Aldous Huxley.
GREAT FRENCH DETECTIVE STORIES
The Secret Tomb
When Dorothy, ropedancer and palmist, arrives at the Château de Roborey with her circus, she’s already observed strange excavations at the grounds. Fate reveals a familial connection and drags her and her motley crew of war orphans into a quest for long-lost ancestral treasure, but her new-found nemesis is always close on her trail. Maurice Leblanc, most famous for his Arsène Lupin stories, here switches to a new protagonist, but fans of his other work will find her strangely recognisable. Indeed, the mystery presented here is later referenced in The Countess of Cagliostro as a puzzle that Lupin did not have time to solve. This book was originally serialised in Le Journal between January and March 1923, and was published in novel form both in French and in this English translation later in the year. It was also later adapted as a French-language made-for-TV movie in 1983.
L' Agence Barnett et Cie
Un recueil de huit nouvelles dont les ténébreux mystères sont éclaircis par Jim Barnett alias Arsène Lupin.
Les confidences d'Arsène Lupin
The gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin returns in this set of ten short stories to confess—or perhaps boast about—his crimes to the unnamed narrator. Mostly set around Lupin’s attempts to frustrate Chief-Inspector Ganimard and pocket some cash in the process, they also show off his knack for escaping from seemingly impossible situations, and even playing the role of the master detective. In the chronology of Arsène Lupin, these tales were published after, but set before, the darker stories of The Hollow Needle and 813. They were serialised in Je Sais Tout from 1911, and collected into a single publication in 1913.
The Frontier
The Royal Newfoundland Regiment is dispatched on a new mission, this time south of the border, in the United States-governed Pacifica Territory. Partnered with the buffalo soldiers of the 25th United States Infantry, the Newfoundlanders must confront lawlessness and chaos before returning to the grasslands to face savages once again. However, the success of their last mission has been noted by their adversaries, and new challenges await the b'ys and their American compatriots...