The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar (English Edition) - Arsène Lupin, gentleman-cambrioleur

Maurice Leblanc

White Press / Read Books Ltd.

2015

97 páginas

3h 14m

ISBN-13: 9781473371743

Arsène Lupin: Gentleman-Cambrioleur is the first book in Maurice Leblanc's series "Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Arsène Lupin"; the 1907 edition published in Paris by Pierre Lafitte & Cie.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar" is the first collection of stories by Maurice Leblanc recounting the adventures of Arsène Lupin. Containing the first nine stories depicting the character, each was first published in the French magazine "Je sais tout" following the first on 15 July 1905.
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[Reviews]: “[Arsène Lupin] has taken his place in public estimation with Sherlock Holmes and other universally admired heroes of fictional crime.” —The New York Times.

“The Cyrano of the underworld.” —Jean-Paul Sartre.

Resenhas (1)

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A collection of short stories and the première of Arsène Lupin, a total personification of a "like a boss" stereotype in the role of a "professional" burglar who steals really expensive items and, in principle, always has the control of every situation. I discovered it after watching the Lupin Netflix series (Leblanc really would get a lot of followers due to it today). I really got curious about the character and his stories and ended up getting this first one to check.

It's really admirable how Leblanc strolls through different forms of narrating the facts - either by a "disguised Lupin", in first person or by his friend who archives most of them, in the third person. The building of the narratives is fairly objective and the few connections between stories are very cool ([Spoiler] particularly the one involving mrs. Nelly)

By default I don't like bad character protagonists. I'd cheer for Lupin's prison in every act of crime he does, as he doesn't even do it for "a greater unnoticed good who'll bring justice in the end" - as it happens at the series, for instance. So I just see it as a group of stories where a burglar steals rich people and doesn't get arrested when it's not his plan.

[Spoiler] Sherlock Holmes is often mentioned as "the perfect detective", and it's so corny how it seems to build this image for him, particularly in the last chapter, when he finally would enter the story just to end up being fooled by Lupin, so the thief again is shown as the unbeatable one.

People into thief and crime stories maybe would think it worths it to give it a try.