The Woman of Mystery (English Edition)

The Woman of Mystery [AKA] The Shell Shard '-' This early work by Maurice Leblanc was originally published in 1916 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Set in 1914, "The Woman of Mystery" paints an insightful picture of WWI in France, twined together with the mystery surrounding the murder of main character Paul's father. [...] On the eve of the Great War, as the nation of France prepares to face an unimaginable threat, Paul Delroze is consumed with thoughts of the past. Years ago, his father, a decorated veteran, was brutally murdered after accidentally uncovering a plot involving the German Emperor himself. The Woman of Mystery is a novel by Maurice Leblanc.

THE MURDER "Suppose I were to tell you," said Paul Delroze, "that I once stood face to face with him on French. . . ." Élisabeth looked up at him with the fond expression of a bride to whom the least word of the man she loves is a subject of wonder: "You have seen William II. in France?" "Saw him with my own eyes; and I have never forgotten a single one of the details that marked the meeting. And yet it happened very long ago. . .
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https://www.babelio.com/livres/Leblanc-Leclat-dobus/573156
L'Éclat d'obus est un roman de Maurice Leblanc, dont l'action se déroule durant la Première Guerre mondiale.
Supposé écrit durant le 2e semestre de 1914, (...) dans cette première version, Arsène Lupin n'apparaissait pas, même de façon fugitive. (...) Ce n'est qu'à l'occasion de la deuxième édition, chez le même éditeur, en 1923, que Maurice Leblanc remania le roman pour y inclure l'intervention de son personnage favori: Arsène Lupin apparaît en Deus Ex Machina à la fin du récit. L'intrigue du roman suit les pérégrinations d'un personnage à la fois en quête de son épouse et du meurtrier de son père.

«Résumé» Fin juillet 1914. Venant de se marier, Paul et Elisabeth Delroze arrivent au château d'Ornequin situé au-dessus de la petite cité lorraine de Corvigny, à quelques kilomètres de la frontière allemande. Ce château, appartenant au comte d'Andeville, père d'Elisabeth, est fermé depuis la mort de sa femme, la comtesse Hermine. En visitant le château Paul va faire une découverte effarante, atroce, qui va bouleverser sa vie. Et c'est la guerre...

«Review Critique» "(...) L'Éclat d'obus est un roman de Maurice Leblanc, dont l'action se déroule durant la Première Guerre mondiale. L'intrigue du roman suit les pérégrinations d'un personnage à la fois en quête de son épouse et du meurtrier de son père. Arsène Lupin n'apparaît que très brièvement dans ce livre (sur une dizaine de lignes, possiblement ajoutés pour lier ce livre à la série), mais son intervention donne au héros la clef d'une énigme. Quoique intéressante, l'œuvre sera jugée aujourd'hui d'un racisme primaire envers les Allemands. En fait l'auteur ne manque pas une occasion pour dénigrer les Allemands, militaires comme civils et pour attribuer les plus hautes qualités aux Français, ce qui risque d'étonner le lecteur moderne, mais qui a l'avantage d'illustrer finement la mentalité hostile aux Allemands dans l'immédiat après-guerre. Pour s'en convaincre, il suffit de noter que l'intrigue oppose un officier français avec rien de moins que le fils du Kaiser".

[About the Author]: Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc was born on 11th November 1864 in Rouen, Normandy, France. He was a novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective, Arsène Lupin. From the start, Leblanc wrote both short crime stories and longer novels - and his lengthier tomes, heavily influenced by writers such as Gustave Flaubert and Guy de Maupassant, were critically admired, but met with little commercial success. . .

Leblanc was largely considered little more than a writer of short stories for various French periodicals when the first Arsène Lupin story appeared. It was published as a series of stories in the magazine 'Je Sais Tout', starting on 15th July, 1905. Clearly created at editorial request [by Pierre Lafitte Editor], under the influence of, and in reaction to, the wildly successful Sherlock Holmes and A. J. Raffles stories, the roguish and glamorous Lupin was a surprise success and Leblanc's fame and fortune beckoned. In total, Leblanc went on to write twenty-one Lupin novels or collections of short stories. [...] Leblanc also wrote two notable science fiction novels: "Les Trois Yeux" (1919) — in which a scientist makes 'televisual' contact with three-eyed aliens from the Planeta Venus) — and "Le Formidable Evènement" (1920) — in which an earthquake creates a new landmass between England and France!

On this success, he later moved to a beautiful country-side retreat in Étreat (in the Haute-Normandie region in north-western France), which today is a museum dedicated to the Arsène Lupin books. He died in Perpignan (the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France) on 6th November 1941, at the age of seventy-six.

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