This was a fun mishmash of stories from the Lupin collection, as well as a nostalgic trip to my childhood. It was fascinating how much of the stories had stayed in my head as a series of images and feelings, and was retriggered even through reading in a different language. Perhaps my next reading could be in the original French! I'm glad the Netflix modern adaptation meant a new generation of readers might acquaint themselves with the fun campiness of the classic gentleman thief. Him and Sherlock Holmes are truly two sides of the same coin, but Arsène will always have that extra edge for me. ( )

This was a lot of fun - more fun than I expected, actually. Arsène Lupin is preposterous. He is a superhero invented at the time when there weren’t any superheroes yet :-)
There is quite a bit of humour and the stories are clever. I wouldn’t mind reading more about Arsène Lupin’s adventures. ( )

3.5 ( )

Interesting lesser-known stories of crime and intrigue with a character who seems loosely related to the Scarlet Pimpernel in terms of sheer brashness and near omnipotence. But I never felt like the reader was really invited to know him as a person... the stories feel a bit distant to me, but I suspect some of that may be down to the fact that it's a translated work, and I often struggle to feel up close and personal when I can tell I'm not reading something in its original language. ( )

{Short story collection, Arsène Lupin series. Crime, golden age detective.} (2007)

An English 'best of' selection of stories taken from several anthologies about a gentleman-thief, later turned detective, translated from French. Like the Sherlock Holmes stories these were modelled on, these were short stories first printed in newspapers.

This edition is annotated with footnotes printed at the end of the book. I would recommend you read them after the episode to prevent spoilers.

i) The Arrest of Arsène Lupin (1905)

Our narrator tells of the time he was traveling by ship from France to America and trying to win the affections of Miss Nellie Underdown when a telegraph was received to the effect that Arsène Lupin was on board.

Arsène Lupin in our midst! The mysterious housebreaker whose exploits had been related in all the newspapers for months! The baffling individual with whom old Ganimard, our greatest detective, had entered upon that duel to the death of which the details were being unfolded in so picturesque a fashion! Arsène Lupin, the fastidious gentleman who confines his operations to country-houses and fashionable drawing-rooms, and who one night, after breaking in at Baron Schormann’s had gone away empty-handed, leaving his visiting-card:

ARSÈNE LUPIN
Gentleman-Burglar

with these words added in pencil:
“Will return when your things are genuine.”

3.5****

ii) Arsène Lupin In Prison (1905)

Having been arrested in the first story, Lupin carries out an audacious burglary from an impregnable chateau in the middle of the Seine while awaiting the Government of France’s pleasure under lock and key.

It was just after mid-day when Ganimard was shown into Arsène Lupin’s cell. Lupin, who was lying on his bed, raised his head, and uttered an exclamation of delight.
“Well, this is a surprise! Dear old Ganimard here!”
“Himself.”
“I have hoped for many things in this retreat of my own choosing, but for none more eagerly than the pleasure of welcoming you here.”
“You are too good.”
“Not at all, not at all. I have the liveliest feelings of esteem for you.”
“I am proud to hear it.”
“I have said so a thousand times: Ganimard is our greatest detective. He’s almost—see how frank I am—almost as good as Sherlock Holmes. But, really, I’m awfully sorry to have nothing better than this stool to offer you. And not a drink of any kind! Not so much as a glass of beer! Do forgive me: I am only passing through!”

3.25***

iii) The Escape of Arsène Lupin (1906)

Arsène Lupin has declared that he has decided that he will not be attending his trial and will escape before that. The officers of the law go to great lengths to prevent it; will he manage to outwit them?

And when, in the course of this private interrogatory, which appeared at full length in the columns of the Écho de France, the magistrate resumed his cross-examination, Lupin exclaimed, with a weary air:
“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! What is the use of going on? All these questions have no importance whatever.”
‘How do you mean, no importance?”
“Of course not, seeing that I shall not attend my trial.”
“You will not attend? …”
“No, it’s a fixed idea of mine, an irrevocable decision. Nothing will induce me to depart from it.”
This assurance, combined with the inexplicable indiscretions committed day after day, ended by enervating and disconcerting the officers of the law.

Through the preliminary hearings we learn of how he prepared for his extraordinary life of crime.

It seems probable that the so-called Rostat, who, eight years ago, was acting as assistant to Dickson, the conjurer, was none other than Arsène Lupin. It seems probable that the Russian student who, six years ago, used to attend Dr. Altier’s laboratory at St. Louis’ Hospital, and who often astonished the master by the ingenious character of his hypotheses on bacteriology and by the boldness of his experiments in the diseases of the skin—it seems probable that he too was none other than Arsène Lupin. So was the professor of Japanese wrestling, who established himself in Paris long before jiu-jitsu had been heard of. So, we believe, was the racing cyclist who won the great prize at the Exhibition, took his ten thousand francs, and has never been seen since. So, perhaps, was the man who saved so many people from burning at the Charity Bazaar, helping them through the little dormer window … and robbing them of their belongings.”

4****

iv) The Mysterious Railway Passenger (1906)

Set in Leblanc’s native Rouen.

Our narrator takes a train for Rouen and shares a carriage with a nervous lady who has heard that Arsène Lupin is on their train.

As for myself, I opened my newspapers and read the reports of Arsène Lupin’s trial. They contained nothing that was not already known, and they interested me but slightly. Moreover, I was tired, I had had a poor night, I felt my eyelids growing heavy, and my head began to nod.
“But surely, sir, you are not going to sleep?”
The lady snatched my paper from my hands, and looked at me with indignation.
“Certainly not,” I replied. “I have no wish to.”
“It would be most imprudent,” she said.
“Most,” I repeated.
And I struggled hard, fixing my eyes on the landscape, on the clouds that streaked the sky. And soon all this became confused in space, the image of the excited lady and the drowsy man was obliterated in my mind, and I was filled with the great, deep silence of sleep.

4****

v) The Queen’s Necklace (1906)

Concerning the (second) theft of Queen Marie Antoinette’s diamond necklace. We learn a little more history.

This was really the famous necklace, the historic necklace, which Böhmer and Bassenge, the crown jewellers, had designed for the Du Barry, which the Cardinal de Rohan-Soubise believed himself to be presenting to Queen Marie-Antoinette, and which Jeanne de Valois, Comtesse de La Motte, the adventuress, took to pieces, one evening in February, 1785, with the assistance of her husband and their accomplice, Rétaux de Villette.

3.75***

vi) Sherlock Holmes Arrives too Late (1906)

Arsène Lupin meets Sherlock Holmes.

“Yes, he’s a man, and a man on whose shoulder I shall have great pleasure in laying this hand with which I now grasp yours, Monsieur Devanne. And I have an idea, mark you, that Arsène Lupin and Sherlock Holmes will meet again some day …. Yes, the world is too small for them not to meet …. And, when they do! …”

4****

vii) Flashes of Sunlight (1911)

Lupin sees a way to benefit from someone else's crime and solves a case.
4.5*****

viii) The Wedding Ring (1911)

Lupin does another good deed.
4.25*****

ix) The Red Silk Scarf (1911)

In a fit of altruism, Lupin hands Ganimard a case.
4.25****

x) Edith Swan-neck (1913)

Ganimard gets the better of Lupin.

'Edith Swan-neck' refers to Harold II of England's wife, represented on one of a set of tapestries which Lupin has declared that he will steal.
4.5*****

xi) On the Top of the Tower (1922)

Prince Serge Rénine, an alias of Lupin's, solves an old crime with the help of a new friend, Hortense Daniel, after promising her adventure.
4.5****

xii) Thérèse and Germaine (1922)

Rénine and Hortense move to prevent a murder.
4.5*****

xiii) At the Sign of Mercury (1923)

Rénine had proposed eight adventures to Hortense to enliven her boredom and for the last one, she requested that he help her find her mother's clasp, lost years ago. And if he should succeed, the reward he requests is to embark on that greatest adventure together.

3.75****

Lupin is a thief but he is not malicious and often employs his intelligence to help people (although he's not always completely altruistic and might not neglect to help himself to some ill-gotten gains along the way). Lupin is young and cheerful. He has established his success by constantly changing his appearance so that he can't be identified and by outwitting the opposition by doing what they least expect, sometimes hiding evidence in plain sight. And although he usually outwits his nemesis, detective Ganimard, the two have a grudging respect for each other, if not an actual friendship (unlike the uncomfortable alliance between Holmes and Lestrade) and they have a similar level of intelligence.

I admit that the impetus for me borrowing this book was watching the Netflix series 'Lupin' in which the protagonist, Assane Diop, admires the stories and a policeman recognises aspects of Arsène Lupin's stories in the crimes that Diop commits so we often catch glimpses of the books.

I read this quickly as my Overdrive library e-book was about to expire with at least a two week wait before I can get hold of it again, so I didn't have time to immerse myself in the atmosphere of the stories as I usually like to do; you may have noticed that my comments on the later episodes were more brief. Nevertheless, I enjoyed these stories; they are light and feel-good (once you acclimatise yourself to the 'hero' operating on the wrong side of the law) and although on occasion I had to suspend disbelief for a few moments, I didn't mind going along with it for the sake of the story.

Light and fun.

July 2021
Averaging out: 4 stars ( )