And frequently the narrator is highly unreliable. The narrator changes from story to story, sometimes a Watson-like figure, sometimes an omniscient narrator, sometimes changing mid story. The characters in Lupin’s stories are never sure who, in a given group of people, might be the master criminal. The first Lupin story, The Arrest of Arsène Lupin, introduces one of the crucial aspects of the gentleman thief’s success – his ability to utterly transform his identity. With the publication of the first story in 1905, a brilliant new literary creation was born: Lupin was cunning, sophisticated, quick-witted, a master of disguise, always one step ahead of the police, and a thief of humble origins who steals only from the wealthy upper classes.īut why did this gentleman thief achieve such instant and lasting renown? How does he fit into popular crime fiction more widely, and, you may be wondering, how did he end up as the basis for one of the most popular shows Netflix has ever made? Bigger than Stranger Things, Bridgerton, or, god help us, Tiger King? Leblanc obliged and, in doing so, created one of the most memorable and successful characters in French popular fiction: the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. The French public were just as avid readers of Holmes’ exploits, with Conan Doyle’s work widely available in French translations.Īnd so, Pierre Laffitte approached the writer Maurice Leblanc and commissioned him to write a story with a character to rival Holmes. Laffitte wanted a French rival to Sherlock Holmes – both in character and in the ability to attract a mass readership.Īt this point, the Holmes tales had become renowned across the world, and the great detective, killed off by his creator in 1893, had returned from the dead just two years previously, in 1903. His new journal Je Sais Tout (I Know Everything) had just launched and he was looking for an author who could do for his magazine, what Arthur Conan Doyle’s phenomenally popular Sherlock Holmes had done for The Strand magazine, in London. In 1905 in Paris, the publisher Pierre Laffite had an idea. I’m Conor Reid, with Words To That Effect

So, now, or after you’ve listened, if you go to /survey you can answer a few questions about the show and help me get to episode 100. I really want to make another 50 episodes of Words To That Effect, but I’d like to make a few changes and shake things up a bit, and I’d love to hear what you have to say.

It’s episode 50 – hurray! – and I’m doing a short survey to find out a little bit more about you, and what you like about the show. Check out a whole host of great Irish podcasts hereīefore I begin this episode, I just wanted to ask you a favour. Words To That Effect is a member of the Headstuff Podcast Network.

Maurice leblanc arsene lupin