The Eight Strokes of the Clock (Arsène Lupin) - Softcover

Leblanc, Maurice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 147332520X ISBN 13: 9781473325203

Publisher: Read & Co. Classics, 2015

Synopsis

This early work by Maurice Leblanc was originally published in 1922 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. "The Eight Strokes of the Clock" is a collection of eight short stories by Maurice Leblanc. The stories have his most famous creation, Arsene Lupin, gentleman-thief, as the main character. The eight stories, even though independent, have a leading thread: Lupin, under the name of Serge Renine, trying to conquer the heart of a young lady, solving eight mysteries on the way. Maurice Marie Emile 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, Arsene Lupin. From the start, Leblanc wrote both short crime stories and longer novels - and his lengthier tomes, heavily influenced by writers such as Flaubert and 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 Arsene Lupin story appeared. It was published as a series of stories in the magazine 'Je Sais Trout', starting on 15th July, 1905. Clearly created at editorial request under the influence of, and in reaction to, the wildly successful Sherlock Holmes 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. On this success, he later moved to a beautiful country-side retreat in Etreat (in the Haute-Normandie region in north-western France), which today is a museum dedicated to the Arsene Lupin books. He died in Perpignan (the capital of the Pyrenees-Orientales department in southern France) on 6th November 1941, at the age of seventy-six."

About this title

About the Author:

Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (11 November 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. 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 eventually merged them with Lupin. He continued to pen Lupin tales well into the 1930s.

About this edition

• Publisher: Read & Co. Classics
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 147332520X
• ISBN 13: 9781473325203
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300