The Eight Strokes of the Clock

by Maurice LeBlanc

Overview

Maurice Leblanc published a collection of short stories called The Eight Strokes of the Clock in 1922. In response to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Arsène Lupin first appeared in print in 1905. He was loosely based on the life of French anarchist Marius Jacob. Leblanc creates unique and enjoyable tales of adventure featuring one of the greatest literary characters of all time-Arsène Lupin, gentleman thief-by fusing criminal fiction, fantasy, and mystery. The world's best thief, Arsène Lupin is an unstoppable force for good whose escapades jeopardize the fortune and reputation of France's most depraved individuals. Lupin utilizes his amazing intelligence and chameleon-like ability to slip unnoticed through aristocratic society in this first book of Leblanc's adored series in order to steal, swindle, and cheat his way through life. Arsène Lupin, gentleman-thief, appears in eight short stories in this collection: At The Sign Of Mercury, Footprints In The Snow, The Lady With The Hatchet, Thérèse and Germaine, The Water-Bottle, On Top Of The Tower, The Case Of Jean Louis, and The Tell-Tale Film.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789357278010
Publisher:	Double 9 Booksllp
Publication date:	01/01/2023
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Maurice Le Blanc, a fictitious gentleman thief and detective who is sometimes compared to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, was created by Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (11 December 1864 - 6 November 1941), a French novelist and short story writer. Leblanc may have also read Octave Mirbeau's Les 21 jours d'un neurasthénique (1901), which contains a gentleman thief by the name of Arthur Lebeau, and seen Mirbeau's comedy Scrupules (1902), whose primary character is a gentleman thief. By 1907, Leblanc had advanced to penning full-length Lupin novels, and thanks to favorable reviews and strong sales, he practically devoted the remainder of his career to producing Lupin tales. Leblanc also seems to have disliked Lupin's popularity, much like Conan Doyle, who frequently felt embarrassed or constrained 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" artistic objectives. He made several attempts to develop additional characters, such as the PI Jim Barnett, but in the end, combined them with Lupin. He wrote Lupin stories all the way into the 1930s.