Customer Reviews

Arsene Lupin

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I began to read the books by Maurice Leblanc when I was a teenager, and since them I read them all. Since I'm blessed with the gift of forgetting plots, stories, characters and such, I could read those books featuring Arsene Lupin as many times as I wanted, and I always enjoyed them as if I was reading them for the first time.

Leblanc was able to create the most spectacular character of all time. Better than Sherlock Holmes, better than Hercule Poirot, Auguste Dupin, better than anything I have ever read till today (I'm 25 now).

Lupin is, to say little, complex. He is capable of loving and hating with the same passion. He can hate a friend and he can love an enemy with all his heart. Leblanc thought him as a Robin Hood of his time. Possessing a fine eye for art, books, women and deciphering secrets, Lupin has lived many lifes as different people, each one better than the other. In his bboks, Leblanc created the plots using parts of french history, including treasures, landscape, hidden tunnels, immortal characters, wars, etc.

This collection of short stories is just an introduction to the wonderful world of Arsene Lupin and to his world. There are many books featuring Lupin, and in my opinion the best are, in order:

813; The hollow needle; Crystal Stopper; Teeth of the tiger; The Comtesse de Cagliostro; The eight strokes of the clock; The Eunerville Secret. All these books are wonderful adventures, and should be re-edited in english as soon as possible.

Grade 9.5/10

Arsene Lupin, for those of you who don't know him, is a Gentleman Burgler. He robs from only the extremely wealthy, and usually, the most corrupt people who deserve it. His methods are playfull, and he will often send a letter to the police, the victims, and newspapers before he committs a crime to give them forwarning, which in turn makes his robberies even more daring and unique. Lupin has it all!
This book deals with a tale about a Duke who is just returning from an Antartica Adventure only to find that his best friends house is about to be robbed by Lupin (and has in the past). Once the ball gets rolling, every new fact and clue twists the plot and changes the motives. How does Lupin do it? You'll Just have to find out.
This is a great series by Maurice Leblanc. I would recomend reading "Homelock Shears vs Arsene Lupin" and "The Crystal Stopper" before this, just to get to know Lupin better.

Having read both Chinese and English versions of this book, I'd first establish that the English translation has a much better woven plot and greater tension between the characters. No doubt, we all know that Arsene Lupin is one extremely charming gentleman burglar, with a soft spot for women (esp. beautiful women). What made this reading so enjoyable (perhaps it's because I'm overtly sentimental and like romantic novels) is partly because of the romantic 'subplot' involving Sonia and Arsene Lupin.

Of course, I personally think that this is not really typical of Maurice Leblanc himself to write such a mushy lovey-dovey subplot and I wonder if Edgar Jepson co-wrote this book with him, or only after Leblanc had passed away. (Then again, it doesn't matter, since I did like the mushy bits anyway. They were absolutely hilarious!) Other Lupin books that I've read were certainly more capable of creating essential suspense, for e.g. The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar (N.B. This book might have been revised and edited from Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar. I'm not too sure, because this was written by the mystery writing team, Boileau-Narcejac.)

I do agree that the pace of the novel is a little slow, but perhaps it feels slow because it requires length to be able to reveal the full implications of certain details which is necessary to create suspense and tension. Characters might have been made to look diabolically extreme, in that Arsene Lupin always seems to be the good guy, and poor Guerchard takes on the baddie's role. However, one has to read the other Lupin works to understand how intelligent our dear Lupin is, and certainly much cleverer than the average detective.

I did thoroughly enjoy this book, but I have to give it only 4 out of 5 stars because I found it rather fairy-tale like, not quite characteristic of other Leblanc works which I truly adore and would rank them above Dolye's Sherlock Holmes.

When French entrepreneur M. Gournay-Martin receives a note from master thief, Arsene Lupin, stating Lupin's intent to rob Gournay-Martin blind, Gournay-Martin's future son-in-law, the Duke of Charmerace, gladly swings into action. But as the police are called in, and one detective grows more and more obsessed with Lupin, it soon becomes clear that there is a collision on the horizon, all orchestrated by the unseen "Arsene Lupin".

Maurice LeBlanc's Arsene Lupin is a French opposite of Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant, resourceful thief who delights in outwitting everyone. Unlike other gentleman thieves, e.g. A.J. Raffles, Lupin seems a little more sinister, even evil, at times.

This is the first Lupin book I have read. It is, in fact, the novelization of a play by Edgar Jepson, hence the fairly generic title. It also explains the rather turgid plot structure of the novel, as the story begins in Gournay-Martin's country estate, shifts to his Paris house for about 80% of the novel, and finishes in Lupin's hideout. Consequently, there isn't much action, beyond the various police investigations and clue finding by master detective Guerchard. Events that would have livened up the book's tone, including a foot-chase through the streets of Paris, are described by the characters after they have occurred. Thus, the book is carried by some spritely, if not always brilliant, dialogue, eccentricities of the characters, and a certain mystery: which of the characters is really Lupin, master of disguise? (It's pretty obvious, but I won't spoil it.) So, all in all, this is really not the best place to start reading Lupin, as I did. I do want to read more, but I'm not in any hurry.

On the more technical matters, the translation does seem pretty good given Wildside Press is not an A-list publishing house. LeBlanc seems to have a feel for use of language, and the translation here brings that out quite nicely. Certainly setting and character descriptions are lush (again, rather like a play). I know that Wildside has been taken to task for excessive typos, and there are a few of those, though not any more than you might find from any other publisher.

Another "drawback" from this small publishing house is the lack of any sort of editorial material. There is no intoduction setting the context for this book, nor are there any footnotes, etc. I think books like this benefit tremendously by such material, and it was rather missed.

All in all, this is a likable book, if not terribly gripping. My interest in Lupin is whetted, but not so much that I need to read the rest of the series right this instant.

I first found out about the Lupin stories from the anime, Rupan Sansei (Lupin the third). After obtaining one of the books from my local library I can see how they inspired Monkey Punch's manga.

Arsene Lupin is a dashing character indeed. Though a burglar, he is a gentlemen with great cunning and a suave personality. I laughed at how he outsmarts Inspector Ganimard in the stories (in a way it reminds of of Lupin III and Inspector Zenigata). Lupin is a gentlemen and master of diguise with many aliases and appearances. He could be an architect, a begger, a fisherman, etc. Some people have even dubbed Arsene Lupin the 'Sherlock Holmes' of thieves.

If you love Lupin the Third or detective stories you are in for a treat. I highly recommend the Arsene Lupin series for both.

This is a review of the free Kindle version.

Arsene Lupin is a novel about a thief and his plots to steal certain objects of art and jewelry from a collector. It starts at the collector's house where his very unlikable daughter is tormenting her secretary, Sonia. We also meet the daughter's fiancee, a famous Duke.

I will agree with others that the pacing is slow, but this isn't an adventure story, it's a psychological mystery as Lupin is slowly revealed to the reader. Lupin is an interesting character, but I do agree that I'm not possessed to go out immediately and grab all of the stories. A nice character, but the greatest ever, I don't see. I do like Sonia quite a bit, and hope she shows up again.

I find it interesting that the author had to have his Sherlock Holmes rip off character. Seems to imply he wasn't too comfortable with the strength of Lupin. Nice writing style. The humor of the Duke is very good.

I'd heard of Arsene Lupin in a few places: the anime, mentioned in other books. Little did I know I too would fall in love with the gentleman thief only a few pages in. Having some knowledge of the title character, his disguise was a bit easy to figure out, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment one bit. I wasnt prepared for how hilarious the characters were going to be! Highly recommend to fans of Holmes, Poirot, and Marple. Now I am off to read the next in the series!

Arsene is so confident in his skills, he sends letters to the Duke of Charlemarche, telling him that he may as well have the goods he wants delivered to him, to save everyone some trouble.

A master of disguise, this comes in handy when a detective that has been chasing him for a decade finally works something out.

Lupin gets in trouble near the end because of a
woman, but still has a trick left up his sleeve.

The book itself is just a plain piece out of a copy machine. Not even mentioned the copy right and who is the translator. I was cheated. This item is an identical copy of the other that I purchased. Amozon should be more careful about its book seller. The seller did not even got the title right! And let us spent $9.95 for a junk in the same order shippment.

The language is 19th century, so the sentences are long and complex. But rich! The plot moves slowly, this is not an action movie. The charactisation and humour are delightful. If you want to decide if you'll like Arsène Lupin try the Librivox free audio version at http://librivox.org/the-extraordinary-adventures-of-arsene-lupin-gentleman-burglar/