Arsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction/crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television such as Night Hood, stage play and comic book adaptations.

A contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc (1864–1941) was the creator of the character of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin who, in French-speaking countries, has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world.

There are twenty volumes in the Arsène Lupin series written by Leblanc himself, plus five authorized sequels written by the celebrated mystery writing team of Boileau-Narcejac, as well as various pastiches.

The character of Lupin was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine Je sais tout (I Know All), starting in No. 6, dated 15 July 1905. He was originally called Arsène Lopin, until a local politician of the same name protested, resulting in the name change.

Arsène Lupin is a literary descendant of Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail’s Rocambole. Like him, he is often a force for good, while operating on the wrong side of the law. Those whom Lupin defeats, always with his characteristic Gallic style and panache, are worse villains than he. Lupin shares distinct similarities with E. W. Hornung’s archetypal gentleman thief A. J. Raffles who first appeared in The Amateur Cracksman in 1899, but both creations can be said to anticipate and have inspired later characters such as Louis Joseph Vance’s The Lone Wolf and Leslie Charteris’s The Saint.

The character of Arsène Lupin might also have been based by Leblanc on French anarchist Marius Jacob, whose trial made headlines in March 1905, but Leblanc had also read Octave Mirbeau’s Les 21 jours d’un neurasthénique (1901), which features a gentleman thief named Arthur Lebeau, and had seen Mirbeau’s comedy Scrupules (1902), whose main character is a gentleman thief.

Its official last book, The Billions of Arsène Lupin, was published without the ninth chapter “The Safe” (“IX. Les coffres-forts”), and even the published book became out of print by Maurice Leblanc’s son’s request. However, in 2002, by the efforts of some Lupinians and Korean translator Sung Gwi-Su, the missing part became restored and the complete collection of Arsène Lupin happened to be published first in Korea, from Kkachi Publishing House.

—John Betancourt

Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

www.wildsidepress.com

ABOUT THE SERIES

Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK™ ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

The MEGAPACK™ ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the MEGAPACK™ ebook series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://movies.ning.com/forum (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.

TYPOS

Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.

The MEGAPACK™ Ebook Series

MYSTERY

The Lady Sleuth MEGAPACK™

The First Mystery MEGAPACK™

The Second Mystery MEGAPACK™

The Achmed Abdullah MEGAPACK™

The Bulldog Drummond MEGAPACK™*

The Carolyn Wells Mystery MEGAPACK™

The Charlie Chan MEGAPACK™*

The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective MEGAPACK™

The Detective MEGAPACK™

The E. Hoffmann Price Spicy Story MEGAPACK™

The Father Brown MEGAPACK™

The Mary Fortune Mystery & Suspense MEGAPACK™

The First R. Austin Freeman MEGAPACK™

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