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paulcowdell's review
4.0
I'm not even going to try to make sense of the editions on here, which are a mess: I read Alexander Teixeira de Mattos's 1920 translation, available at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34939. Scanning the contents pages quickly makes it look like it is quite close to Leblanc's original text.
French pulps, and Arsène Lupin specifically, hit a couple of problems in this period. The carnage of World War I made problematic the persistence of arch-villains. This process saw Lupin gradually transformed from wittily amoral gentleman-thief into a rather moody, melancholic avenging angel/deus ex machine. This book, set at the end of the war, actually manages to turn that to effect, with Lupin - I'm sorry, Don Luis Perenna - resolving the story elegantly and amusingly but with calculated steel.
There remain some wartime jingoistic anti-German undercurrents (again, I haven't checked them against Leblanc's text, but I've no reason to believe they're the translator's interpolation), but Leblanc was clearly also trying to work out what effects the war would have on the genre: 'It was so excessively logical as to become illogical; and this because it was the act of a madman ... and also because it came to pass at a season of madness and bewilderment. It was the war which facilitated the safe silent committal of an obscure crime prepared and executed by a monster. In times of peace, monsters have not the time to realise their stupid dreams...'
That, miraculously, doesn't make the novel leaden or clumsy. It rips straight into the astonishing (within 10 pages you've had a threatened crucifixion and the appearance of a one-armed corpse) and steams ahead through local legend and occult interpretation. Ok, the structure does mean a fairly lengthy explanation of the plot at the end, but it's preceded by such a vigorous narrative that he just about gets away with it.
It felt like something of a return to form after the previous couple of Lupin titles. It was a tonic.
French pulps, and Arsène Lupin specifically, hit a couple of problems in this period. The carnage of World War I made problematic the persistence of arch-villains. This process saw Lupin gradually transformed from wittily amoral gentleman-thief into a rather moody, melancholic avenging angel/deus ex machine. This book, set at the end of the war, actually manages to turn that to effect, with Lupin - I'm sorry, Don Luis Perenna - resolving the story elegantly and amusingly but with calculated steel.
There remain some wartime jingoistic anti-German undercurrents (again, I haven't checked them against Leblanc's text, but I've no reason to believe they're the translator's interpolation), but Leblanc was clearly also trying to work out what effects the war would have on the genre: 'It was so excessively logical as to become illogical; and this because it was the act of a madman ... and also because it came to pass at a season of madness and bewilderment. It was the war which facilitated the safe silent committal of an obscure crime prepared and executed by a monster. In times of peace, monsters have not the time to realise their stupid dreams...'
That, miraculously, doesn't make the novel leaden or clumsy. It rips straight into the astonishing (within 10 pages you've had a threatened crucifixion and the appearance of a one-armed corpse) and steams ahead through local legend and occult interpretation. Ok, the structure does mean a fairly lengthy explanation of the plot at the end, but it's preceded by such a vigorous narrative that he just about gets away with it.
It felt like something of a return to form after the previous couple of Lupin titles. It was a tonic.
magis1105's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
elennadelynn's review against another edition
5.0
You read one Lupin. It’s good. You’re on Brittany for holidays and there is a Lupin for that. It was my perfect holiday read and Leblanc style is just so good. This novel is more of a thriller and is a bit scary. Arsène Lupin arrives only at the end to explain every mystery. It kept me on the edge of my seat.
kuldrenett's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
5.0
agathegrange's review against another edition
3.0
Des longueurs mais un dénouement a se plier de rire!
peristasis547's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
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