Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar

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A collection of classic mystery short stories by Maurice Leblanc featuring the beloved rogue, Arsène Lupin, the charming burglar. In his plots to steal antiques, Lupin matches wits with the brilliant Detective Ganimard. The stories include: The Arrest of Arsène Lupin, Arsène Lupin in Prison, The Escape of Arsène Lupin, The Mysterious Traveller, The Queen's Necklace, The Seven of Hearts, Madame Imbert's Safe, The Black Pearl, and Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late.

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Fun but also quite fascinating!! submitted by MartianSock on July 15, 2021, 2:55pm Perhaps everyone attempting to read this already has some idea on the "adventure" genre it belongs in. Perhaps that is why they wish to read it. But I personally find something else extremely fascinating in this book, in this character -- the psychological planning and almost spontaneous motives.

Arsene Lupin is a gentleman burglar. It is quite clear what "burglar" refers to, but what does "gentleman" refer to? Is it the generic and stereotypical upper-class, almost "snobby" male? Well, such a character would not fit the personality of Arsene Lupin, who rejects social customs and casually dismisses the law whenever he feels like it (which is quite a lot of times)... no, this character is a "gentleman" in a different way -- he has values.

He understands the boundaries of crime, and he appreciates theft itself as an artform. His craft is not just something he does to gain money, but also a form of entertainment; a way to restore justice; and of course a gateway to his personal collection, a further example of his appreciation for the things he steal.

But gentleman is not his only characteristic! He not only understands the physical aspects of crime, but also understands psychology -- both for individual humans and people of different social classes. He himself is also quite spontaneous, even despite his careful planning. Without spoiling too much, in one of the stories he committed a crime because he was bored (and perhaps for other reasons too... but that would be a spoiler).

All in all, I personally found character (and in consequence, the book) to be charming but also very interesting. Throughout the book, different twists help portray the nature of this unusual person and the nature of humans in general. If you came from the Netflix series and are interested, I really, really recommend reading this. (In my opinion it is even better than the series, but that's just my opinion....)

Source material for Netflix's "Lupin" submitted by ctconley on August 10, 2022, 4:22pm Fun to read the source material!