The Eight Strokes of the Clock

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Maurice-Marie-Emile Leblanc (1864-1941) was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsene Lupin, often described as a French counterpart to Conan Doyle's creation Sherlock Holmes. The first Arsene Lupin story appeared in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine Je Sais Tout, starting in No. 6, dated 15 July 1905. Clearly created, at editorial request, under the influence of, and in reaction to, the wildly successful Sherlock Holmes stories, the roguish and glamorous Lupin was a surprise success and Leblanc's fame and fortune beckoned. In total, Leblanc went on to write twenty-one Lupin novels or collections of short stories. The character of Lupin might have been based by Leblanc on French anarchist Marius Jacob, whose trial made headlines in March 1905; it is also possible that Leblanc had also read Octave Mirbeau's Les 21 Jours d'un Neurasthenique (1901), which features a gentleman thief named Arthur Lebeau. Leblanc also wrote two notable science fiction novels: Les Trois Yeux (1919) and Le Formidable Evenement (1920).