”It was, indeed, the famous necklace, the legendary necklace that Bohmer and Bassenge, court jewelers, had made for Madame Du Barry; the veritable necklace that the Cardinal de Rohan-Soubise intended to give to Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France; and the same that the adventuress Jeanne de Valois, Countess de la Motte, had pulled to pieces one evening in February, 1785, with the aid of her husband and their accomplice, Rétaux de Villette.” A necklace worthy of the very best thief.The Queen’s Necklace is famous for being worth so much money, but also because of the scandal that surrounded it. It all begins with Marie-Antoinette becoming disenchanted with the lavish, licentious lifestyle of the Cardinal de Rohan-Soubise. She finally banned him from her company. The Cardinal was desperate to get back into her good graces and contacted Bohmer and Bassenge about this astoundingly expensive diamond necklace that they had been unsuccessful in tempting any of the Royal families to buy. Now there seems to be some confusion between the Queen, their mutual “friend” Madame Du Barry, and the Cardinal. The Queen didn’t want the necklace. Madame Du Barry seems to have told the Cardinal she did. The Cardinal made the arrangements on behalf of the Queen, but gave the necklace to Du Barry to deliver. The necklace never arrived to the Queen. When B and B does not receive their scheduled payments for the necklace, and the Queen insists that she never intended to purchase the necklace things got interesting in a hurry. The Cardinal was arrested in the Hall of Mirrors, very publicly, in front of the court. Can’t you hear the gasps and the insect chatter of whispers?Madame Du Barry and her accomplices were arrested. The Cardinal was found to be a dupe in the whole affair and was acquitted. Madame Du Barry on the other hand was found guilty and sentenced to be branded with the letter V for voleuse (thief). I always thought V was for Vendetta. Anyway in true French fashion, because they hated the Queen, the peasants interpreted this trial as a condemnation of the royals and assumed the Queen was involved in the whole affair. Now at the time of our story the necklace is in the hands of an aristocratic family, fallen on hard times. The diamonds have been sold long ago, replaced by fake stones. The setting though is still worth a small fortune and it is the most prized possession of the family. It will prove to be the very first successful theft by the soon to be famous...Arsène Lupin.That is not his real name, but then he has chosen a profession where using one’s own name is not advisable. Maurice LeBlancMaurice LeBlanc was asked by the newspaper he was working for to come up with a French version of the very popular Sherlock Holmes. The stories of this debonair French thief were wildly successful. So successful that at several points LeBlanc, as tired of his creation as Arthur Conan Doyle was of his, attempted to create new characters, but the public’s demand for Lupin was too insistent and soon he would have Lupin merge into the stories of his other lead characters. Marius Jacob, inspiration for Arsène LupinLeBlanc based Arsène Lupin on the real life gentleman thief Marius Jacob. He formed a band called the workers of the night. Now Jacob was not your typical criminal. He had rules. He did not rob people in a useful profession such as architects, doctors, artists, etc., but he did consider bosses, judges, soldiers, and the clergy to be social parasites and worthy of robbery. He was very clever in how he committed his robberies leaving very little trace and a puzzle of how he actually accomplished the crime. ”Where force fails, cunning prevails.”This is a series of short stories and are not in any chronological order. The reader is able to see Arsène Lupin at various stages of his career from a clever child to a young man trying to establish a reputation to a mature man who by merely mentioning his name can inspire terror and despair among those with bibelots they wish to continue to possess. Of course he will also inform you if you have been duped by an unscrupulous dealer. "Arsène Lupin, gentleman- burglar, will return when the furniture is genuine."The plots of the stories are clever and compelling. I would often intend to only read one story before moving on to other reading, but would find myself usually reading three or four before I could pull myself away. I was often fooled by the solutions and would actually find myself smiling at being so cunningly deceived. I found Lupin’s arrogance and posturing and daring amusing. He isn’t annoying at all. He is a man against the world and winning. LeBlanc can’t resist having a story involving Sherlock Holmes. He very cleverly has Lupin and Holmes involved in the same mystery, but not competing against each other. There is no winner or loser, but at the same time it was fascinating to see LeBlanc’s view of Holmes. It was a very reverential piece of writing that I think must have pleased Doyle immensely. In 2004 there was a film made starring Romain Duris, Eva Green and Kristin Scott Thomas that I intend to see very soon. Highly recommended to those that appreciate clever thieves and are fans of Sherlock Holmes. I bought twelve novels as a digital bundle because the price was ridiculously cheap and I’m so glad I did because periodically I will need a fix of the gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin.
Monsieur Gournay-Martin adalah orang kaya yang terkenal di lingkungan kebangsawanan Perancis. Putrinya, Mademoiselle Germaine akan menikah dengan Duke Charmerace, Bangsawan muda yang kaya raya, eksentrik dan suka petualangan. Setelah sempat dikabarkan hilang dalam perjalanannya ke Kutub Selatan, Duke Charmerace kembali setelah perjalanannya selama 7 tahun. Pernikahan ini akan diselenggarakan secara besar-besaran, Sonia Kritchnoff, pelayan Mademoiselle Germaine bertugas menuliskan undangan yang bertumpuk-tumpuk banyaknya untuk para Tamu yang akan datang ke pesta pernikahan Majikannya. Germaine adalah seorang wanita manja yang tidak menarik, berbeda dengan Sonia, seorang wanita dengan kulit bersih dan terang dan dengan kesabaran luar biasa dalam melayani majikannya yang angkuh dan ketus ketika berbicara. 3 Tahun lalu, Arsene Lupin, seorang pencuri terkenal yang diburu oleh polisi Perancis telah mencuri Lukisan-lukisan berharga, hiasan dinding, lemari dan jam dinding milik Monsieur Gournay-Martin. Kali ini Sang Pencuri itu kembali lagi dengan mengirim surat yang memberitahukan bahwa Lupin akan mencuri harta berharga milik Gournay-Martin yang berada di Rumah Monsieur di Paris besok pagi. Kehebohan terjadi, Gournay-Martin yang trauma akan pencurian 3 tahun lalu kelabakan dan bergegas untuk pergi ke Rumahnya di Paris tersebut, apalagi di antara koleksinya juga terdapat Mahkota Princesse de Lamballe yang sangat berharga.Tetapi keberuntungan tak berada di pihaknya. Mobilnya hilang, yang tersisa hanya sebuah mobil bertenaga 100 kuda yang kecil. Maka Duke Charmerace diperintahkan oleh Monsieur Gournay-Martin untuk berangkat ke Paris duluan mengendarai mobil itu. Setelah sampai Paris, Duke harus segera mencari Monsieur Guerchard, Detektif yang menjadi musuh bebuyutan Lupin dari dulu. Sementara Monsieur Gournay-Martin, Germaine dan Sonia akan berangkat naik kereta belakangan.Sesampainya di Paris, Duke Charmerace segera mencari Monsieur Guerchard. Kejutan telah menanti mereka di kediaman Monsieur Gournay-Martin di Paris. Pencurian Lupin masih berlanjut, bahkan kehadirannya menjadi Misteri. Seorang di antara orang kepercayaan Monsieur Gournay-Martin adalah mata-mata Lupin, tapi benarkah begitu? Atau jangan-jangan Lupin sendiri lah yang menyamar menjadi salah satu dari mereka? Berhasilkah Guerchard kelak menangkat Sang Pencuri ulung itu ?Sebuah novel misteri yang sayang untuk dilewatkan :)Alur cerita yang cepat membuat saya betah membaca buku ini berlama-lama. Apalagi rasa penasaran yang ditimbulkan kalau sedang membaca novel detektif seperti ini. Akankah berhasil dicuri ? Siapa pencurinya ? Seperti apa Lupin sebenarnya ? Pertanyaan-pertanyaan itu terus menggentayangi saya waktu membaca buku ini. Sayangnya typo di buku ini masih bertebaran dan cukup mengganggu, juga adanya ketidakkonsistenan penulisan judul bab di Daftar isi dengan Judul di halaman sebenarnya. Buku ini terdiri dari 23 bab, tak lupa ada kisah romance yang mewarnai serunya perburuan Sang Lupin. Dan covernya, saya jatuh cinta terhadap covernya yang sederhana namun terkesan misterius ini.Sekilas tentang Arsene LupinMaurice Leblanc (1864-1941) adalah pencipta tokoh Arsene Lupin. Seorang pencuri yang mencuri dari orang-orang kaya dan terkadang dikembalikan ke rakyat miskin. Ada 20 seri Kisah Lupin yang Leblanc tulis. Lupin pertama kali muncul di majalah Je Sais Tout, No. 6 tertanggal 15 Juli 1905. Awalnya ia disebut Arsene Lopin, tetapi seorang politisi lokal memprotes kesamaan nama tersebut, hingga akhirnya Tokoh Lopin itu diganti menjadi Lupin.Di Negara Perancis, Lupin adalah seorang pencuri yang terkenal sepanjang masa, menyaingi kehebatan Sherlock Holmes di Negara Inggris yang keduanya saling berkebalikan. Holmes yang seorang detektif dengan Lupin yang seorang pencuri. Leblanc mengenalkan Holmes kepad aLupin pada cerita berjudul Sherlock Holmes arrives too late yang diterbitkan di Je Sais Tout No. 17, 15 June 1906. Setelah mendapatkan persetujuan Conan Doyle, namanya diubah menjadi "Herlock Sholmes" ketika cerita Lupin mulai dibukukan. Keduanya juga pernah dipertemukan di game buatan studio Frogwares, di mana pada kisah itu Lupin berniat mencuri harta karun Inggris yang berharga.Di serial Detective Conan, Nama Lupin juga pernah muncul di dalam serial yang berjudul Lupin the 3rd Vs Detective Conan pada Maret 2009 silam. Lupin III disini dikisahkan merupakan cucu dari Arsene Lupin, ia seorang pemuda campuran Jepang-Perancis. Tokoh Lupin III ini sudah muncul sejak lama, tokoh ini diciptakan oleh Monkey Punch di Weekly Manga Action pada Agustus 1967. Meski menurut saya pribadi, penampilan Kaito Kid lebih mirip Arsene Lupin daripada kemiripan Lupin III dengan kakeknya -__-“Arsene Lupin juga sudah difilmkan lebih dari 20 judul, diantaranya diproduksi di Amerika Serikat, Inggris, Jepang, Meksiko dan Perancis. Fil Lupin yang baru-baru ini dikeluarkan adalah pada tahun 2004 dengan dibintangi Romain Duris dan pada 2011 oleh Jepang dengan diperankan oleh Koichi Yamadera.
What do You think about Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief (Arsène Lupin) (2007)?
Arsene Lupin series is my favorite detective series , unlike Sherlock Holmes Arsene Lupin is a thief who only steal stuffs from rich peoples and he solves cases like Sherlock Holmes , he is as smart as Sherlock Holmes , so people called him " Gentle Thief " , and many women is in love with him , but the one he truly loved was killed by Herlock Holmes ( It s actually Sherlock Holmes ) , in an accident . When he was young he doesn't have a good childhood because his father died when he was young , so he had a hard life and he hated rich people because her mother worked for rich people as a slave and they don't treat her well , so he steal stuff and sell it and use the money to help poor people , it is like Robin Hood , and he is really smart , because the cops failed to catch him several times and even though if they caught him he always escaped ,and he sometimes helped the cops to solve mysteries , so the cops sometimes sees him as a friend sometimes as a foe . I like this series because I'm a fan of detective mysteries books , and this is a different kind , and it is for all ages , so I highly suggest if you are a mystery and detective books fan you must read this series !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
—David Kao
These are my images. I acquired the book through an intra-library loan. I was sent the first edition (in English) published in 1910. The writing style is archaic, full of exclamation points. The paper was so fragile, it had to be handled with great care. I learned of this author while reading a book on the Titanic...the thought posed at the anonymous nature of travel and how you can self-create when loosed from the usual societal bonds. The author of the Titanic book noted, however, that those travelling by ship on First Class either knew each other, or of each other, so to break into that world would be no easier than if on land. He also pointed out, something I had never read before, that there were con artists, card sharps and thieves that went down with the Titanic. He quoted Arsène Lupin as one book that used this idea in a mystery where a master thief is on board a ship bound for New York, from France and how easily Arsène Lupin melds into the upper classes, but not without "some" question marks. That is really why I pursued the book. I had never heard of the author or the mystery series, and I was curious. There are many more books by this author I will not be seeking out. He also turned to science fiction writing later in his career. Maurice Leblanc died in 1946.
—False Millennium
Arsene Lupin is a master thief. He steals from the wealthy and obnoxious, after first asking courteously for them to hand over the works of art, jewels, or other items desired. Arsene is even thoughtful enough to notify his victim of when he will acquire the items in question, if the owner does not decide to go ahead and hand them over. He then takes those proceeds and gives part of it away to those who need financial assistance.As this story develops one must try to figure out which character is Arsene Lupin, a master of disguise. Arsene has embarked on a bold scheme and matches wits with a detective who has made the apprehension of him the focus of his career.The conversations and observations made by some characters are very witty and made me laugh at times. There are other Arsene Lupin books and I plan to read them all. I classified this as a mystery, but am not sure that would be the correct designation. It was a lot of fun!
—Irene
