The Best of Lupin: Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief

by Maurice Leblanc

A selection of classic stories featuring France's answer to Sherlock a brilliant master criminal with a mischievous sense of humor—now the inspiration for the major streaming series Lupin .

Arsène Lupin is a gentleman and a thief, a world-famous master of disguise and a planner of elaborate heists. His exploits are regularly splashed across newspaper pages, entertaining all of France as Inspector Ganimard of the Paris Police fruitlessly pursues him. Lupin often turns detective himself when it suits him, solving puzzles that have stumped the experts, and occasionally he even matches wits with his rival from England, “Herlock Sholmes.”

A bane to the powerful and generous to the powerless, Lupin is exceedingly witty, marvelously clever, and always a gentleman. The twenty-two delightful stories in The Best of Lupin , drawn from five collections published nearly a century ago by Maurice Leblanc, have stood the test of time and are ripe for rediscovery.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Classics

480 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2024

About the author

Maurice Leblanc (1864 - 1941) was a French novelist, best known as the creator of gentleman thief (later detective) Arsène Lupin.

Leblanc began as a journalist, until he was asked to write a short story filler, and created, more gallant and dashing than English counterpart Sherlock Holmes.

Reviews

[thea. (aaron warner’s version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.45💫

The stories overall were smart and at the end I was always like - whattt the heck?? how?

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKED:
🚫 the length of the chapters (one chapter = one story)
🚫 point of view - sometimes it was from MC pov and sometimes from his friends pov which was veeery confusing 🫤
🚫 I didn't really like Lupin, but I guess it doesn't matter because this book was about his adventures and not his life (I know, confusing😂😭)

It just wasn’t the type of book where characters matter and where we are learning about them and exploring their personalities🫣

[David Hallstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read.

Twenty-two stories of a gentleman thief.

Told in a style akin to the Sherlock Holmes stories. Leblanc even went so far as to have Lupin interact with Holmes until threats of a lawsuit from Doyle led his publisher to rename the character Herlock Sholmes. Fortunately, this version has restored the original name, as Sherlock is now in the public domain.

The stories are arranged chronologically. Leblanc has more fun with Lupin as time goes on.

There was one story in the middle I considered a clunker but the other 21 were winners.

[Sadhbh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this. It was nice having a book I could just automatically take out with me any time I went for coffee.

[Sophia Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being written in the early 20th century it holds up well and is a really engaging, funny, and overall enjoyable book. Great for those who like reading detective stories but hate cops! Extra star because Leblanc writes a crossover where Sherlock Holmes investigates Lupin and despite receiving a cease and desist letter from Doyle writes a follow up where Lupin faces off against the famed Herlock Sholmes

[Hunted Snark]

Parked after one collection and one story.

I will return, but I think the Lupin vs. Sherlock Holmes stories may not be so much my thing.
The first one in the second collection isn't a patch on the first collection.

No matter, well worth it for the surprise and delight of the first half dozen stories.

Light, crisp and fun.
Why had I never heard of Lupin until now?

[Jason Bergman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty great collection, spanning what I assume is the complete history of Lupin. The latter stories, where Leblanc all-but-abandons the "gentleman thief" idea, were less my cup of tea, but I'm glad I read them. Translations were uniformly excellent, so even though the original stories are in the public domain, I'm glad I went with this commercial release.

[Joleen Teo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable but Lupin is very one dimensional. The writing is ineffective in building tension and suspense, something I think the Netflix show did very well. Shame! I was really hoping to like it, and am bummed to admit that I like a show more than the book.

[Meghan Briscoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories were very Sherlock Holmes-esque. I’d recommend the Netflix show instead of the book.

[Jed Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories so some good some not so good. Redeemed a star with two good ones to finish.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selection of short stories from France's answer to Sherlock Holmes. Arsene Lupin is a gentleman thief, stealing from lots of minor royalty and others who can afford it. Later on, he turns more into solving crimes. I like how Lupin is a minor character in most of the stories. It's someone else telling the stories and then you get to the part where Lupin enters in and robs them blind. He's also very Holmsian in how he has everything figured out before anyone else has even thought about it. A couple of the stories actually have Sherlock Holmes in them or Herlock Sholmes as he was referred to at the time. I guess French copyright law was pretty loose 100 years ago.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a bit ashamed to say I've never read any Lupin until now, but here we are! I will say I wasn't happy how my boy Sherlock Holmes was treated, but I understand why. All jokes aside, this was mostly an enjoyable collection of a variety of short stories. I think where this fell a bit short for me was in some of the later stories. Lupin assumes many identities throughout, but these felt much departed from what we were used to earlier on. There was less charm and Lupin being himself, and more random escapades he was on. They were still well written, but not as fun watching Lupin go up against his nemesis.

The stories are very varied between robberies, murders, and more. While Lupin is certainly a thief, he has an interesting moral code, and it's always a pleasure seeing how he'll get his piece in the end. The writing of each story was fast paced, and none of the verbiage felt archaic. I was easily able to read a couple a night without too much focus or time.

The characters were mostly well drawn, and even for the one offs, I felt they had distinct personalities and had their piece of the story. Character development in these cases is hard, so I look more for do the characters feel real and like they fit. They all did here.

If you enjoy classic characters, with good heart and timeless fun, I would highly recommend these. I cannot compare to the show on Netflix, but I really enjoyed this set and will definitely pick up more in the future. 4/5 stars.

Quick hits:
+ Charming main character.
+ Stories are well written and varied.
+ The characters are all well drawn and fun to read.
- The later stories lose their charm as Lupin is in disguise and there is less back and forth with his nemeses.

[Aria Hancock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hehe, Lupin you crazy…guy

(This book was really good, lots of interesting cases and characters, I really liked Olga in “Double Entry,” and all the Sherlock crossover stories were fantastic. Lupin is such a fun character, I love his mix of funny, lighthearted charm and also his mystique and the fact that he can be intimidating when he wants to be. The Lupin III character is pretty similar in personality, but it’s cool to compare the two and see their differences as well. I also noticed that Lupin III has included a handful of specific references to these stories, such as Lupin using Jim Barnett as an alias sometimes. Really good book, I plan to read it again at some point :])

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The early stories are utterly delightful - I found myself laughing out loud at the clever twists! But some of the later stories try too hard to be clever, and end up being too convoluted to follow or believe.

[Wayne Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars