Allo... le service de la Surete ? ... M. l'inspecteur principal Ganimard est-il ici ? ... Pas avant vingt minutes ? Dommage ... Enfin ... quand il sera la, vous lui direz ceci de la part de Mme Dugrival... Oui, Mme Nicolas Dugrival.. ?"

Vif, audacieux, impertinent, rossant sans arret le commissaire (qui ici, en l'occurrence, s'appelle l'inspecteur Ganimard), trainant les c urs apres lui et mettant les rieurs de son cote, se moquant des situations acquises, ridiculisant les bourgeois, portant secours aux faibles, Arsene Lupin, gentleman cambrioleur est un Robin des Bois de la "Belle Epoque."

The Crystal Stopper is a mystery novel by Maurice Leblanc featuring the adventures of the gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. The novel appeared in serial form in the French newspaper Le Journal from September to November 1912 and was released as a novel subsequently. Maurice Leblanc was inspired by the infamous Panama scandals of 1892 and 1893. The novel borrows from Edgar Allan Poe's short storyThe Purloined Letter the idea of hiding an object in plain sight. During a burglary at the home of Deputy Daubrecq a crime is committed and two accomplices of Arsene Lupin are arrested by the police. One...

Arsene Lupin left the summer-house where he was smoking a cigar and, bending forward at the end of the pier: "Growler?" he asked. "Masher?... Are you there?" A man rose from each of the boats, and one of them answered: "Yes, governor." "Get ready. I hear the car coming with Gilbert and Vaucheray." He crossed the garden, walked round a house in process of construction, the scaffolding of which loomed overhead, and cautiously opened the door on the Avenue de Ceinture. He was not mistaken: a bright light flashed round the bend and a large, open motor-car drew up, whence sprang two men in...

The rays of the September sun flooded the great halls of the old chateau of the Dukes of Charmerace, lighting up with their mellow glow the spoils of so many ages and many lands, jumbled together with the execrable taste which so often afflicts those whose only standard of value is money. The golden light warmed the panelled walls and old furniture to a dull lustre, and gave back to he fading gilt of the First Empire chairs and couches something of its old brightness. It illumined the long line of pictures on the walls, pictures of dead and gone Charmeraces, the stern or debonair faces of the...

Leblanc's creation, gentleman thief Arsene Lupin, is everything you would expect from a French aristocrat - witty, charming, brilliant, sly ... and possibly the greatest thief in the world. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary...