Herlock Sholmes and I

When I was about eight years old, my Mum bought me a cheap edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I was absolutely enthralled! Over the ensuing years, I read all of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes stories.

Then, I discovered the pastiches! Stories including new Sherlock Holmes stories, often with a slightly altered name,  stories in which Holmes appears in a cameo role, stories about imagined descendants of Sherlock Holmes, and stories inspired by Sherlock Holmes but which do not include Holmes himself. I devoured them all!

At least, I thought I had devoured them all! Recently, I was short of what I call 'light reading' to relax from all the serious historical, philosophical, and political reading I do. Our daughter and I had been discussing Japanese manga and anime. She is a big fan. I'm not, but there is one anime series I'm fond of: Lupin the Third. The protagonist is the grandson of Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief of a series of novels by the French writer, Maurice Leblanc.

I thought I'd take a look at his novels because I have a penchant for late 19th-early 20th century novels, spy novels, adventure novels, 'invasion novels', and crime stories.

I purchased Arsène Lupin: The Collection (Arsène Lupin Gentleman Burglar) on Kindle. Imagine my surprise (and joy!) when I discovered the subtitle of the book I purchased included 'Arsène Lupin vs Herlock Sholmes'. One of the earlier stories had actually included 'Sherlock Holmes', but according to Wikipedia, 'Leblanc introduced Sherlock Holmes to Lupin in the short story "Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late" in Je sais tout No. 17, 15 June 1906. In it, an aged Holmes meets a young Lupin for the first time. After legal objections from Doyle, the name was changed to "Herlock Sholmes" when the story was collected in book form in Volume 1.'

So, after many years of rereading previous stories, I had an entirely new tale to read.

What is it like? Well, in all the Doyle stories and the pastiches, Holmes is obviously the hero. Not so in the Lupin tales. Indeed, he is their butt. He is continually blindsided, baffled, and upstaged by Lupin.

The chapters were written as short stories which were serialised in weekly magazines, so there are lots of cases of 'Sholmes' being blindsided, baffled, and upstaged by Lupin.

It is refreshing after almost 70 years of reading of Holmes as the hero to see him treated like a bumbling fool. However, I must say that had I read Leblanc all those many years ago, I would not have been tempted to seek out other tales of 'Herlock Sholmes'!