Después de pasar una tarde con su amada, el joven Arsenio Lupin presencia casualmente lo que parece un asesinato y, en un arrebato justiciero, decide salvar a la víctima, que más tarde sabrá que no es otra que la Condesa de Cagliostro. Fascinado por la belleza y el peculiar carácter de esta dama, la sigue en sus correrías y descubre que quienes estaban a punto de matarla iban en busca de un mítico tesoro templario, y que en ningún modo puede considerarse a la bella condesa como una joven inocente. Embarcado en una trepidante aventura en la que su vida correrá serio peligro en más de una ocasión, Arsenio Lupin se revela como un joven audaz, imaginativo e inteligente e intenta sacar partido de la información de que dispone. La inminencia del estreno de una nueva y espectacular versión cinematográfica de esta novela convierten éste en el momento idóneo para arrancar la nueva serie dedicada al personaje de Arsenio Lupin, presentando las novelas en la secuencia cronológica de los acontecimientos.

The Arsene Lupin original story --Arsene is a strong young man of twenty, son of a "professor" of what we would call physical education who taught him boxing and fencing and a noble lady whose family cut her off for marrying beneath her. Arsene has fallen in love with a beautiful young woman, daughter of a very snobbish aristocratic count who is involved n a plot which includes kidnapping and potentially murdering a woman who claims to be the daughter of Cagliostro. ( )

Well, that's it for me and Maurice Leblanc. I've had a go at two Arsène Lupin novels and they frankly annoy me. The French is not too difficult -- I don't get the sense that I'm missing much with the odd words/phrases I don't understand -- which is probably a plus, but the adventures/mysteries are kind of like late 19th century versions of The Da Vinci Code (or at least they accord to my understanding of that novel, given that I have never and will never read it) albeit written in the early to mid 20th century, with complicated and often silly puzzles involving the court of Napoleon, the hidden treasure of the French church etc, all linked together with fairly childish riddles. To top it all off, I can't STAND the character of Arsène Lupin, who is an arrogant twerp. His attitude to women makes me want to puke, he believes without doubt he is an incredible genius (and obviously highly virile as he made the poor little milk-sop girly who loved him pregnant on their first night and only night together)and he believes he has some sort of high level of morality despite being a thieving, conniving, con artist. All his "opponents" are given ludicrous flaws in order to allow him to lord it over them in the end. We are clearly supposed to think him a great rake and charming hell-raiser, but I just think he's an arsehole.

I say "Bof !" to you, Maurice Leblanc. May your prat of a character Arsène Lupin never again darken my door. ( )