The Crystal Stopper

This early work by Maurice Leblanc was originally published in 1912 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. "The Crystal Stopper" is another favourite mystery novel by Leblanc where during a burglary at the home of Deputy Daubrecq, a crime is committed and two accomplices of Arsčne Lupin are arrested by the police. Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc was born on 11th November 1864 in Rouen, Normandy, France. He was a novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective, Arsčne Lupin. From the start, Leblanc wrote both short crime stories and longer novels - and his lengthier tomes, heavily influenced by writers such as Flaubert and Maupassant, were critically admired, but met with little commercial success. Leblanc was largely considered little more than a writer of short stories for various French periodicals when the first Arsčne Lupin story appeared. It was published as a series of stories in the magazine 'Je Sais Trout', starting on 15th July, 1905. Clearly created at editorial request under the influence of, and in reaction to, the wildly successful Sherlock Holmes stories, the roguish and glamorous Lupin was a surprise success and Leblanc's fame and fortune beckoned. In total, Leblanc went on to write twenty-one Lupin novels or collections of short stories. On this success, he later moved to a beautiful country-side retreat in Étreat (in the Haute-Normandie region in north-western France), which today is a museum dedicated to the Arsčne Lupin books. Leblanc was awarded the Légion d'Honneur - the highest decoration in France - for his services to literature. He is buried in the prestigious Montparnasse Cemetery of Paris.