Book 1, Chapters 1-3. The Extraordinary adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar
By field-chance8064
Hi everyone, Here’s the first check-in for The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burgler. I’m really enjoying it so far, hope you are too! Spoilers ahead, obviously. Not reading ahead before setting the schedule, I’m actually pretty glad these first three chapters kind of formed a little set together. In Dutch I’d probably call it a “drieluik,” which feels more fitting than my English, or maybe a triptyque. Basically: Lupin gets arrested in chapter one, stays in prison in chapter two, and breaks out in chapter three. Chapter 1: The Arrest of Arsène Lupin On a trip to America, news comes by telegraph that the well-known thief Arsène Lupin is on board the ship. The other passengers, with Bernard d’Andrèzy leading them, try to track him down from just a partial description and the first letter of the alias he’s using, R... A woman’s jewelry goes missing and D’Andrèzy starts paying attention to Ms. Nelly. Inspector Ganimard is waiting when the ship arrives and manages to arrest Lupin, who turns out to have been D’Andrèzy. Ms. Nelly then throws the jewels, which were hidden in D’Andrèzy’s camera, into the water to get rid of the proof. Chapter 2: Arsène Lupin in Prison Baron Nathan Cahorn gets a letter from Arsène Lupin, who is in La Santé Prison, saying that the thief wants him to hand over some valuables or Lupin will come on 27 September and take those plus more. Cahorn tells detective Ganimard, who happens to be on holiday in town, and hires him and two men to guard everything on that day. When the theft happens, Ganimard asks Cahorn not to mention he was there, and then an official investigation starts, with Ganimard brought in as the expert on Lupin. Ganimard visits Lupin in prison, where Lupin says it was him who had been hired to guard the place the night of the theft. He also says he only got caught because he was distracted by a woman he loved, and that he won’t be at his own trial. Chapter 3: The Escape of Arsène Lupin Once the police know Lupin is planning to escape before the trial, they let it happen while secretly keeping watch so they can catch his helpers. He does escape in the prison van, but after a meal Lupin just goes back to prison anyway, since he knew he was being watched. At the trial, Ganimard is sure the accused man isn’t Lupin but a double. That double had been arrested and let go on the same day Lupin chose to return to prison on his own. When the double is released, Ganimard follows him and finally realizes it was Lupin the whole time. Lupin then explains that he made himself look like the fake through dieting and certain drug injections, and that his men had the real double arrested on purpose that day. Discussion: - What do you think of the stories so far? - Kind of a coincidence that Ganimard is at the ship’s destination and also in Baron Cahorn’s town, right? - It seemed like the arrest in chapter one maybe could’ve been avoided, but chapters two and three really felt like the kind of complicated planning I expected from Lupin. Do you agree? - Anything else.