Arsène Lupin Goes to War

What is it about?

Arsène Lupin, gentleman-thief, is one of the most famous figures in French pulp fiction, a flamboyantly Gallic compound of Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes and Don Juan. His Extraordinary Adventures were published in 20 volumes between 1906 and 1936. This article examines the installments of the Lupin saga published during the Great War to examine how the reality of war led to a reformulation of the character and the emergence of a new aesthetic of the uncanny in popular fiction.

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Why is it important?

Although the relationship between the Great War and the development of modernism and the avant-garde has been the object of sustained critical interest, scant scholarly attention has been paid to the impact of the war on popular fiction. This article argues that popular fiction, no less than literary fiction, suffered a crisis of representation as a result of the pressures of war, leading to a reformulation of its aesthetic.