The Return of Arsène Lupin (1917) is a novel by Maurice Leblanc. Blending crime fiction, fantasy, and mystery, Leblanc crafts original and entertaining tales of adventure starring one of the greatest literary characters of all time—Arsène Lupin, gentleman thief. Partly based on the life of French anarchist Marius Jacob, Lupin first appeared in print in 1905 as an answer to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

Arsène Lupin is the world’s greatest thief, an unmatched force for good whose exploits threaten the wealth and standing of France’s most wicked men. In this installment of Leblanc’s beloved series, Lupin uses his remarkable wit and chameleon-like ability to move undetected through aristocratic society in order to steal, trick, and cheat his way through life. Despite his criminal nature, he operates under a strict moral code, only taking from those who have taken from the poor all their lives. The Return of Arsène Lupin opens on a world without Lupin—long thought dead, he even has a gravestone bearing his name. The First World War has come and gone, leaving a generation of men and women scarred irreparably. Two unlikely friends, wounded veterans Patrice and Ya-Bon, find comfort in their shared trauma. When Patrice is implicated in the murder of an acquaintance, they must race against time in order to find the true killer. In the final hour, a ghost from the past reappears to offer his help. The Return of Arsène Lupin is a story of romance, mystery, and crime that continues to astound over a century after it was published.

This edition of Maurice Leblanc’s The Return of Arsène Lupin is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.

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With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.