Maurice LeblancMaurice Marie Émile Leblanc was a French novelist and short story writer who lived from 11 December 1864 to 6 November 1941. Arsène Lupin, the fictitious gentleman thief and detective which is sometimes referred to be a French equivalent to Arthur Coan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. In the science fiction books Les Trois Yeux (1919) and Le Formidable Evènement (1920), an earthquake forms a landmass between England and France. He was born in Paris in 1859 and raised in Rouen, where he regularly came into contact with Guy de Maupassant and Gustave Flaubert. His first book, "Une femme" (A Woman), which was published in 1893, was very well received. Other books, including "Des couples" (The Couples) and his sole play, "La pitié," which was published in 1902, followed. He released "L'Enthousiasme," an autobiographical book, in 1901. He released "L'Enthousiasme," an autobiographical book, in 1901. He attempted to murder his hero in the novella "813" as early as 1910, but would later that year revive the figure. He purchased an Anglo-Norman home in Étretat in 1918, where he created 39 short tales and 19 novels. He fled Clos Lupin in 1939 and sought safety in Perpignan because of the impending war with Nazi Germany. He passed on there in 1941. Read More Read Less