Fantômas

By Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre and Robin Walz

A noblewoman is hacked to death in her chateau, a Russian princess is boldly robbed at a posh hotel, and a lord's lifeless body is found stuffed into a trunk. Everyone recognizes the deeds of Fantômas, a master of disguise whose daring and diabolical crimes paralyze Parisians with terror. One man has sworn to bring the phantom killer to justice: Inspector Juve, who ventures from dark alleys to brilliant salons in his relentless pursuit of the evil genius.
The first volume in a series of wildly popular French thrillers, Fantômas created a sensation in pre-WWI Europe. The original pulp fiction, its appeal transcended every level of society. Cocteau, Colette, and Picasso were avid readers, and subsequent generations of artists, writers, and musicians have drawn inspiration from this enduringly stylish and suspenseful novel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Jul 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486145778

Marcel Allain

Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914) were French authors of crime fiction best known for creating the sinister master criminal Fantômas. Introduced in 1911, the archvillain was an immediate sensation, popular in pulp magazines, books, and silent serials. Allain and Souvestre wrote thirty-two books in the series together. After his cocreator’s death, Allain continued the exploits of Fantômas in eleven more novels.

Book preview

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2006, is an unabridged republication of the work first published by Brentano’s Publishers Inc., New York, in 1915.

9780486145778

Manufactured in the United States of America

Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION - The Emperor of Crime

I. THE GENIUS OF CRIME

II. A TRAGIC DAWN

III. THE HUNT FOR THE MAN

IV. NO! I AM NOT MAD!

V. ARREST ME!

VI. FANTÔMAS, IT IS DEATH!

VII. THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT

VIII. A DREADFUL CONFESSION

IX. ALL FOR HONOUR

X. PRINCESS SONIA’S BATH

XI. MAGISTRATE AND DETECTIVE

XII. A KNOCK-OUT BLOW

XIII. THÉRÈSE’S FUTURE

XIV MADEMOISELLE JEANNE

XV. THE MAD WOMAN’S PLOT

XVI. AMONG THE MARKET PORTERS

XVII. AT THE SAINT-ANTHONY’S PIG

XVIII. A PRISONER AND A WITNESS

XIX. JÉRÔME FANDOR

XX. A CUP OF TEA

XXI. LORD BELTHAM’S MURDERER

XXII. THE SCRAP OF PAPER

XXIII. THE WRECK OF THE LANCASTER

XXIV. UNDER LOCK AND KEY

XXV. AN UNEXPECTED ACCOMPLICE

XXVI. A MYSTERIOUS CRIME

XXVII. THREE SURPRISING INCIDENTS

XXVIII. THE COURT OF ASSIZE

XXIX. VERDICT AND SENTENCE

XXX. AN ASSIGNATION

XXXI. FELL TREACHERY

XXXII. ON THE SCAFFOLD

INTRODUCTION TO THE DOVER EDITION

The Emperor of Crime

By Robin Walz

Listen up, all! Silence, please,

To these acts lamentable,

Of crimes unmentionable,

Tortures and brutalities

Ever unpunished, alas!

By the criminal, Fantômas.

—Robert Desnos, The Ballad of Fantômas (1933)

The first Fantômas crime novel by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain was released on February 10, 1911. The cover, featuring a masked man in tuxedo and top hat looming across the urban landscape of Paris, resting his chin on one hand and clutching a bloody dagger in the other, promised readers spine-shivering thrills. They were not disappointed: treated to brutal murders and spectacular crimes on the pages within, the exploits of the villain continued to shock and delight over the course of thirty-two consecutive novels. Fantômas poisons a baroness with opium-laced black roses. He leaves severed hands scattered about a Monte Carlo casino. His bandits crash a city bus into a bank to pull off a dazzling heist. He places a double-crossing minion face up in a guillotine to witness his own execution. He releases plague-infested rats on ocean liners, withholding the serum for himself as he watches the infected passengers writhe in agony. The crimes of Fantômas do not go unchecked, however, as Inspector Juve of the Sûreté, the detective branch of the French judicial police, and his energetic companion Jérôme Fandor, journalist for La Capitale, doggedly pursue the villain. Yet the criminal continually eludes the heroic duo’s grasp. The ever-evasive Fantômas—Lord of Terror, Genius of Evil, Emperor of Crime—gets away with it all.

A criminal celebrity, Fantômas was and continues to be popular among both mass audiences and intellectual elites. The original novel series sold over five million copies. Gaumont studio director Louis Feuillade adapted five Fantômas novels for the silver screen. Avant-garde poets Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob founded the Society of the Friends of Fantômas, and the Surrealists claimed Fantômas as one of their own. Other eminent writers and artists, including Robert Desnos, Jean Cocteau, Julio Cortázar, Juan Gris, and René Magritte, have been inspired by Fantômas. Throughout the twentieth century, he has spread terror through movies, magazines, comics, television programs, and web sites. Yet in the beginning, Fantômas was the creation of two rather ordinary journalists, Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain, who had only recently begun to write popular fiction.

During the nineteenth century, French readers had developed a taste for stories about renowned criminals, crooked policeman, and vigilante avengers. Notable signs of this trend included the popularity of the memoirs of the shifty Sûreté detective Vidocq, the poetry of the debonair assassin Lacenaire, and the fictional exploits of Rocambole, Ponson du Terrail’s criminal-turned-avenger hero. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the adventures of the fictional American private detective Nick Carter and amateur British sleuth Sherlock Holmes began to develop a following in France as well. Some French writers capitalized upon this burgeoning interest with their own contributions to the emerging crime and detective genre. In 1905, Maurice Leblanc began to write short stories about the gentleman-burglar, Arsène Lupin. Two years later, Gaston Leroux wrote Le Mystère de la Chambre Jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room), featuring reporter-detective Joseph Rouletabille, whose father had been the criminal mastermind Ballmeyer. In 1909, an installment novel about Zigomar, a hooded criminal created by Léon Sazie, was launched in the daily newspaper Le Matin, and Pathé studios produced movies featuring the villain shortly thereafter.

Parisian publishing magnate Arthème Fayard II hoped to cash in on this wave of popular enthusiasm for criminal exploits, and Souvestre and Allain were more than happy to oblige. In 1905, Fayard had initiated the Livre Populaire series of full-length popular novels for the low price of sixty-five centimes each (roughly fifteen cents). Most of these were reprints of popular nineteenth-century feuilletons (newspaper installment novels) by Eugène Sue, Paul Féval, Émile Gaboriau, Ponson du Terrail, and Michel Zévaco, among others. In April 1910, Fayard approached Souvestre and Allain about writing a popular crime serial. The challenge was to generate an entirely new monthly series issued directly into novel format, without the intermediary newspaper installments. Misconstruing the co-authors’ suggested series title of "Fantômus" as Fantômas, Fayard contracted the pair to write twenty-four novels in as many months. The initial volume was sold at the reduced price of thirty-five centimes, and Fantômas quickly became France’s most popular serial killer.

In order to churn out novels over 380 pages in length every month (as the contract stipulated), Souvestre and Allain employed the following strategy. During the first week of production, the authors would outline a particular novel’s plot. For the next two weeks, they took turns writing the chapters, or sometimes dictating them onto wax rolls for transcription. During this same period, they would convey details about the particular episode to illustrator Gino Starace, who designed the lurid, full-color covers for the entire series (with the exception of the original cover, which was anonymously produced). In the final week, Souvestre and Allain would review the transcribed text, work out transitions to get in and out of each other’s passages, and submit the edited manuscript to Fayard for publication. Exceeding the terms of the original contract, Souvestre and Allain wrote thirty-two Fantômas novels, comprising over 12,000 printed pages, in less than three years. Surrealist Philippe Soupault later declared that such a prodigious output was only possible under strict obedience to an absolute psychic automatism. Fantomas was a modern mythology conjured from the collective unconscious.

But what made Fantômas such a popular villain? Foremost, he is elusive. In every novel, Fantômas assumes multiple guises to commit outrageous crimes that cross class, national, and even gender boundaries. In the first twelve novels in the series, his aliases include businessman Etienne Rambert, English soldier Gurn, surgeon Dr. Chaleck, ruffian gang leader Loupart, banker Nanteuil, German ambassador Baron de Naarboveck, the Marquis de Serac of Hesse-Weimar, concierge Madame Cerion, tramp Ouaouaoua, swindler Père Moche, American detective Tom Bob, London dentist Dr. Garrick, interrogating magistrate Pradier, and Tsar Nicholas II, as well as numerous peripheral identities. When not assuming an alias, Fantômas is simply the Man in Black, a figure en cagoule, in black tights, cape, and cowl. To the consternation of Inspector Juve, the man of a thousand faces and the man without a face are one in the same. In a heart to heart conversation with Fandor, the detective laments,

For, who is Fantômas—the real Fantômas, among so many probable Fantômas? [. . .] As for seeing Fantômas himself, just as he is, without artificial aid, without paint and powder, without a false beard, without a wig, Fantômas as his face really is under his hooded mask of black—that we have not yet done. It is that fact which makes our hunt for the villain ceaselessly difficult, often dangerous! . . . Fantômas is always someone, sometimes two persons, never himself! (Souvestre and Allain, Messengers of Evil, pp. 194–195 )

In his undercover detective work, Juve is also a master of disguise. To complicate matters, occasionally he assumes one or another of Fantômas’s aliases (which lands him in prison on two occasions). Other principals in the series assume false identities as well—the reporter Jérôme Fandor, the love-tormented Lady Beltham, and Hélène, the daughter of Fantômas. There is no real unmasking in Fantômas, only the circulation and proliferation of masks.

The serial crimes of Fantômas also captured the reader’s imagination, each novel replete with fantastic exploits and sensationalism. In every episode Juve and Fandor track down Fantômas, but at the last minute the criminal devises some miraculous escape, which permits the continuation of the serial into the following episode. He is also a thoroughly modern criminal, skilled at utilizing technological gadgets to assist him in the commission of crimes. But above all, Fantômas exudes an aura of unmotivated evil, for it is impossible to explain why the villain commits spectacular crimes in endless succession. While money, adultery, and familial disputes may constitute surface motivations for crime, the degree of Fantômas’s violence—sinking an entire cruise ship filled with passengers simply to rid himself of an alias, setting off bombs filled with blood and gore in a maid service employment agency office, scalping a woman alive by catching her long hair in the ringers of an automatic washing-machine—surpasses understanding. Yet such unmotivated violence constitutes a vital source of reader fascination. Surrealists Georges Sadoul, Jacques Prévert, Raymond Queneau, and Yves Tanguy used to play a game where one of them would call out a Fantômas title, and the others would recall how many murders the Lord of Terror had committed in that particular episode. The pleasure in crime serial lay in continually postponed desire, to be continued.

Yet Souvestre and Allain’s series did come to an end with La Fin de Fantômas in September 1913. Though even this was a false ending. A decade after Souvestre’s untimely death by influenza in 1914, Allain resurrected the villain with the weekly New Adventures of Fantômas, and he continued to write Fantômas adventures for newspapers, comics, theater, radio, and photo-novels until his own death in 1969. The immense shadow of Fantômas has stretched from Paris across the world, as even today he continues to inspire poets, playwrights, graphic novelists, and musicians.

Bibliography of Fantômas by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain

I. The original 32 novels published in the Livre Populaire series by Arthème Fayard II (Paris, 1911–1913): 1. Fantômas. 2. Juve contre Fantômas (Juve versus Fantômas). 3. Le Mort qui tue (The Murderous Cadaver). 4. L’Agent Secret (Secret Agent). 5. Un Roi prisonnier de Fantômas (A Royal Prisoner of Fantômas). 6. Le Policier Apache (The Crooked Detective). 7. Le Pendu de Londres (The Hanged Man of London). 8. La Fille de Fantômas (The Daughter of Fantômas). 9. Le Fiacre de nuit (Night Taxi). 10. La Main coupée (The Severed Hand). 11. L’Arrestation de Fantômas (Fantômas Arrested). 12. Le Magistrat cambrioleur (The Burglar Judge). 13. La Livrée du crime (Crime’s Employment Agency). 14. La Mort de Juve (The Death of Juve). 15. L’Évadée de Saint-Lazare (The Escapee from Saint-Lazare Prison). 16. La Disparition de Fandor (Fandor Disappears). 17. Le Marriage de Fantômas (Fantômas Married). 18. L’Assassin de Lady Beltham (Lady Beltham’s Murderer). 19. La Guêpe rouge (The Red Wasp). 20. Les Souliers du mort (Death’s Shoes). 21. Le Train perdu (The Vanishing Train). 22. Les Amours d’un prince (A Prince’s Love Life) 23. Le Bouquet tragique (The Tragic Bouquet). 24. Le Jockey masqué (The Masked Jockey). 25. Le Cerceuil vide (The Empty Coffin). 26. Le Faiseur de reines (The Queen Maker). 27. Le Cadavre géant (The Giant Corpse). 28. Le Voyeur d’or (The Gold Thief). 29. Le Série rouge (A String of Bloody Crimes). 30. L’Hôtel du crime (Crime Hotel). 31. La Cravate de chanvre (The Hemp Necktie). 32. La Fin de Fantômas (The End of Fantômas).

II. Original English translations of Souvestre and Allain’s Fantômas novels, the first five concurrently published by Brentano’s (New York) and Stanley Paul & Co. (London): 1. Fantômas, trans. Cranstoun Metcalfe (1915). 2. The Exploits of Juve, Being the Second of the Series of the Fantômas Detective Tales (1917). 3. Messengers of Evil, Being a Further Account of the Lures and Devices of Fantômas (1917). 4. A Nest of Spies (1917). 5. A Royal Prisoner (1918). 6. The Long Arm of Fantômas, trans. A. R. Allinson (New York: The Macaulay Company, 1924). 7. Slippery as Sin, trans. B. J. (London: Stanley Paul, 1920).

Robin Walz is a cultural historian of French popular fiction at the University of Alaska Southeast and the author of Pulp Surrealism: Insolent Popular Culture in Early Twentieth-Century France (University of California Press, 2000).

I. THE GENIUS OF CRIME

"Fantômas."

What did you say?

I said: Fantômas.

And what does that mean?

Nothing. . . . Everything!

But what is it?

Nobody. . . . And yet, yes, it is somebody!

And what does the somebody do?

Spreads terror!

Dinner was just over, and the company were moving into the drawing-room.

Hurrying to the fireplace, the Marquise de Langrune took a large log from a basket and flung it on to the glowing embers on the hearth; the log crackled and shed a brilliant light over the whole room; the guests of the Marquise instinctively drew near to the fire.

During the ten consecutive months she spent every year at her château of Beaulieu, on the outskirts of Corrèze, that picturesque district bounded by the Dordogne, it had been the immemorial custom of the Marquise de Langrune to entertain a few of her personal friends in the neighbourhood to dinner every Wednesday, thereby obtaining a little pleasant relief from her loneliness and keeping up some contact with the world.

On this particular winter evening the good lady’s guests included several habitués: President Bonnet, a retired magistrate who had withdrawn to his small property at Saint-Jaury, in the suburbs of Brives, and the Abbé Sicot, who was the parish priest. A more occasional friend was also there, the Baronne de Vibray, a young and wealthy window, a typical woman of the world who spent the greater part of her life either in motoring, or in the most exclusive drawing-rooms of Paris, or at the most fashionable watering-places. But when the Baronne de Vibray put herself out to grass, as she racily phrased it, and spent a few weeks at Querelles, her estate close to the château of Beaulieu, nothing pleased her better than to take her place again in the delightful company of the Marquise de Langrune and her friends.

Finally, youth was represented by Charles Rambert, who had arrived at the château a couple of days before, a charming lad of about eighteen who was treated with warm affection by the Marquise and by Thérèse Auvernois, the granddaughter of the Marquise, with whom since her parents’ death she had lived as a daughter.

The odd and even mysterious words spoken by President Bonnet as they were leaving the table, and the personality of this Fantômas about which he had said nothing definite in spite of all the questions put to him, had excited the curiosity of the company, and while Thérèse Auvernois was gracefully dispensing the coffee to her grandmother’s guests the questions were renewed with greater insistence. Crowding round the fire, for the evening was very cold, Mme. de Langrune’s friends showered fresh questions upon the old magistrate, who secretly enjoyed the interest he had inspired. He cast a solemn eye upon the circle of his audience and prolonged his silence, the more to capture their attention. At length he began to speak.

Statistics tell us, ladies, that of all the deaths that are registered every day quite a third are due to crime. You are no doubt aware that the police discover about half of the crimes that are committed, and that barely half meet with the penalty of justice. This explains how it is that so many mysteries are never cleared up, and why there are so many mistakes and inconsistencies in judicial investigations.

What is the conclusion you wish to draw? the Marquise de Langrune enquired with interest.

This, the magistrate proceeded: although many crimes pass unsuspected it is none the less obvious that they have been committed; now while some of them are due to ordinary criminals, others are the work of enigmatical beings who are difficult to trace and too clever or intelligent to let themselves be caught. History is full of stories of such mysterious characters, the Iron Mask, for instance, and Cagliostro. In every age there have been bands of dangerous creatures, led by such men as Cartouche and Vidocq and Rocambole. Now why should we suppose that in our time no one exists who emulates the deeds of those mighty criminals?

The Abbé Sicot raised a gentle voice from the depths of a comfortable arm-chair wherein he was peacefully digesting his dinner.

The police do their work better in our time than ever they did before.

That is perfectly true, the president admitted, but their work is also more difficult than ever it was before. Criminals who operate in the grand manner have all sorts of things at their disposal nowadays. Science has done much for modern progress, but unfortunately it can be of invaluable assistance to criminals at times; the hosts of evil have the telegraph and the motor-car at their disposal just as authority has, and some day they will make use of the aeroplane.

Young Charles Rambert had been listening to the president’s dissertation with the utmost interest and now broke in, with a voice that quivered slightly.

You were talking about Fantômas just now, sir——

The president cast a cryptic look at the lad and did not reply directly to him.

That is what I am coming to, for, of course, you have understood me, ladies. In these days we have been distressed by a steady access of criminality, and among the assets we shall henceforth have to count a mysterious and most dangerous creature, to whom the baffled authorities and public rumour generally have for some time now given the name of Fantômas. It is impossible to say exactly or to know precisely who Fantômas is. He often assumes the form and personality of some definite and even well-known individual; sometimes he assumes the forms of two human beings at one and the same time. Sometimes he works alone, sometimes with accomplices; sometimes he can be identified as such and such a person, but no one has ever yet arrived at knowing Fantômas himself. That he is a living person is certain and undeniable, yet he is impossible to catch or to identify. He is nowhere and everywhere at once, his shadow hovers above the strangest mysteries, and his traces are found near the most inexplicable crimes, and yet——

You are frightening us! exclaimed the Baronne de Vibray with a little forced laugh that did not ring true, and the Marquise de Langrune, who for the past few minutes had been uneasy at the idea of the children listening to the conversation, cast about in her mind for an occupation more suited to their age. The interruption gave her an opportunity, and she turned to Charles Rambert and Thérèse.

You must find it very dull here with all of us grown-up people, dears, so run away now. Thérèse, she added with a smile to her granddaughter who had risen obediently, there is a splendid new puzzle in the library; you ought to try it with Charles.

The young fellow realised that he must comply with the desire of the Marquise, although the conversation interested him intensely; but he was too well bred to betray his thoughts, and the next moment he was in the adjoining room, sitting opposite the girl, and deep in the intricacies of the latest fashionable game.

The Baronne de Vibray brought the conversation back to the subject of Fantômas.

What connection is there, President, between this uncanny creature and the disappearance of Lord Beltham, of which we were talking at dinner?

I should certainly have agreed with you and thought there was none, the old magistrate replied, "if Lord Beltham’s disappearance had been unattended by any mysterious circumstance. But there is one point that deserves your attention: the newspaper from which I read an extract just now, La Capitale, draws attention to it and regards it as being important. It is said that when Lady Beltham began to be uneasy about her husband’s absence, on the morning of the day following his disappearance, she remembered noticing just as he was going out that he was reading a particular letter, the peculiar, square shape of which surprised her. She had also noticed that the handwriting of the letter was very heavy and black. Now, she found the letter in question upon her husband’s desk, but the whole of the writing had disappeared, and it was only the most minute examination that resulted in the discovery of a few almost imperceptible stains which proved that it really was the identical document that had been in her husband’s hands. Lady Beltham would not have thought very much about it, if it had not occurred to the editor of La Capitale to interview detective Juve about it, the famous Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department, you know, who has brought so many notorious criminals to justice. Now M. Juve manifested the greatest excitement over the discovery and the nature of this document; and he did not attempt to hide from his interviewer his belief that the strange nature of this unusual epistle was proof of the intervention of Fantômas. You very likely know that Juve has made it his special business to follow up Fantômas; he has sworn that he will take him, and he is after him body and soul. Let us hope he will succeed! But it is no good pretending that Juve’s job is not as difficult a one as can be imagined.

"However, it is a fair inference that when Juve spoke as he did to the representative of La Capitale, he did not think he was going too far when he declared that a crime lay behind the disappearance of Lord Beltham, and that perhaps the crime must be laid at Fantômas’ door; and we can only hope that at some not distant date, justice will not only throw full light upon this mysterious affair, but also rid us for ever of this terrifying criminal!"

President Bonnet had convinced his audience completely, and his closing words cast a chill upon them all.

The Marquise de Langrune deemed it time to create a diversion.

Who are these people, Lord and Lady Beltham? she enquired.

Oh, my dear! the Baronne de Vibray answered, it is perfectly obvious that you lead the life of a hermit in this remote country home of yours, and that echoes from the world of Paris do not reach you often! Lord and Lady Beltham are among the best known and most popular people in society. He was formerly attached to the English Embassy, but left Paris to fight in the Transvaal, and his wife went with him and showed magnificent courage and compassion in charge of the ambulance and hospital work. They then went back to London, and a couple of years ago they settled once more in Paris. They lived, and still live, in the boulevard Inkermann at Neuilly-sur-Seine, in a delightful house where they entertain a great deal. I have often been one of Lady Beltham’s guests; she is a most fascinating woman, distinguished, tall, fair, and endowed with the charm that is peculiar to the women of the North. I am very distressed at the trouble that is hanging over her.

Well, said the Marquise de Langrune conclusively, I mean to believe that the gloomy prognostications of our friend the president will not be justified by the event.

Amen! murmured the Abbé mechanically, roused from his gentle slumber by the closing words of the Marquise.

The clock chimed ten, and her duties as hostess did not make the Marquise forgetful of her duties as grandmother.

Thérèse, she called, it is your bed-time. It is very late, darling.

The child obediently left her game, said good night to the Baronne de Vibray and President Bonnet, and last of all to the old priest, who gave her a paternal embrace.

Shall I see you at the seven o’clock mass, Thérèse? he asked.

The child turned to the Marquise.

Will you let me accompany Charles to the station to-morrow morning? I will go to the eight o’clock mass on my way back.

The Marquise looked at Charles Rambert.

Your father really is coming by the train that reaches Verrières at 6.55? and when he assented she hesitated a moment before replying to Thérèse. I think, dear, it would be better to let our young friend go alone to meet his father.

But Charles Rambert put in his plea.

Oh, I am sure my father would be delighted to see Thérèse with me when he gets out of the train.

Very well, then, the kind old lady said; arrange it as you please. But, Thérèse, before you go upstairs, tell our good steward, Dollon, to give orders for the carriage to be ready by six o’clock. It is a long way to the station.

Thérèse promised, and the two young people left the drawing-room.

A pretty couple, remarked the Baronne de Vibray, adding with a characteristic touch of malice, you mean to make a match between them some day, Marquise?

The old lady threw up her hands protesting.

What an idea! Why, Thérèse is not fifteen yet.

Who is this Charles Rambert? the Abbé asked. I just caught sight of him the day before yesterday with Dollon, and I puzzled my brains wondering who he could be.

I am not surprised, the Marquise laughed, not surprised that you did not succeed in finding out, for you do not know him. But you may perhaps have heard me mention a M. Etienne Rambert, an old friend of mine, with whom I had many a dance in the long ago. I had lost sight of him completely until about two years ago, when I met him at a charity function in Paris. The poor man has had a rather chequered life; twenty years ago he married a woman who was perfectly charming, but who is, I believe, very ill with a distressing malady: I am not even sure that she is not insane. Quite lately Etienne Rambert has been compelled to send her to an asylum.

That does not tell us how his son comes to be your guest, President Bonnet urged.

It is very simple: Etienne Rambert is an energetic man who is always moving about. Although he is quite sixty he still occupies himself with some rubber plantations he possesses in Colombia, and he often goes to America: he thinks no more of the voyage than we do of a trip to Paris. Well, just recently young Charles Rambert was leaving the pension in Hamburg where he had been living in order to perfect his German; I knew from his father’s letters that Mme. Rambert was about to be put away, and that Etienne Rambert was obliged to be absent, so I offered to receive Charles here until his father should return to Paris. Charles came the day before yesterday, and that is the whole story.

And M. Etienne Rambert joins him here to-morrow? said the Abbé.

That is so——

The Marquise de Langrune would have given other information about her young friend had he not come into the room just then. He was an attractive lad with refined and distinguished features, clear, intelligent eyes, and graceful figure. The other guests were silent, and Charles Rambert approached them with the slight awkwardness of youth. He went up to President Bonnet and plucked up sudden courage.

And what then, sir? he asked in a low tone.

I don’t understand, my boy, said the magistrate.

Oh! said Charles Rambert, have you finished talking about Fantômas? It was so amusing!

For my part, the president answered dryly, I do not find these stories about criminals ‘amusing.’

But the lad did not detect the shade of reproach in the words.

But still it is very odd, very extraordinary that such mysterious characters as Fantômas can exist nowadays. Is it really possible that a single man can commit such a number of crimes, and that any human being can escape discovery, as they say Fantômas can, and be able to foil the cleverest devices of the police? I think it is——

The president’s manner grew steadily more chilly as the boy’s curiosity waxed more enthusiastic, and he interrupted curtly.

I fail to understand your attitude, young man. You appear to be hypnotised, fascinated. You speak of Fantômas as if he were something interesting. It is out of place, to put it mildly, and he turned to the Abbé Sicot. There, sir, that is the result of this modern education and the state of mind produced in the younger generation by the newspaper press and even by literature. Criminals are given haloes and proclaimed from the house-tops. It is astounding!

But Charles Rambert was not the least impressed.

But it is life, sir; it is history, it is the real thing! he insisted. Why, you yourself, in just a few words, have thrown an atmosphere round this Fantômas which makes him absolutely fascinating! I would give anything to have known Vidocq and Cartouche and Rocambole, and to have seen them at close quarters. Those were men!

President Bonnet contemplated the young man in astonishment; his eyes flashed lightning at him and he burst out:

You are mad, boy, absolutely mad! Vidocq—Rocambole! You mix up legend and history, bracket murderers with detectives, and make no distinction between right and wrong! You would not hesitate to set the heroes of crime and the heroes of law and order on one and the same pedestal!

You have said the word, sir, Charles Rambert exclaimed: they all are heroes. But, better still, Fantômas——

The lad’s outburst was so vehement and spontaneous and sincere, that it provoked unanimous indignation among his hearers. Even the indulgent Marquise de Langrune ceased to smile. Charles Rambert perceived that he had gone too far, and stopped abruptly.

I beg your pardon, sir, he murmured. I spoke without thinking; please forgive me.

He raised his eyes and looked at President Bonnet, blushing to the tips of his ears and looking so abashed that the magistrate, who was a kind-hearted man at bottom, tried to reassure him.

Your imagination is much too lively, young man, much too lively. But you will grow out of that. Come, come: that’s all right; lads of your age do talk without knowledge.

It was very late now, and a few minutes after this incident the guests of the Marquise de Langrune took their departure.

Charles Rambert accompanied the Marquise to the door of her own private rooms,

Reviews for Fantômas

[colligan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This will be short and sweet. Fantomas is an engaging, entertaining, and rightfully classic read. Interesting characters, lots of plot twists, and old-fashioned drama. If you like melodramatic mysteries, this is one (of several in the series) not to be missed.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Many thanks to the 1001 book list because I would have never read this book had it not been on the list and missed out on a gem.Fantomas is a master criminal, ruthless and brilliantly clever,able to take on any disguise seemingly at will, a real fictional anti-hero long before they became popular. Juve is a quirky but brilliant detective who has made it his life's work to catch this criminal, seeing links in seemingly unconnected crimes where no one else can spot them. But even at the very end of the book, which is both cleverly constructed and yet horrifying in its simplicity, you still have no real idea who Fantomas is or even whether or not that he even exists at all other than in Juve's mind. Is he real or a sort of Boogie Man created to scare the upper tiers of Parisian life?This book was first published in 1911 and became an instant hit across all levels of French society, but then it is so much more than a simple criminal tale. It also shows Parisian in particular, and French in general, avant-garde life in all its many shades which in itself made it all the more interesting to me at least. At times the language and plot-line feels a little dated, a bit formulaic and as if it was written in a rush, which it was, Allain and Souvestre had a deadline to meet but this should not really detract from the overall quality of the read. I mean Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes are a little dated now too despite their many reincarnations on screen.The only thing that stops it getting full marks is the fact that the story is incomplete, it is after all only the first one in the series and there are another 40+ books to follow and I am unsure whether or not I will ever get around to reading another.

[cmc_22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The introduction is largely positive about the popular appeal and long-lasting influence of the Fantômas stories on French and European fiction, film, and culture, including the fascination of many artists in the Surrealist movement. At the same time, the writer is adamant about distancing himself from the actual novel, repeatedly pointing out the authors’ pulp origins, denigrating the quality of the writing, and sneering at the coincidences that the plot hinges on.But, at least in this newly tuned-up translation, the book is a shining example of a pulp mystery -- shocking murders occur, scandalizing society and devastating families. Our hero, Inspector Juve, appears and disappears, trying to understand the pattern of events and draw together the seemingly independent threads to knot together a net to capture the evil mastermind that only he seems to truly believe in -- Fantômas!As we’d expect from the first in what came to be along series of books, films, and other realizations, all is not what it seems, and seeming triumphs may not be all that we might hope for.The novel’s Fantômas is really quite tame compared with the reputation the character builds over the ensuing tales. Evil, yes, but some of his motivations are quite pedestrian (illicit love, greed). Still, the crimes he seems to have committed in pursuit of these goals show the beginnings of a truly dangerous psychopath.If you like pulp fiction, reading Fantômas is a must. Knowing a bit about the character’s cultural influences might make the task appealing even if the prose were not an enjoyable read, but for me, at least, I enjoyed every minute I spent on the book, and would gladly read more if the translations were available.