Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late
We've met Sherlock Holmes, and we've become familiar with the trope of the gentleman thief; what if we put them together? This week its an unauthorized crossover! Oh and there's a love interest! A Castle! A Secret Passage! What an extraordinary adventure!
The Facts Text: Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late Author: Maurice Leblanc
Genre: Crime fiction, Heist story, Crossover Year: 1906
Available: The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar (anthology)
Public Domain (Free!)
The Fiction
Last we week we talked about one of the first examples of the gentleman thief in modern pop culture: AJ Raffles, a deliberate inversion of Sherlock Holmes. While its true that Raffles was one of the first gentleman thieves the trope would be cemented, codified and truly popularized a few years later by French writer Maurice Leblanc's Arsene Lupin. In some ways Leblanc departs from the legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes: while the stories in this first anthology The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar are narrated by an apparent close friend Lupin, this nameless narrator does not appear in the stories, and is simply reciting what Lupin has told him has happened after the fact. Lupin is a more solitary thief than Raffles as he is not defined by his relationship with a Watsonesque narrator.
On the other hand the ninth story in this anthology is titled "Sherlock Holmes Arrives too Late" and features Leblanc's attempt at a crossover between his gentleman thief, and the great detective so its impossible to say that Leblanc completely removed the Holmes influence from his gentleman thief stories. However, instead of making his thief a Sherlock Holmes type, he went and made him a Sherlock Holmes antagonist. Which is cool! Who doesn't love a crossover?
Unfortunately this crossover was not done with any consultation or involvement from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and so Leblanc, when faced with lawyers, had to change the detective's name to the completely unidentifiable totally different "Herlock Sholmes" in later publications. Which is possibly the funniest thing I've ever heard.
Oh and if you think Leblanc was scared off, the second anthology of Arsene Lupin stories is called Arsene Lupin vs Herlock Sholmes because he literally went off and wrote more unauthorized crossovers.
So what happens in this first short story featuring the meeting of titans? Sherlock Holmes Arrives Too Late details how the owner of Château de Thibermesnil, a large castle, fears he is soon to be robbed by Arsene Lupin. His plan to catch the famous French thief? He has contacted the famous English detective Sherlock Holmes, who arrives tomorrow. Alongside catching the thief the owner of the castle hopes Holmes can also help solve the mystery of the lost secret passage of the castle. He details the clues that have been left behind by previous owners of the castle and states no one has ever found the passage. The story lays out how Lupin solves the riddles and finds the passage, runs into a beautiful woman, returns the stolen items because he can't face her judgement, meets Sherlock Holmes, and then how Sherlock Holmes deduces the location of the passage himself. Oh and Lupin steals Holmes' watch.
The Feeling
Arsene Lupin has some of the classic traits of a gentleman thief: he is a master of disguise, he is Romantic/vulnerable to the affections of a young woman who makes him want to be better, he is brilliant. Oh and he is deliciously bold. This story features Lupin doing truly audacious things such as telling the owner of the castle he is going to rob him to his face, a blatant return to the scene of the crime, and oh right, he steals Sherlock Holmes' watch.
For all that this story is a crossover Lupin and Holmes only meet very briefly. Still the moment is full of tension and anticipation. When Lupin sends a car around to the exit of the secret passage it is taken as a sign of respect and acknowledgment that he knew Holmes would solve the riddles. Stealing his watch was probably more of a direct challenge but he leaves it in said car so he wasn't really trying to rob Holmes so much as show off. Which is great! The story sets up a meeting of equals, a great rivalry in which both sides respect the skill of the other, but want to ultimately show the other up.
Crossovers are a meeting of worlds, a colliding of universes and a chance for our favourite characters to interact. Its a shame Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Maurice Leblanc couldn't get together and actually write some stories featuring their famous characters together. But you have to admire Leblanc's elegant solution. Herlock Sholmes. That will never not be funny to me.
Also this story has a secret passageway. Did I mention that? The whole mystery/heist revolves around finding a secret passageway, in a castle, which is excellent. Just excellent. Peak secret passageway content in this story.
But back on topic, was it wrong of Maurice Leblanc to just decide on his own to add Sherlock Holmes, another author's character, to his story? From a copyright and legal perspective, yeah. But, similarly to his own creation, Lupin, you almost have admire the brazenness of it. He just decides that he's written a character as smart, clever and talented as the most famous literary detective in the world. No consultation from anyone, he just decides one day his thief could take on Holmes, and writes that story. And when he's told he can't just do that...he does the most passive aggressive edit I've ever seen and switches some letters around and keeps writing that crossover.
If anything Leblanc is a real world example of why we kind of admire the brazen gentlemen thieves of fiction because of how brazen they are.
Herlock Sholmes.
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