Jan 10, 2021
Was Arsène Lupin Real or Imaginary?
If you asked anyone in the world “Who is the most famous detective?boo ”, the one and only answer would be Sherlock Holmes. Searching for a similarly iconic character on the other side of the spectrum, you will inescapably come across the brilliant gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. A gentleman who, contrary to the reputation of his profession, worked and lived by his admirable moral code.
This man delicately and calmly smiled upon confronting any dangerous situation, even death he faced with iron nerves. Lupin was created by the famous French writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905 and soon became a global cultural phenomenon. A strange thief who helped the poor and at the same time didn’t stop being a nuisance to the authorities. He is known for his nobility, magnanimity, honor, geniality, and perfecting his disguise.
Arsène Lupin is characterised by a rather extraordinary style of robbing people. He loved warning his victims in advance and gave them enough time to take precautions and inform the police before making his move. By this, Lupin lost any thief’s advantage — the element of surprise — . Despite continuously putting himself in dangerous situations, he successfully dodged their consequences in the most ingenious, unbelievable ways.
All of Lupin’s thefts are defined by his geniality and extraordinary bravery, which gave him the ability to openly ridicule the French police using his miraculous intelligence and strength. He was called the Robin Hood of his time, and was nothing but decent in his choices, which explains why he was not short of earning many women’s admiration as well. Also, let’s not forget that he defeated all the detectives of his time, even the great Sherlock Holmes, though he admired and respected him greatly.
Arsène Lupin’s rules :
1- Don’t kill anyone ever.
2- Steal only from the parasitical rich people (who are in his point of view the judges, bosses, soldiers, and the clergy, … Etc.)
3- Don’t ever steal from useful classes who help in shaping and developing the community (who are in his point of view the doctors, engineers and artists).
From and by these rules a lot of people deduce that the real character who is the inspiration behind the fictional character was Marius Jacob. He began his many and continual thefts that were remarkable, really amazing in his time and even until now. Marius Jacob developed brilliant robbing methods. For example to see whether those who they sought to burglarise were on their premises, Jacob’s gang wedged pieces of paper into their doors and returned the following day to check if the paper was still in place. Additionally, Jacob became an expert on lock-picking doors and safes. Another clever criminal method involved entering an apartment from the floor above. Jacob would slip an umbrella through a small hole in the target apartment’s ceiling. Once inserted, the umbrella could be opened to catch rubble and dampen the noise created by breaking through the ceiling. Jacob used what he stole to help the poor people and to help the anarchism that he believed in so much.
By 1903 Jacob had accomplished 150 successful burglaries and thefts, before he was arrested in April of 1903. After a very long trial which was full of his sarcastic remarks and intelligent replies. He was sentenced to be banned to one of France’s colonies in Africa, where he tried to escape 17 times, but unfortunately all of his trials failed. He was set free in 1929 after the passing of a law in France that cancels any sentence of banishment.
After he returned to France Jacob left crime, also began working in politics, organizing groups of anarchists, and helping to spread the concept of anarchism. Jacon died peacefully in 1954 to close the curtains on the most amazing, fabulous, noble, and the smartest thief the history ever knew.
