Émile Gaboriau


Émile Gaboriau was a French writer, novelist, journalist, and a pioneer of detective fiction.

Early life

Gaboriau was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Maritime. He was the son of Charles Gabriel Gaboriau, a public official and his mother was Marguerite Stéphanie Gaboriau. Gaboriau became a secretary to Paul Féval, and after publishing some novels and miscellaneous writings, found his real gift in L'Affaire Lerouge.

Literary life

L'Affaire Lerouge, which was Gaboriau's first detective novel, introduced an amateur detective. It also introduced a young police officer named Monsieur Lecoq, who was the hero in three of Gaboriau's later detective novels. The character of Lecoq was based on a real-life thief turned police officer, Eugène François Vidocq, whose own memoirs, Les Vrais Mémoires de Vidocq, mixed fiction and fact. It may also have been influenced by the villainous Monsieur Lecoq, one of the main protagonists of Féval's Les Habits Noirs book series.
The book was published in Le Siècle and at once made his reputation. Gaboriau gained a huge following, but when Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, Monsieur Lecoq's international fame declined. The story was produced on the stage in 1872. A long series of novels dealing with the annals of the police court followed, and proved very popular. Gaboriau died in Paris of pulmonary apoplexy.
Gaboriau's books were generally well received. About The Mystery of the Orcival, Harper's wrote in 1872: "Of its class of romance—French sensational—this is a remarkable and unique specimen".
A film version of Le Dossier n° 113 was released in 1932.
In A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle has Watson ask Sherlock Holmes what he thinks of Gaboriau's work. Holmes disparages Lecoq as "a miserable bungler".

Fiction

Series

''Mariages d'aventure''

  1. Monsieur J.-D. de Saint-Roch, ambassadeur matrimonial – The Matrimonial Ambassador: Monsieur J. D. de Saint-Roch
  2. Promesses de mariage – Promises of Marriage

    Lecoq & Others

  3. L'Affaire Lerouge – The Widow Lerouge / The Lerouge Affair
  4. Le Crime d'Orcival – The Mystery of Orcival
  5. Le Dossier n° 113 – Dossier No. 113 / The Blackmailers
  6. Les Esclaves de Paris – Slaves of Paris and
  7. Monsieur Lecoq and
  8. La Vie infernale – The Count's Millions and
  9. La Clique dorée – The Clique of Gold / The Gilded Clique
  10. La Dégringolade – Catastrophe / The Downward Path
  11. La Corde au cou – Rope Around His Neck / In Peril of His Life / In Deadly Peril
  12. L'Argent des autres – Other People's Money / A Great Robbery
  13. Une Disparition – A Disappearance / Missing! / 1000 Francs Reward

    Non-Series