Arsène Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmès

Arsène Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmès is a detective story collection by Maurice Leblanc, first published in French in 1908. Two linked adventures stage burglary as a battle of intellects.

In “The Blonde Lady,” a purchased writing desk connects a missing lottery ticket to the theft of the Blue Diamond. Lupin's disguises and network keep him ahead of the police until the victims summon the English detective Herlock Sholmès, creating rival methods of detection.

Sholmès and his companion Wilson pursue Lupin through Paris, but each apparent solution becomes another move in Lupin's design. “The Jewish Lamp” renews the contest around a stolen family heirloom and a mystery built from misdirection.

Leblanc treats pursuit as performance: Sholmès is formidable, yet Lupin controls names, appearances, timing, and often the terms of victory. Their contest favours recognition over possession, balancing suspense with comic parody.

"On the eighth day of last December, Mon. Gerbois, professor of mathematics at the College of Versailles, while rummaging in an old curiosity-shop, unearthed a small mahogany writing-desk which pleased him very much on account of the multiplicity of its drawers. “Just the thing for Suzanne’s birthday present,” thought he."

This download follows George Morehead's American translation, first published in 1910.