Monsieur Lecoq

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Monsieur Lecoq is the creation of Émile Gaboriau, a 19th century French writer and journalist. Monsieur Lecoq is a fictional detective employed by the French Sûreté. The character is one of the pioneers of the genre and a major influence on Sherlock Holmes (who, in A Study in Scarlet, calls him "a miserable bungler"), laying the ground work for the methodical, scientifically minded detective. In French, "Monsieur" is "Mister" and his surname literally means "The Rooster".

In the person of armchair detective Tabaret, nicknamed Père Tireauclair, i.e,: Father Bringer of Light, a title Lecoq himself will eventually inherit, Gaboriau also created an older mentor for Lecoq who, like Mycroft Holmes and Nero Wolfe, helps the hero solve particularly challenging puzzles while remaining largely inactive physically. In Tabaret's case, aid is dispensed from the comfort of his bed.

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[edit] Inspiration

One inspiration for the character of Monsieur Lecoq came from a certain Eugène François Vidocq, a real life criminal who later became a policeman and eventually the first director of Sûreté. Another influence was another character named Monsieur Lecoq, who appeared in Les Habits Noirs, written by Paul Féval, père who had been Gaboriau's employer in 1862.

Honoré de Balzac introduced the notorious Vautrin, also inspired by Vidocq, in Le Père Goriot in 1834. Also, Alexandre Dumas, père created the character of Monsieur Jackal, the mysterious head of the Paris Sûreté in Les Mohicans de Paris (1854-59).

[edit] Books

Monsieur Lecoq appears in five novels and one short story written by Gaboriau and several pastiches.

[edit] French works and their English translations:

  1. L’Affaire Lerouge (1866) -The Lerouge Case
  2. Le Crime d’Orcival (1867) -The Mystery of Orcival, Crime at Orcival
  3. Le Dossier No. 113 (1867) -File No. 113, Dossier No. 113, The Blackmailers
  4. Les Esclaves des Paris (1868) -The Slaves of Paris
  5. Monsieur Lecoq (1869)
  6. “Une Disparition” in Le Petite Vieux des Batingoles (1876) -“A Disappearance” in The Little Old Man of Batignoles
  7. Le Vieillesse de Monsieur Lecoq (1878) by Fortune du Boisgobey -The Old Age of Monsieur Lecoq
  8. La Fille de M. Lecoq (1886) by & William Busnach & Henri Chabrillat - The Daughter of Monsieur Lecoq
  9. Le Dernier Dossier de M. Lecoq (1952) by J. Kéry (novella) - Monsieur Lecoq's Last File

[edit] Other popular culture depictions

[edit] Films

  • Monsieur Lecoq (Fr., B&W, 1914)
    • Dir/Wri: Maurice Tourneur.
    • Cast: Maurice de Féraudy, Charles Kraus, Fernande Petit, Henry Roussel.
  • Monsieur Lecoq (US, B&W, 1915)
    • Dir/Wri: Maurice Tourneur.
    • Cast: William Morris (Lecoq), Alphonse Ethier, Florence La Badie, Reginald Barlow.
  • The Family Stain [L'Affaire Lerouge] (US, B&W, 1915)
    • Dir/Wri: Wil S. Davis.
    • Cast: Dixie Compton, Frank Evans, Carl Gerard, Stephen Grattan, Edith Hallor.

[edit] Television

  • L'Épingle du Jeu [Needle in a Haystack] (6 January 1962)
    • Episode No. 23 of "Les Cinq Dernières Minutes" [The Last Five Minutes]
    • Dir: Claude Loursais; Wri: André Maheux & Henri Grangé.
    • Regular Cast: Raymond Souplex (Insp. Bourrel), Jean Daurand (Ins. Dupuy).
  • Nina Gypsy [Le Dossier 113] (24 July 1971)
    • Dir: Claude-Jean Bonnardoit.
    • Cast: Catherine Rouvel (Nina), Henri Lambert (Lecoq), François Perrot, Jacques Faber.

[edit] External links