Just a hair shy of its 100th anniversary, the French pulp phenomenon FANTÔMAS gains respectability – and hopefully an entirely new generation or two of fans – with a Penguin Classics edition. Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre’s complex tale of a master criminal set the country aflame upon its initial release in 1911, and more often than not, it’s easy to see why so many readers’ imaginations were seized by this unique work.
As the poor but skilled Det. Juve informs another character, Fantômas holds the country in a grip of terror, not only because of the bizarre crimes attributed to him, but because no one knows who he is, what he looks like or even what his motivations are. So far as anyone knows, he kills just to kill.
When the book opens, we bear witness to a handful of new crimes, including the near beheading of a nobleman’s widow, the murder of a wealthy lord and the robbery of a young woman as she bathes. For the first crime, suspicion falls upon a teenage boy who promptly goes into fugitive-style hiding, but Juve – ever the Sherlock Holmesian deducer – investigates from the theory that Fantômas is to blame.
So much goes on without so much as a peep from the diabolical mastermind that one wonders if he’ll merely exist as a name in his own story – a true phantom. But when he finally appears – more than a full third into the story – the effect is electrifying. Or is it Fantômas at all?
It’s one of many unanswered questions that may frustrate the reader. Allain and Souvestre write to keep you guessing, with characters going under heavy disguise without letting you know. There are more identity changes in the novel than the entire MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE film franchise, so expect to be hoodwinked quite often.
There’s a fine line between kept in suspense and being outright confused, and sometimes FANTÔMAS teeters from one side to the other. It starts awfully strong with a solid mystery and an overwhelming blanket of menace, then quite nearly falls to pieces in the final third. But stick with it, because the book redeems itself with – for its time, at least – a startlingly sick twist ending.
With a conclusion so clever, it’s easy to see why the Parisians lapped up the 20 official sequels that followed. Experiencing FANTÔMAS for the first time, I’m eager for more myself; one hopes Penguin won’t leave the others untouched. –Rod Lott
Buy it at Amazon.
Discuss it in our forums.
Related posts:
- The Mark of Zorro
- Got the Look
- Penguin Classics offers 60th anniversary freebies
- The Brotherhood of the Shroud
- Capital Crimes
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }