Marcel Allain, Pierre Souvestre
Fantômas
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664653888
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Dover Edition by Robin Walz
VII. The Criminal Investigation Department
XVII. At the Saint-Anthony's Pig
XVIII. A Prisoner and a Witness
XXIII. The Wreck of the "Lancaster"
XXVII. Three Surprising Incidents
Introduction to the Dover Edition by Robin Walz
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
Mineola, New York
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 2006, is an unabridged republication of the
work first published by Brentano's Publishers Inc., New York, in 1915.
International Standard Book Number: 0–486-44971–8
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501
I. The Genius of Crime
"Fantômas."
"What did you say?"
"I said: Fantômas."
"And what does that mean?"
"Nothing. … Everything!"
"But what is it?"
"Nobody. … And yet, yes, it is somebody!"
"And what does the somebody do?"
"Spreads terror!"
Dinner was just over, and the company were moving into the drawing-room.
Hurrying to the fireplace, the Marquise de Langrune took a large log from a basket and flung it on to the glowing embers on the hearth; the log crackled and shed a brilliant light over the whole room; the guests of the Marquise instinctively drew near to the fire.
During the ten consecutive months she spent every year at her château of Beaulieu, on the outskirts of Corrèze, that picturesque district bounded by the Dordogne, it had been the immemorial custom of the Marquise de Langrune to entertain a few of her personal friends in the neighbourhood to dinner every Wednesday, thereby obtaining a little pleasant relief from her loneliness and keeping up some contact with the world.
On this particular winter evening the good lady's guests included several habitués: President Bonnet, a retired magistrate who had withdrawn to his small property at Saint-Jaury, in the suburbs of Brives, and the Abbé Sicot, who was the parish priest. A more occasional friend was also there, the Baronne de Vibray,