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Émile Gaboriau
Émile Gaboriau
Born	9 November 1832; Saujon, France
Died	28 September 1873 (aged 40); Paris, France
Genre	Detective fiction
Notable works	Monsieur Lecoq (1868)

Émile Gaboriau (9 November 1832 – 28 September 1873) 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.^[1] Gaboriau became a secretary to Paul Féval, and after publishing some novels and miscellaneous writings, found his real gift in L'Affaire Lerouge (1866).^[2]^[3]

Literary life

Gaboriau's novel L'Affaire Lerouge is widely considered as the first detective story in France. Its structure is characterized as a flashback into the past that serves to inform a present mystery.^[4] Influenced by Baudelaire's translations of the stories of Edgar Allan Poe,^[5] this work introduced an amateur detective and 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 (1775–1857), 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. Gaboriau was likely influenced also by the philosophy of positivism, promoted by Auguste Comte, which promoted the idea that science could answer all questions. Gaboriau's investigators rely heavily on newly developing scientific methodologies in their pursuit of criminals rather than simply on interrogation and eyewitnesses.^[5]

L'Affaire Lerouge was published as a series in the daily Le Soleil and at once made his reputation.^[6] Its recounting of a reclusive woman who is murdered for the secret she hides gained for Gaboriau a huge following.^[7] 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.^[3] 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".^[8] A film version of Le Dossier n° 113 (File No. 113) was released in 1932.^[9]

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". In reality, Conan Doyle was a great admirer of Gaboriau.^[10]

Fiction

Series

Mariages d'aventure

Monsieur J.-D. de Saint-Roch, ambassadeur matrimonial – The Matrimonial Ambassador: Monsieur J. D. de Saint-Roch (1862)
Promesses de mariage – Promises of Marriage (1862)

Lecoq & Others

L'Affaire Lerouge (1866) – The Widow Lerouge / The Lerouge Case / The Lerouge Affair
Le Crime d'Orcival (1867) – The Mystery of Orcival
Le Dossier n° 113 (1867) – Dossier No. 113 / File No. 113 / The Blackmailers translated by Fred Williams
Les Esclaves de Paris (1868, 2 vol.) – Slaves of Paris (Le Chantage – Caught in the Net) and (Le Secret de la Maison de Champdoce – The Champdoce Mystery)
Monsieur Lecoq (1869, 2 vol. – L'Enquête – The Inquiry / Monsieur Lecoq / The Detective's Dilemma) and ( L'Honneur du nom – The Honor of the Name / The Detective's Triumph)
La Vie infernale (1870, 2 vol.) – The Count's Millions (Pascal et Marguerite – The Count's Millions) and (Lia d'Argeles – Baron Trigault's Vengeance)
La Clique dorée (1871) – The Clique of Gold / The Gilded Clique
La Dégringolade (1872) – Catastrophe / The Downward Path
La Corde au cou (1873) – Rope Around His Neck / In Peril of His Life / In Deadly Peril
L'Argent des autres (1874) – Other People's Money / A Great Robbery
Une Disparition (1876) – A Disappearance / Missing! / 1000 Francs Reward

Non-Series

Le treizième Hussards (1861) – The 13th Hussars
Les Gens de Bureau (1862) – The Men of the Bureau
Les comédiennes adorées (1863)
Le Petit Vieux des Batignolles (1876) – The Little Old Man of Batignolles
Le Capitaine Coutanceau (1878) – Captain Coutanceau
Maudite maison (1876) – The Unfortunate House
Casta vixit (1876) – Love, the Conqueror
Amours d'une empoisonneuse (1881) – Intrigues of a Poisoner / An Adventuress of France / The Marquise De Brinvilliers

Filmography

Monsieur Lecoq, directed by Maurice Tourneur (1914, based on the novel Monsieur Lecoq)
L'Affaire d'Orcival, directed by Gérard Bourgeois (1914, based on the novel Le Crime d'Orcival)
Monsieur Lecoq [it] (1915, based on the novel Monsieur Lecoq), with William Morris as Lecoq
The Family Stain [it], directed by Will S. Davis (1915, based on the novel L'Affaire Lerouge)
The Evil Women Do, directed by Rupert Julian (1916, based on the novel La Clique dorée)
Le Capitaine noir, directed by Gérard Bourgeois (1917)
Thou Shalt Not Steal, directed by William Nigh (1917, based on the novel Le Dossier n° 113)
File 113, directed by Chester M. Franklin (1933, based on the novel Le Dossier n° 113), with Lew Cody as Lecoq
Monsieur Lecoq [fr] (TV series, 35 episodes, 1964–65), with Léo Ilial [fr] as Lecoq
Nina Gipsy, directed by Claude-Jean Bonnardot [fr] (TV film, 1971, based on the novel Le Dossier n° 113), with Henri Lambert [fr] as Lecoq
Der Strick um den Hals [de], directed by Wilhelm Semmelroth [de] (TV miniseries, 1975, based on the novel La Corde au cou)
Die Affäre Lerouge [de], directed by Wilhelm Semmelroth [de] (TV film, 1976, based on the novel L'Affaire Lerouge)
La Corde au cou, directed by Marcel Moussy (TV miniseries, 1978, based on the novel La Corde au cou)