Maurice Leblanc was born in Rouen, France in 1864. He began his writing career with realistic works in the manner of his hereoes Flaubert and Maupassant, producing such novels as La Femme in 1887. He is remembered today, however, for his dozens of inventive and amusing stories an novels about the masterful thief Arsè ne Lupin, a burgular and confidence man who eventually also becomes a detective. Leblanc created Lupin in 1905 for a series requested by a magazine editor. There were five collections of Lupin stories: Arsè ne Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar (1906), Arsè ne Lupin versus Sherlock Holmes (1908), The Confessions of Arsè ne Lupin (1912), The Eight Strokes of the Clock (1922), and Arsè ne Lupin Intervenes (1928).
Michael Sims has edited two other collections for Penguin Classics: The Annotated Archy and Mehitable and Arsene Lupin, Gentleman-Thief. His research for the latter inspired The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime. His writing has appeared in New Statesman, Gourmet, Orion, the Washington Post, and many other periodicals in the United States and abroad.
