Arsene Lupin

Middle Eastern Literatures Volume 13, Issue 2, 2010, pages 191-210 Special Issue: Arabic Literature in Egypt at the Beginning of the 20th Century in Search of New Aesthetics: Al-Muwaylihi and Contemporaries DOI: 10.1080/1475262X.2010.487317Samah Selim Along with Ponson du Terrail's Rocambole and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin is one of the most famous popular fiction figures in the 20th century Egyptian literary imaginary. The first Arabic translation of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Cambrioleur (1907) by essayist and translator ‘Abd al-Qādir Hamza was published in the Egyptian fiction serial The People's Entertainments (Musāmarāt al-sha‘b, 1904-1911) in 1910.

Marcia Lynx Qualey Last updated: 28 September 2014 Why are gentleman-thieves and murder mysteries making a comeback in Arabic popular fiction? When Egyptian novelist and photographer Ahmed Mourad was asked earlier this year, why so few Egyptians were writing crime novels, he said that the genre was new, "and anything new is usually accompanied by a lot of attack and criticism". Then Mourad paused and corrected himself by saying, in fact, the genre was not new at all.