Fantômas

"Fantômas...means death!" An immediate sensation upon its original publication in 1911, "Fantômas" - Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain's thrilling novel of international crime and intrigue - has proven to be one of the most popular crime fiction book series of all time. Centered around the title character - an early literary villain reminiscent of the type of international criminal James Bond might face - Fantômas himself is a merciless, brilliant crime lord who will stop at nothing to achieve his nefarious ends. A master of disguise, Fantômas often would impersonate his own murder victims and this elusive and enigmatic character became known for his cold-blooded ruthlessness. Pursued by the tireless Inspector Juve - one of the few people to be able to detect and follow Fantômas' twisted path - Fantômas is also similar to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty, sitting at the center of an enormous web of criminal enterprises and evil plots. The popularity of Fantômas was so huge that it would spawn no less than forty-two sequels and a variety of adaptations to the screen, including movies and television shows, turning Fantômas into one of the most popular literary characters of all time. Here, we present the original novel in its unabridged and original form, translated by Cranstoun Metcalfe.

Pierre Souvestre, in his short lifetime, wore many hats. He was a lawyer, a journalist, a businessman, an organizer of motor races and, of course, an author. By the early 1900's, Souvestre - already an established writer of technical manuals and short fiction, including poetry and an early novel - took on Marcel Allain (also a lawyer and journalist) as an assistant. Almost immediately, the two men began to collaborate on potential writing projects. In 1909, they published their first novel together: "Le Rour," which featured the character of Investigating Magistrate Germain Fuselier (later to become a recurring character in the Fantômas series). In 1911, however, Souvestre and Allain rocketed to worldwide fame with the creation of the book "Fantômas," which has as its title character an infamous and merciless international criminal. The book soon became a publishing sensation. The immense popularity of Fantômas drove the two men to begin cranking out sequels at an astonishing rate. By the time Souvestre died of consumption in 1914 - only three years after the creation of Fantômas - they had written thirty-two additional books in the series. After Souvestre's death, Allain would go on to create an another eleven Fantômas novels and - in between writing projects - oversaw the production of numerous movies, television dramas and other adaptations of Fantômas for the rest of his life.