May I introduce you to a novel packed with swoon-worthy devotion, enthralling mysteries, and one Monsieur Arsene Lupin who masterfully maneuvers it all: "The Eight Strokes of the Clock"
Today, I finished The Eight Strokes of the Clock (1922) by French author Maurice Leblanc. As Leblanc often does in his writing, I was taken with an urgently tight hold from the very front to the very back of this novel, being urged with every word, every twist to keep going, pay close attention, and to, if I pleased, play detective in my own mind alongside Arséne Lupin to solve the case of the day.
This work is preceded by a number of short story collections and novels written by Leblanc, including Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar (1907) and The Confessions of Arsène Lupin (1913), in which we are very strongly acquainted with the subject of our interest: Monsieur Lupin himself. Allow me to briefly introduce him to you before we continue the review.
Monsieur Lupin is a trickster, a lover, a thief, a detective, an expert of deduction, a hero, an omen, a master of disguise, an honest man, an adventurer, a liberator, a problem-solver, a man of great confidence in his abilities, and an absolute delight of a character to read. Particularly in this whirlwind of a novel we’re discussing today.
I adore this read because of the wild, varying mysteries that are both burst wide open and then, within pages, buttoned right back up so neatly by our favorite gentleman thief. But what’s most fascinating is that, in this book, he commits no theft beyond the slow-burning, tactical, and yet ever-elusive stealing of sweet Hortense’s heart. These wild adventures he takes both her and the reader on in each individual chapter are wholly undergirded and interconnected by the most thrilling and seductive romance between the two. This is all so odd because, unlike the truths behind the countless mangled and tangled realities of the characters he saves (or damns), this singular romance seems to be the most difficult mystery to solve for him. But of course, in Lupin fashion, the elusiveness of it all is what attracts him to it all the more. But through each chapter, he and Hortense’s feelings for each other are only mentioned briefly, leaving us swinging like a pendulum between the whodunnit and the who will finally do it.
But what’s most intriguing is that, and perhaps it is simply me that is missing something, it seems like that Lupin simply engaged Hortense in a promise of whimsical adventure initially with no true gusto behind his intention beyond bringing adventure to a bored woman’s life and then later becoming overcome with passionate, unyielding love.
We have, over the first several stories Lupin stars in, come to trust our dear friend’s constant ability to move with care and intention and hardly ever waste a movement.
But here, it is entertaining and baffling to witness him experience his increase in feelings for Hortense as though it were not his intention to begin with! To witness him surprise himself with the chase! Devotion, we foresaw, and have seen him commit to a number of other people in difficult situations. He even admitted to it in the very first chapter: that his aim was to simply seek to amuse and please her in the midst of a truly boring existence at her murderous uncle’s estate. As he said, “Everything is easy and everything is possible to the man who is bent on winning you.” I’ll be frank in that I only thought him to be joking, amusing himself and her simultaneously with the promise of an autumn of adventure. But love? Romance?? For our restless Arséne Lupin???? Capital, indeed!
Hortense’s trust in him, unyielding even in the face of imminent danger, along with Lupin’s both irrevocable respect for Hortense and her will and his steadfast devotion to her happiness and joy are truly what the most sappy romance novels are made of. It reminds me of Bella and Edward, though much more fun and lighthearted and, well, alive.
Though merely a piece of what many consider the cornerstone of detective fiction, this installment in the Lupin saga is hardly about the mysteries solved, “the lives saved, the sorrows assuaged, the order wherever his masterly will had been brought to bear.” No, friends, this is a novel of romance, and one of Leblanc's few. As Hortense reflected, “it was the adventure of love, the most delightful, the most bewildering, the most adorable of all adventures.” And it is that very adventure, beyond all the others, that kept my eyes glued to the page day and night.
How he found Hortense, who knows! Perhaps it’s the hopeless romantic in me, but these eight tension-filled chapters of relationship building in the midst of some most gripping conundrums form truly the most tantalizing Leblanc read yet!
