Synopsis "L'Eclat d'obus (in French)"

L'Eclat d'obus, roman paru en 1914, est indissociable de son contexte. Paul Delroze, le personnage principal, est marié à Elizabeth. Pendant sa jeunesse, il vit un drame terrible durant lequel son père est assassiné sous ses yeux, des mains d'une femme dont ils ne connaissaient rien sinon qu'ils l'ont vue accompagnée de Guillaume II. Paul raconte cette histoire à sa jeune épouse alors qu'ils sont sur le chemin du château du père de la jeune-femme, situé à Corvigny près de la frontière allemande. En arrivant sur les lieux, Paul fait de terribles découvertes... N'ayant plus rien à perdre, il décide de rejoindre les rangs des combattants. Ce roman de guerre patriotique qui met la nation sous son meilleur jour est aussi un roman d'espionnage où l'accumulation de mystérieux détails nous tient en haleine.

Maurice LeBlanc

(Author)

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Maurice-Marie-Émile Leblanc (Rouen, December 11, 1864-Perpignan, November 6, 1941), better known as Maurice Leblanc, was a French novelist and short story writer

Born into a wealthy family, his father was a rich shipowner based in Rouen. After finishing his law studies, he dedicated himself to working in various industries in the region. After a while not applying himself much to industrial work, he moved to Paris, where he began his literary career, from around 1892 until 1904. He published about ten books, the first of which was titled: Des Couples (Couples).

In 1904, Pierre Laffite, director of Je sais Tout, commissioned him a story for his newly founded magazine. Maurice accepted the commission and soon delivered an original titled "The Arrest of Arsène Lupin". According to the author's own words, this was the only Lupin story he had planned. However, Pierre Laffite was strongly impressed by the character and encouraged Leblanc to develop the character.

Thus, at forty years old and with a literary prestige earned by his previous works, Arsène Lupin was born from the hand of Leblanc, a gentleman thief, whose work consists of almost 20 books.

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