THE MAN WITH THE BLACK FEATHER (Illustrated Edition): Horror Classic

by Gaston Leroux, Edgar Jepson, Charles M. Relyea

"One evening last year I perceived in the waiting-room of my newspaper, Le Matin, a man dressed in black, his face heavy with the darkest despair, whose dry, dead eyes seemed to receive the images of things like unmoving mirrors. He was seated; and there rested on his knees a sandalwood box inlaid with polished steel. An office-boy told me that he had sat there motionless, silent, awaiting my coming, for three mortal hours." (Extract) Gaston Leroux (1868-1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera, which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name. His novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room is also one of the most famous locked-room mysteries ever.

Genres: Mystery

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.

In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, 1910), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical. It was also the basis of the 1990 novel Phantom by Susan Kay.

Leroux went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. Then in 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Écho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1905 he was present at and covered the Russian Revolution. Another case he was present at involved the investigation and deep coverage of an opera house in Paris, later to become a ballet house. The basement consisted of a cell that held prisoners in the Paris Commune, which were the rulers of Paris through much of the Franco-Prussian war.

He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1909, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans to simultaneously publish novels and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in America. Leroux died in Nice on April 15, 1927, of a urinary tract infection.

Reviews

[Noel Thingvall]

I continue to love Gaston's wit, wildly inventive concepts, and complete fearlessness with swinging his stories into bold and unexpected directions. Like how this one starts as a light crime comedy, then becomes a reincarnation urban fantasy, then psychological horror, then keeps swirling in a mad dance between the three while also bouncing all over perspective and time with an assembled epistolary structure. It's equal parts fascinating and frustrating as you'll be laughing one minute, then wincing at suddenly shocking gore and cruelty the next, so it's still hard to fully recommend as it certainly jarred me from time to time, but I appreciate how it kept me on my toes at others. It also never fully pays off to satisfaction, with odd side quests involving catacombs, mediums, and more bounces between delight and disturbance, but I did certainly enjoy the ride more than I didn't and fully plan to continue my sporadic journey into Gaston. You don't hear much about his work outside of Phantom, so it's nice to see everything I've read so far is just as unexpected and entertaining.

[Jerome Berglund]

Marvelous!

A "must-read" if you enjoyed Phantom of the Opera!

[Diane]

This was such an interesting character study. We have Cartouche, the alter ego that even though he’s a murderer with a creative (albeit logical) moral compass we definitely like him better than Theophrastus. Every time it seemed like Theophrastus might overcome his possession, I was always a bit relieved when it didn’t quite happen.

Leroux did an excellent job of creating the bad guy we’re all rooting for, who really isn’t that bad once you get to know him (echoes of the Phantom, I think).

[Johan D'Haenen]

Een grote teleurstelling... het idee was veelbelovend: een beroemde rover, Louis Dominique Cartouche, reïncarneert 200 jaar later in Théophraste... Maar het verhaal loopt uit op een totaal fiasco, waarin niets nog geloofwaardig overkomt en alles verward en grotesk is.
Leroux was duidelijk zijn pedalen kwijt toen hij dit ei legde.

[Tony Ciak]

strange yet weird story

[Jb]

Dramatisation audio. Je suis surpris (et déçu) de ne pas avoir abordé cet oeuvre plus tôt! Fantasque et profond. Je reste un fan de Rouletabille avant tout, mais j'ai adoré ces personnages aussi.

[Dark]

2'5*
Muy imaginativa y oscura pero a ratos confusa.
La parte en las catacumbas de París es tenebrosa y estupenda.

[Mary]

The basic premise (middle-aged rubber stamp manufacture becomes possessed by Robber King past life) is hysterical. In practice, though, it is often incoherently violent and I had to take a whole star off for a strange subterranean utopian exploit that was so strangely out of line of the characters. I had such high hopes, because I love Leroux generally speaking.