LE LOUP BLANC

by Paul Féval père

Classic mystery novel in the original French. Number 6 in the series Les Habits Noirs. According to "Paul Henri Corentin Feval, (29 September 1816 - 8 March 1887) was a French novelist and dramatist. He was the author of popular swashbuckler novels such as Le Loup Blanc (1843) and the perennial best-seller Le Bossu (1857). He also penned the seminal vampire fiction novels Le Chevalier Tenebre (1860), La Vampire (1865) and La Ville Vampire (1874) and wrote several celebrated novels about his native Brittany and Mont Saint-Michel such as La Fee des Greves (1850). Feval's greatest claim to fame, however, is as one of the fathers of modern crime fiction. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable (1862) can claim to be the world's first modern novel of detective fiction. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs (1863-1875), a criminal saga comprising eleven novels."

Hardcover

First published December 1, 1977

About the author

For works by this author's son, please see: Paul Féval fils.

Paul Henri Corentin Féval, père, (1816-1887) was the author of popular swashbucklers, such as Le Loup Blanc (1843) and the perennial best seller Le Bossu (1857). He also penned the seminal Knightshade, The Vampire Countess and Vampire City. His greatest claim to fame was as one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable (1862) can claim to be the world's first modern detective novel. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs (1863-75), a criminal saga written over a twelve year period comprised of seven novels. After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Féval became a born again Christian, stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, sadly leaving the tale of the Black Coats uncompleted.

Reviews

[Fonch]

Ladies and gentlemen I apologize a thousand (today I had) to have written some criticism, and I could not because Instagram has not worked for me.
Surely I have not told you (and it is important when analyzing this book), that I am a lover of the genre of cape, and sword genre to which Alfred de Vigny https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... put the sword, and I think Merimee (especially with his chronicle of the reign of Charles IX https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... the sword. Thanks to this passion I met this author, and I must confess that "The Hunchback" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... of which several adaptations have been made, one with Marie Guillain, and Vincent Pérez is one of my favorite novels (it was already my grandfather's) slightly superior to the "Three Musketeers", and at the height of the best parts of "Twenty years later" by Alexandre Dumas. There were two mythical things in that novel, the famous fatal thrust (for those who received it) by Nevers, and the mythical phrase "You are marked, if you do not come to Lagardere, Lagardere will come to you". It was a novel set at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, and at the beginning of the Regency. Apart from that, I cultivate the story of vampires, policemen, spies. Another thing I like about Feval is his Catholicism, since, thanks to his wife, and his psychiatrist he converted, and was admired by Barbey D'Aurevilly https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (in fact this novel must be compared to "The Bewitched", or "The Knight of Touches" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... and protected Leo Bloy, and was rescued by Leopold von Sacher Masoch. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... . If you want to know more about him I recommend you read the epilogue of the "Hunchback" written in your books anaya by Luis Alberto de Cuenca https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... . As I have already told you, "Hunchback" was one of my favorite novels, but I could not with "The Mysteries of London" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... an answer to "The Mysteries of Paris" by Eugene Sue https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... 0 (without the ideological load of Dan Brown https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... of the nineteenth century. We should learn from Paul Feval's response to those who asked him about this question in the midst of indoctrination by Wokism, and the culture of cancellation. Feval said he liked that fairy tales were used to indoctrinate people, and talk to them about social miseries, as Eugene Sue did https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... as a good utopian socialist that he was). Also as he is not a very edited man I lost sight of him. Until I decided to read him this novel that I found in second-hand books. It is set in the eighteenth century in its French Brittany with a Scottian touch https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , and in which he is critical of France's plundering of French Brittany (I am pleased that Feval, who was a legitimist monarchist, defends lost causes as did Senator Joseph Paine, and then Jefferson Smith in the wonderful "Mr. Smith goes to Washington https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... . In fact it tells the story of a resistant nobleman named Nicolas Treml de Tremlays who has only one grandson left (since his son died prematurely fighting against French centralism) Georges de la Treml, but he has a mission and doubts whether to leave it in the hands of his cousin Hervé Vannoy who is only distrusted by a mysterious Albino with epileptic seizures named Jean Blanc, and his dog Breton Job. They fear that Hervé de Vannoy will betray his nephew as John Landless did with his nephew Arthur of Brittany https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... (here the reader is offered an alternative reading of what could have happened if Prince John had not killed his nephew Arthur of Brittany written by Baron Corvo) (this story is told in "Ivanhoe", https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... anecdotally to show us Scott the perfidy of the future John without Land. The curse of the Arthurs to inherit the English throne continues, perhaps because the return of the real Arthur https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... is expected). He finally gives the property to the cousin, but forces him to sign a document in which his grandson could recover the property if he pays 100,000 pounds, which Nicolas has saved. He then goes on his mission along with his Squire Jude Leker, which is none other than assassinating the Regent, although like Antonelli in G.K. Chest's "The Sins of Prince Saradine " by G.K. Chesterton https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... will propose a chivalrous duel to which Philip (not as sympathetic as in Le Bossu) will refuse. Here the dissolute nature, and womanizing of this character is shown, having a duel as mythical as the beginning of Le Bossu (also known as Le Petit Parisien the nickname that gives the Knight Enrique de Lagardere the best fictional swordsman who may have surpassed historical characters such as D'Artaganan (in fact in his prologue Luis Alberto de Cuenca in Anaya tus Libros wrote that when Lagardere was created the The idea is that he should be as brave as D'Artaganan, as mysterious as the Count of Monte Cristo https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7..., and as generous as Rodolphe of the "Mysteries of Paris" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... ht =true&qid=XqO6Y2aoFG&rank=2 instead the prologue of Cátedra of the version of the Three Musketeers, and of Twenty Years https://www.goodreads.com/series/2159... . Then he said that Lagardere was a copy of D'Artagnan. I actually consider that a part of 20 years later could have been written by Paul Defal himself, who would have been one of the ghostwriters of Alexandre Dumas. Another would have been Auguste Maquet https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... . I use the American expression, and not Spanish, because it could be an expression that could be misinterpreted, and consider my criticism as racist. Something that it is not, and to avoid any kind of misunderstanding I use the English expression). As for Alexandre Dumas I https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... liked it, although it is not such an ambitious novel White Wolf, than "The daughter of the Marquis" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... which is an interesting reflection on the French Revolution), or Cyrano de Bergerac https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... . A writer that I love Gastón Leroux will https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... pay tribute to Lagardere in one of the novels of his fictional hero Rouletabille https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) that has reminded me of those Japanese novels of @quaterni_editorial https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... that I like to read so much. Of course as expected they fail, but instead of being dismembered (remember that this was the punishment inflicted on regicides such as Ravaillac, and Damiens to name a few) the characters end up in the Bastille. While Hervé tries to kill Georges, and the dog, the former being saved by the mysterious albino Jean Blanc, but suffers an epileptic seizure, and when he has saved the boy, he loses him. The interesting thing is that the real hero of the novel is someone so fragile, and sickly (something that is not usually so common in current fiction). Hervé Vannoy will take revenge by killing his father, and Jean Blanc's wife, but he will kill his entire entourage (intendant included in a scene that reminds me of Benjamin Martin's ambush in the Patriot to the English. Starring Heath Ledger, Mel Gibson directed by Roland Emmerich), and does not kill Hervé for a reason (which for spoiler reasons I will not tell you). Twenty years pass and bandits called the wolves have revolted, and the King sends a captain named Didier, who will be helped by Jude Leker (who has been released from the Bastille), who will search for Georges' whereabouts. Hervé reluctantly helps Didier whom he tried to kill, and could not, using two servants. It is thought that because he was in love with Alix (Hervé's daughter) but the reason is different. Hervé wants to marry his daughter to the Intendant Antinous Bechameil, who despite being a thief, and hateful has two quite attractive qualities that he is very rich (something convenient if you want to marry a daughter at that time), and cooks as well as Cardinal Alberoni, who made his fortune for his wonderful cooking recipes to entertain Marshal Vendomme (from the little salvageable of the French army in the War of Succession, not of Secession, Spanish). There is a very nice scene that I do not tell in which a dish will have a decisive weight in the story. Hervé will continue with his plan to try to kill Didier, and like his servants Alain (the drunkard), and Lapierre do not want to do it (they already tried, and they came out quite scalded), so he tries a very risky move. The final part is so good that it made me put the Note that you will see at the end of my review. It has it all sports, fencing, torture, revenge, true love (like William Goldman's wonderful Princess Bride https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (That criticism seems to me to be pending forever), although a server likes the movie more than the novel). There is a spectacular final duel, with Jude Leker that I can only describe as epic, grandiose, moving, if instead of writing the famous quote by Iñigo Montoya it had been written "Hello Jude Leker called me you betrayed my master, and you want to kill your lineage, prepare to die" I would have given anything, for one of my actors Mel Gibson to have starred, that lately they are offering him roles, which do not correspond to his enormous interpretive talent. . What Hollywood can't hide is how great a director he is. This scene has a great merit, because it must be said, that Paul Feval Peré took fencing lessons, but he was very careless, and forgot what he learned in class, so he has a great merit, that he can write scenes of battles, and choreographies in duels as good as those of this duel. Without a doubt he is one of the best writers of battles with permission of J.R.R. Tolkien https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , Stephen R. Lawhead https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , Victor Hugo https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , or Ryo Wada https://www.goodreads.com/series/3186... to name a few.
As in Waverley https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... the protagonist is torn between Alix, and Marie the daughter of Jean Blanc. The one I would have chosen is chosen, but Feval in one of the most moving parts of the novel gives a very worthy ending to the unchosen suitor, wondering, if she really would not have deserved to stay with Didier. It reminded me of the protagonists of Henry Rider Haggard's wonderful "The Brotherhood" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (this is perhaps the best novel about the Crusades, that a humble servant has ever read), Godwin being much better man, than the one who stays with the girl (recognized by Saladin's trusted men), and here the same could be said. Both Alix and Marie are some of the best female characters I've ever met.
The novel offers us a good outcome that will be to the taste of the most demanding reader. My grade is (5/5). I hesitated to put four, but I like Feval very well, and although it is not as good as "The Hunchback" it deserves this note. A final consideration, for me it is incomprehensible, that Feval does not have the consideration, that other Catholic writers have, while pompier Catholicism will choose people of a profile similar to Frederic Ozanam https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , Montalembert https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , or Alphonse Lamartine https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , while the most conservative sector will opt for Ernest Hello https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... , Barbey D'Aurevilly, Leon Bloy, and I asked myself why not be everyone's, and this list of names include in that illustrious list the name of Paul Feval, too?