The Overcoat of Arsène Lupin, by Maurice Leblanc (English)

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A crime so terrible it barely bears thinking about has been brought to the attention of cabinet minister Jean Rouxval, and he has taken it upon himself to bring those responsible for this horrible deed to justice.

 But his plans to go it alone are brought up short when a detective by the name of Hercules Petitgris is assigned to assist him. Despite his poor appearance, detective Petitgris comes highly recommended. The suspects arrive, and Rouxval begins his interrogation, the proceedings watched over by the silent Petitgris as Rouxval takes the lead, driven by anger over the crime he has discovered. Little does he know that Petitgris got the case all worked out as soon as Rouxval started talking...

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You can also download these files from the web archive.

And you can buy a physical copy from Lulu.com

Originally published in 1924, this short story, which is now public domain, was republished in 1926 as an Arsène Lupin story.

This version has been transcribed, and the illustration cleaned up, from an old PDF scan. This is now, if I'm not mistaken, the only available plain-text version of this short story in English.

I started transcribing this on November 11th, and finished on the 13th. I am making this version public domain, because I hate capitalism, and who can afford to buy books in this economy? Not me, that's for sure.

Update December 24th 2023: This now also includes my first attempt at an audiobook! One version is the normal recording, the other includes each character's voice shifted up or down in pitch to make them more distinct.

There are a few small sections where the editing is a little abrupt, and near the end where I mispronounce a word. I also have no doubt I am mispronouncing all the French names. Sorry, French people.

I put the donation suggestion at $20, since that'll be enough to let me buy lunch, but like I said, you can have it for free, or donate less. I do really need the money, but, being poor, I understand that other people are probably also poor. So there's literally no pressure to donate. I hope you enjoy reading this if you download it, or at least don't regret doing so.

This short story is 9,051 words long, not including the title. The audiobook is 50 minutes.

For the text book, animage description has been included for the revamped illustration. Please keep that in any versions you share or create, for the sake of accessibility. Blind people also read books using text-to-speech software in 2023. If you're reading this in like, 2150, I'm sure you've figured out some cool stuff too.

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For posterity, I am a nonbinary, aroace lesbian werewolf otherkin, and I use it/its pronouns. Hello, future Queer people, or whatever word you use in 2150. Have a nice day.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, and it will happen before we get to 2150.