Comtesse de Cagliostro

<p>In the process of writing his memoirs, <a href="https://standardebooks.org/collections/arsene-lupin">Arsène Lupin</a> takes us back to his early twenties and his first love: Clarice d’Etigues. Although forbidden by her father to meet, that doesn’t stop Ralph d’Andresy—Lupin’s <i lang="fr">nom du jour</i>—from wooing Clarice. But when he finds evidence on the d’Etigues estate of a conspiracy to murder a woman, he cannot help but be drawn into the ensuing three-way race to a legendary treasure.</p> <p><i>Memoirs of Arsène Lupin</i> was originally published in France in 1924 under the name <i lang="fr">La Comtesse de Cagliostro</i>; this English translation was published the following year. <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/maurice-leblanc">Maurice Leblanc</a> was not the only author to call on the myth of Cagliostro as a framing device: both <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/j-w-von-goethe">Goethe</a> and <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/alexandre-dumas">Dumas</a> had written famous novels on the subject. This story showcases a Lupin who is growing into his abilities, and with the swings between outright confidence and self-doubt that would be expected of so comparatively young a protagonist.</p>