Émile Gaboriau
Émile Gaboriau (November 9, 1832 - September 28, 1873), was a French writer, novelist, and journalist, and a pioneer of modern detective fiction.
He was born in the small town of Saujon, Charente-Martime, son of Charles-Gabriel Gaboriau, a minor public official. The family moved in 1833 to Saint-Pierre d'Oleron and four years later to La Rochelle, where Émile's sister, Amélie, was born. After studies at a secondary school in Saumur, he entered the military service in 1851, serving in the Fifth Regiment as a second-class infantryman until the end of 1853. Perhaps following his father's wishes, he apprenticed himself to a notary. However, Gaboriau was more interested in writing, and he published a volume of poetry that went unnoticed. After settling in Paris in 1856, Gaboriau worked as a journalist, writing columns for the short-lived weekly journal La Vérité. He became a secretary to Paul Féval, and after publishing some novels and miscellaneous writings, found his real gift in L'Affaire Lerouge (1866). The book, which was Gaboriau's first detective novel, introduced an amateur detective. It also introduced a young policeman named Monsieur Lecoq, who was the hero in three of Gaboriau's later detective novels. Monsieur Lecoq was based on a real-life thief turned policeman, Eugène François Vidocq (1775-1857), whose memoirs, Les Vrais Mémoires de Vidocq, mixed fiction and fact. The book was published in the Pays and at once made his reputation. The story was produced on the stage in 1872.
A long series of novels dealing with the annals of the police court followed, and proved very popular. Among them are:
- Le Crime d'Orcival - (1867)
- Monsieur Lecoq - (1869)
- La Vie infernale - (1870)
- Les Esclaves de Paris - (1869)
- L'Argent des autres - (1874)
Gaboriau gained a huge following, but when Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, Monsieur Lecoq's international fame declined.
Gaboriau died in Paris of pulmonary apoplexy on 1873-09-28.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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