Rocambole is the creation of Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail

Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail

Pierre Alexis, Viscount of Ponson du Terrail was a French writer. He was a prolific novelist, producing in the space of twenty years some seventy-three volumes, and is best remembered today for his creation of the fictional character of Rocambole.-Biography:He was born in Montmaur .Ponson du...

, a 19th-century French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. Rocambole is a fictional adventurer. His importance to the genres of adventure novel

Adventure novel

The adventure novel is a genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme.-History:...

s and crime fiction

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

 cannot be overestimated, as he represents the transition from the old-fashioned Gothic novel to modern heroic fiction. The word rocambolesque has become common in French and other languages to label any kind of fantastic adventure.

Overview

Rocambole (rok-uhm-bohl) is introduced in the series as a highly resourceful adolescent, an orphan

Orphan

An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...

 adopted by the wily crone, Maman Fipart. He first assists the evil Andrea de Felipone, a.k.a. Sir Williams, in his fight against Andrea's half-brother, the Comte de Kergaz. A major protagonist in the battle is a courtesan with a heart of gold

Hooker with a heart of gold

The hooker with a heart of gold is a stock character in which a "fallen woman", usually a prostitute, is a kindly and internally wholesome person.-Characteristics:...

 and a fearless temper, Louise Charmet, a.k.a. Baccarat.

In the third novel of the series, Rocambole takes over and kills Sir Williams. But his evil schemes are again thwarted by Baccarat, and he ends up imprisoned in the hard labor camp of Toulon

Toulon

Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....

 (the same where Jean Valjean was imprisoned in Les Misérables

Les Misérables

Les Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...

.)

In the fourth novel, an older and wiser Rocambole, who has been pardoned, has become a do-gooder; however, the feuilleton

Feuilleton

Feuilleton was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, consisting chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle of the latest fashions, and epigrams, charades and other literary trifles...

 (installment) was not popular with the readers, and Ponson du Terrail rewrote a new version in which Rocambole escapes from Toulon, redeems himself and becomes a full-fledged hero.

The latter novels portray Rocambole as a fearless hero fighting a variety of dastardly villains such as the Thuggee

Thuggee

Thuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in South Asia and particularly in India.They are sometimes called Phansigar i.e...

, etc. He has become a veritable mastermind who has been to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and has gathered around him a coterie of equally talented assistants.

Rocambole anticipates characters such as A.J. Raffles, Arsène Lupin

Arsène Lupin

Arsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction / crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television such as Night Hood, stage play and comic book adaptations.- Overview :A...

, Fantômas

Fantômas

Fantômas is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre .One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appeared in a total of 32 volumes written by the two collaborators, then a subsequent 11...

, The Saint

Simon Templar

Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s...

, Doc Savage

Doc Savage

Doc Savage is a fictional character originally published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L...

, Judex

Judex

Judex is the title of a 1916 silent French movie serial concerning the adventures of Judex who is a pulp hero, similar to The Shadow, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède.-Concept:...

 and The Shadow.

In a final chapter to the sixth volume, Ponson du Terrail revealed that Rocambole really existed and was narrating his own exploits through him, making Rocambole perhaps the first metafictional hero of his kind.

Books

1. Les Drames de Paris (1857) (aka L’Héritage Mystérieux)
2. Le Club des Valets de Coeur (1858)
3. Les Exploits de Rocambole (1858–59)
4. Les Chevaliers du Clair de Lune (1860–62)
5. La Résurrection de Rocambole (1865–66) (this novel rewrites and supersedes 4 above)
6. Le Dernier Mot de Rocambole (1866–67)
7. Les Misères de Londres (1867–68)
8. Les Démolitions de Paris (1869)
9. La Corde du Pendu (1870, never completed)

By other writers

• by Contant Gueroult:
  1. Le Retour et la Fin de Rocambole (1875)
  2. Les Nouveaux Exploits de Rocambole (1880)

• by Jules Cardoze:
  1. Les Bâtards de Rocambole (1886)

• by Leite Bastos:
  1. As Maravilhas do Homem Pardo (18888) (Portuguese-language sequel to La Corde du Pendu.)

• by Frédéric Valade:
  1. Le Petit-Fils de Rocambole (1922)
  2. La Haine immortelle (1922)
  3. Le Testament de Rocambole (1931)
  4. Olivia contre Rocambole (1931)
  5. La Justice de Rocambole (1932)
  6. La Belle Olivia (1932)
  7. Les Larmes de Rocambole (1933)
  8. Le Châtiment d’Olivia (1933)

• by Michel Honaker:
  1. Rocambole et le Spectre de Kerloven (2002) (This series of novels crosses over Rocambole and Paul Féval's Les Habits Noirs
     Les Habits Noirs
     thumb|250px|Cover for a French edition of Les Habits Noirs.Les Habits Noirs is a book series written over a thirty-year period, comprising eleven novels, created by Paul Féval, père, a 19th-century French writer....
     
     .
  2. Rocambole et les Marionnettes de la Mort (2003) [Rocambole and the Puppets of Death]
  3. Rocambole et le Pacte de Sang (2004) [Rocambole and the Pact of Blood]
  4. Rocambole et le Diable de Montrouge (2005) [Rocambole and the Devil of Montrouge] (2005)
  5. Rocambole et la Sorcière du Marais (2005) [Rocambole and the Witch of the Marais] (2005)

Films

• Rocambole (Fr.; serial, B&W., 1914)
• Rocambole (Fr.; serial, B&W., 1924)
• Rocambole (Fr.; B&W., 1932)
• Rocambole (Mexico; B&W., 69 min., 1946)
• Rocambole (Fr.; B&W., 105 min., 1947)
• Rocambole (Fr.; col., 100 min., 1962)

External links

• The French Wold Newton Universe - Rocambole
• Ebooks gartuits search for the auteur Ponson du terrail