Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (6 May 1868 – 15 April 1927) was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.
In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, 1910), which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, such as the 1925 film starring Lon Chaney; and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical.
Biography
Gaston Leroux was born in Paris in 1868. He went to school in Normandy and studied law in Paris, graduating in 1889. He inherited millions of francs and lived wildly until he nearly reached bankruptcy. Then in 1890, he began working as a court reporter and theater critic for L'Écho de Paris. His most important journalism came when he began working as an international correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Matin. In 1905 he was present at and covered the Russian Revolution.
Another case he was present at involved the investigation and deep coverage[clarification needed] of the former Paris Opera (presently housing the Paris Ballet). The basement contained a cell that held prisoners of the Paris Commune.
He suddenly left journalism in 1907, and began writing fiction. In 1909, he and Arthur Bernède formed their own film company, Société des Cinéromans to simultaneously publish novels and turn them into films. He first wrote a mystery novel entitled Le mystère de la chambre jaune (1908; The Mystery of the Yellow Room), starring the amateur detective Joseph Rouletabille. Leroux's contribution to French detective fiction is considered a parallel to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's in the United Kingdom and Edgar Allan Poe's in the United States.
Leroux died in Nice, France on 15 April 1927, of a urinary tract infection.
Novels
The Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille
Le mystère de la chambre jaune (The Mystery of the Yellow Room, 1907)
Le parfum de la dame en noir (The Perfume of the Lady in Black, 1908)
Rouletabille chez le Tsar (The Secret of the Night, 1913)
Rouletabille à la guerre (1914) consisting of
Le château noir
Les étranges noces de Rouletabille
Rouletabille chez Krupp (1917)
Le crime de Rouletabille (1921)
Rouletabille chez les Bohémiens (1922)
The Mystery of William Shakespeare.
Other novels
Le petit marchand de romme de terre frites (1897)
Un homme dans la nuit (1897)
Les trois souhaits (1902)
Une petite tête (1902)
La double vie de Théophraste Longuet (1903)
Le roi mystère (1908)
L'homme qui a vu le diable (1908)
Le lys (1909)
Le fauteuil hanté (1909)
La reine de Sabbat (1910)
Le fantôme de l'Opéra (The Phantom of the Opera, 1910)
Balaoo (Balaoo, 1911)
Le dîner des bustes (1911)
La hache d'or (1912)
L' épouse du soleil (1912)
Première aventures de chéri-Bibi (1913)
La colonne infernale (1916)
Confitou (1916)
L' homme qui revient de loin (1916)
Le capitaine Hyx - La bataille invisible (1917)
Le coeur cambriolé (1920)
Le sept de trèfle (1921)
La poupée sanglante - La machine à assassiner (1923)
Le Noël du petit Vincent-Vincent (1924)
Not'olympe (1924)
Les ténébreuses: La fin d'un monde & du sang sur la Néva (1924)
Hardis-Gras ou le fils des trois pères (1924)
La coquette punie ou la farouche aventure (1924)
La femme au collier de velours (1924)
La mansarde en or (1925)
Les Mohicans de Babel (1926)
Les chasseurs de danses (1927)
Mister Flow (1927)
Pouloulou (1990, posthumous)
Jacques Heath Futrelle (April 9, 1875 - April 15, 1912) was an American journalist and mystery writer. He is best known for writing short detective stories featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, also known as "The Thinking Machine" for his application of logic to any and all situations.
Career
Futrelle, who was born in Pike County, Georgia, worked for the Atlanta Journal, where he began their sports section; the New York Herald; the Boston Post; and the Boston American, where, in 1905, his Thinking Machine character first appeared in a serialized version of "The Problem of Cell 13." In 1895, he married fellow writer Lily May Peel, with whom he had two children, Virginia and Jacques "John" Jr.
Futrelle left the Boston American in 1906 to focus his attention on writing novels. He had a house built in Scituate, Massachusetts, which he called "Stepping Stones," and spent most of his time there until his death in 1912.
Returning from Europe aboard the RMS Titanic, Futrelle, a first-cabin passenger, refused to board a lifeboat insisting his wife board instead. His wife remembered the last she saw of him, he was smoking a cigarette with John J. Astor. He perished in the Atlantic.
Futrelle's last work, "My Lady's Garter," was published posthumously later in 1912. His wife inscribed in the book, "To the heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate this my husband's book" under a photo of her late husband. On 29 July 1912 his mother, Linnie Futrelle, died in her Georgia home; her death was attributed to grief over her son's death.
Futrelle is used as the protagonist in The Titanic Murders, a novel about two murders aboard the Titanic, by Max Allan Collins.
Selected works
Novels
The Chase of the Golden Plate (1906)
The Simple Case of Susan (1908)
The Diamond Master (1909 - later adapted into the film serials The Diamond Queen and The Diamond Master)
Elusive Isabel (1909)
The High Hand (1911)
My Lady's Garter (1912)
Blind Man's Bluff (1914)
Short story collections
The Thinking Machine (1907), reprinted as The Problem of Cell 13 (1918)
The Flaming Phantom
The Great Auto Mystery
The Man Who Was Lost
The Mystery of a Studio
The Problem of Cell 13
The Ralston Bank Burglary
The Scarlet Thread
The Thinking Machine on the Case (1908), UK title The Professor on the Case
Stories
"The Problem of Cell 13" (1905)
"The House That Was" (a literary experiment with his wife, in the which The Thinking Machine provided a rational solution to the seemingly impossible and supernatural events of a ghost story written by May)
"The Phantom Motor"
Various other short stories (see Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen for more)
References
"Futrelle Refused to Enter Lifeboat". The New York Times. 19 April 1912.
"Futrelle's Mother is Dead". The New York Times. 30 July 1912.
"Jacques Futrelle". Contemporary Authors. 2000. Gale Group Databases. 1 August 2003 .
"Says Ismay Ruled in Titanic's Boats." The New York Times. 26 June 1915.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon is a 2009 American romantic comedy fantasy film based on Stephenie Meyer's 2006 novel New Moon. It is the second film in The Twilight Saga film series and is the sequel to 2008's Twilight, which is also based on Meyer's previous novel. Summit Entertainment greenlit the sequel in late November 2008, following the early success of Twilight Directed by Chris Weitz, the film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black.
Melissa Rosenberg, who handed in a draft of the film script during the opening weekend of Twilight, returned as screenwriter for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Filming began in Vancouver in late March 2009, and in Montepulciano, Italy in late May 2009.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon was released on November 20, 2009 in most countries, and set domestic box office records as the biggest midnight screening with $26.3 million. This led to the biggest single day domestic gross with $72.7 million. The film also opened with the third biggest domestic opening weekend ($142,839,137). The film was well received by fans, but critical reception was less favorable.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon has become the highest grossing film released by Summit Entertainment, and also the film with the widest independent release, playing in over 4,000 theaters in its theatrical run.
Plot
On her 18th birthday, Bella Swan wakes up from a dream in which she sees herself as an old woman. She expresses her distaste with growing older than her boyfriend Edward Cullen, a vampire who stopped aging physically at 17. Despite her lack of enthusiasm, Edward's adoptive family throws Bella a birthday party. While unwrapping a gift, Bella gets a paper cut, causing Edward's brother, Jasper, to become overwhelmed by her blood's scent and attempt to kill her. Realizing the danger that he and his family pose to Bella, Edward ends their relationship, and the Cullens leave Forks, Washington permanently.
Edward's departure leaves Bella heartbroken and depressed for months. However, when her father, Charlie, decides to send her to live with her mother in Florida, Bella agrees to spend time with her friends. After seeing a movie with Jessica, Bella sees a group of men on motorcycles. This reminds her of when Edward previously rescued her from an assault, and she sees his image warning her to stay away. Bella discovers that thrill-seeking activities evoke Edward's preserved image. She is also comforted by her deepening friendship with Jacob Black, a cheerful companion who eases her pain over losing Edward. When Jacob is unable to see Bella for weeks, she discovers that he is a werewolf, an age-old enemy of vampires. Jacob's pack members, the Quileutes, are on constant patrol for Victoria, a vampire searching to kill Bella due to the death of her mate, leaving Jacob little time to spend with her. Alone again, Bella returns to seeking thrill-inducing activities.
Through a series of miscommunications, Edward believes Bella has killed herself. Distraught over her supposed suicide, Edward flees to Italy to provoke the Volturi, a powerful vampire coven capable of killing him, by exposing himself in the sunlight. Alice, Edward's sister, and Bella rush to Italy to save Edward, and arrive just in time to stop him. However, the Volturi determine that Bella, a human who knows that vampires exist, must either be killed or transformed into a vampire herself. Alice stops them from killing her by sharing her premonition with Aro, a Volturi elder who is able to read thoughts, in which Bella has been transformed. Returning to Forks, Edward tells Bella that he always loved her and only left to protect her. She forgives him, and the Cullens vote in favor of Bella being transformed into a vampire, to Edward and Jacob's dismay. Edward gives Bella a choice: either she lets Alice change her after their graduation, or, if Bella agrees to marry him, he will change her himself. However, Jacob reminds Edward of the treaty the Cullens made with the Quileutes: they will not attack each other, as long as the Cullens never bite a human.
Twilight is a 2008 romantic-fantasy film. It is the first film in The Twilight Saga film series, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and based on the novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer. It focuses on the development of a personal relationship between human teenager Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), and the subsequent efforts of Cullen and his family to keep Swan safe from a separate group of hostile vampires.
The project was in development for approximately three years at Paramount Pictures, during which time a screen adaptation which differed significantly from the novel was written. Summit Entertainment acquired the rights to the novel after three years of the project's stagnant development. Melissa Rosenberg wrote a new adaptation of the novel shortly before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and sought to be faithful to the novel's storyline. Principal photography took 44 days, and completed on May 2, 2008. The film was primarily shot in Washington and Oregon in early 2008.
Twilight was released in theaters on November 21, 2008, and grossed US$35.7 million on its opening day. The film has grossed US$384,997,808 in worldwide box office and, as of February 2010, $186,347,713 in North American DVD sales. It is also the film with the most DVDs sold in 2009, selling a total of 10,233,407 units that year. The soundtrack was released on November 4, 2008. New Moon and Eclipse, the next two books in the series, were produced as films the following year.
Plot
Seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan moves to Forks, a small town near Washington state's rugged coast, to live with her father, Charlie, after her mother remarries to a minor league baseball player. She is quickly befriended by many students at her new high school, but she is intrigued by the mysterious and aloof Cullen siblings. Bella sits next to Edward Cullen in biology class on her first day of school; he appears to be disgusted by her, much to Bella's confusion. A few days later, Bella is nearly struck by a van in the school parking lot. Edward inexplicably moves from some feet away and stops the vehicle with his hand. He later refuses to explain this act to Bella and warns her against befriending him.
After much research, Bella eventually discovers that Edward is a vampire, though he only consumes animal blood. The pair fall in love and Edward introduces Bella to his vampire family, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie. Soon after, three nomadic vampires—James, Victoria, and Laurent—arrive. James, a tracker vampire, is intrigued by Edward's protectiveness over a human and wants to hunt Bella for sport. Edward and his family risk their lives to protect her, but James tracks Bella to Phoenix where she is hiding and lures her into a trap by claiming he is holding her mother hostage. James attacks Bella and bites her wrist, but Edward, along with the other Cullen family members, arrives before he can kill her. James is destroyed, and Edward sucks James's venom from Bella's wrist, preventing her from becoming a vampire. A severely injured Bella is taken to a hospital. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their school prom. While there, Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses. The film ends with Victoria secretly watching the pair dancing, plotting revenge for her lover James' murder.
Henri Désiré Landru (born April 12, 1869 in Paris, France – executed February 25, 1922 in Versailles, France) was a French serial killer and real-life Bluebeard. Early life Landru was born in Paris. After leaving school, he spent four years in the French Army from 1887 – 1891. After he was discharged from service, he proceeded to have a sexual relationship with his cousin. She bore him a daughter, although Landru did not marry her; he married another woman two years later and had four children. He was shortly swindled out of money by a fraudulent employer. He turned to fraud himself, operating scams that usually involved swindling elderly widows. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment in 1900 after being arrested and found guilty of fraud, the first of several such convictions. By 1914, Landru was estranged from his wife and working as a second-hand furniture dealer. Murders Landru began to put advertisements in the lonely hearts sections in Paris newspapers, usually along the lines of "Widower with two children, aged 43, with comfortable income, serious and moving in good society, desires to meet widow with a view to matrimony." With World War I underway, many men were being killed in the trenches, leaving plenty of widows upon whom Landru could prey. Landru would seduce the women who came to his Parisian villa and, after he was given access to their assets, he would kill them — possibly by strangulation or stabbing — and burn their dismembered bodies in his oven. Between 1914 and 1918, Landru claimed 11 victims: 10 women plus the teenaged son of one of his victims. With no bodies, the victims were just listed as missing, and it was virtually impossible for the police to know what had happened to them as Landru used a wide variety of aliases in his schemes. His aliases were so numerous that he had to keep a ledger listing all the women with whom he corresponded and which particular identity he used for each woman. In 1919, the sister of one of Landru's victims, Madame Buisson, attempted to track down her missing sibling. She did not know Landru's real name but she knew his appearance and where he lived, and she eventually persuaded the police to arrest him. Originally, Landru was charged only with embezzlement. He refused to talk to police, and with no bodies (police dug up his garden, but with no results), there was seemingly not enough evidence to charge him with murder. However, policemen did eventually find various bits of paperwork that listed the missing women, including Madame Buisson, and combining those with other documents, they finally built up enough evidence to charge him with murder. Trial and execution Landru stood trial on 11 counts of murder in November 1921. He was convicted on all counts, sentenced to death, and guillotined three months later in Versailles. Forty years later, there was a rumour that the daughter of Landru's lawyer Vincent de Moro-Giafferi found a picture Landru had drawn while awaiting execution, and on the back of it he had apparently written, "I did it. I burned their bodies in my kitchen stove." In popular culture Landru was the inspiration for Charlie Chaplin's film Monsieur Verdoux (1947). The original story was written by Orson Welles, who originally wanted to direct the film with Chaplin in the title role. However, since Chaplin did not like to be directed by anyone but himself, Chaplin bought the story from Welles. Chaplin then wrote, directed, and starred in Monsieur Verdoux himself. The 1960 film, Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons, starred George Sanders as Landru. The 1962 film Landru, directed by Claude Chabrol, was inspired by the murders. In the 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "The New Exhibit," a wax figure of Landru plays an important role. The case also featured in one of the episodes of the 1976 BBC series Second Verdict. A 2005 French movie named Désiré Landru is another adaptation of this story. In 2001, the French satirical journalist Frédéric Pagès, writing under the pseudonym Jean-Baptiste Botul, published a book entitled Landru: Precursor of Feminism (Landru, Precurseur du Feminisme: La Correspondance Inedite, 1919-1922). Accounts in English include Dennis Barden's The Ladykiller: The Life of Landru, the French Bluebeard [1] and William Bolitho's Murder for Profit. [2] Henri Désiré Landru's severed head is on display at the Museum of Death in Hollywood, California.[3] References 1.^ London: Peter Davies, c, 1972 2.^ New York: Harper and Brothers, 1926, Chapter five: The Poetry of Desire Landru. 3.^ http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dead29-2009oct29,0,71119.story
