''Chéri-Bibi and Cécily'' (French: ''Chéri-Bibi et Cécily'') is a 1916

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime, horror, and detective fiction. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspe ...

by the French writer

Gaston Leroux Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux (; 6 May 186815 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'' (, 1909), which has been made int ...

. A

serial novel In literature, a serial is a printing or publishing format by which a single larger work, often a work of narrative fiction, is published in smaller, sequential instalments. The instalments are also known as ''numbers'', ''parts'', ''fascicul ...

, it was the second of four works featuring the character of Chéri-Bibi.

Synopsis

Having previously been wrongly convicted and sent to a

penal colony A penal colony or exile colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory. Although the term can be used to refer ...

and escaped, Chéri-Bibi and his fellow escapees are now in control of a ship and considering a career in

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

. A chance encounter with the

Marquis A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...

du Touchais, the unworthy husband of Cécily the woman he loves, alters his plans. He takes the place of the Marquis and returns to France to enjoy a new life there and seek revenge on the man responsible for his troubles.

Film adaptations

It was the inspiration for the 1931 American film '' The Phantom of Paris'', directed by John S. Robertson and starring John Gilbert as Chéri-Bibi, and the 1955 French-Italian film '' Chéri-Bibi'', directed by

Marcello Pagliero Marcello Pagliero (15 January 1907 – 18 October 1980) was an Italian film director, actor, and screenwriter. Pagliero was born in London and died in Paris. He is perhaps best known for his performance in the Roberto Rossellini film ''Rome, ...

and featuring Jean Richard in the title role.Soister & Nicolella p.123

References

Bibliography

* Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999. * Hubin, Allen J. ''Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography''. Garland Publishing, 1984. * Soister, John T. & Nicolella, Henry. ''Down from the Attic: Rare Thrillers of the Silent Era through the 1950s''. McFarland, 2016. 1916 French novels French mystery novels Novels by Gaston Leroux French novels adapted into films Novels set in Paris {{1910s-mystery-novel-stub