�mile Gaboriau (November 9, 1832 - September 28, 1873) was a French writer, novelist, journalist, and a pioneer of detective fiction. His first detective novel, Monsieur Lecoq 1869, which featured an amateur detective and a young police officer (Monsieur Lecoq), was a success and the Lecoq was the hero in Gaboriau's 3 later detective novels. The character of Lecoq was based on a real-life thief turned police officer, Eug�ne Fran�ois Vidocq (1775-1857), whose own memoirs, Les Vrais M�moires de Vidocq, mixed fiction ...
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�mile Gaboriau (November 9, 1832 - September 28, 1873) was a French writer, novelist, journalist, and a pioneer of detective fiction. His first detective novel, Monsieur Lecoq 1869, which featured an amateur detective and a young police officer (Monsieur Lecoq), was a success and the Lecoq was the hero in Gaboriau's 3 later detective novels. The character of Lecoq was based on a real-life thief turned police officer, Eug�ne Fran�ois Vidocq (1775-1857), whose own memoirs, Les Vrais M�moires de Vidocq, mixed fiction and fact. It may also have been influenced by the villainous Monsieur Lecoq, one of the main protagonists of F�val's Les Habits Noirs book series. Gaboriau was a pioneer and a great success in his time until Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes which diverted global attention from his Monsieur Lecoq. 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. Gaboriau died in Paris of pulmonary apoplexy.
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