ILLUSTRATED

HISTORY

OF THE FRENCH

"SAINT" NOVELS



From the late 1930s to the mid-1960s, French publisher
Arthème Fayard put out 78 French Saint books, only 37 of which were direct translations (or adaptations) of Leslie Charteris' novels. Not counting two "collaborations" with Fleming Lee, it means that a staggering 39 Saint novels were written directly in French, for the French market.

Old titles were kept in print, often reissued under new covers, while new ones were released, virtually on a quarterly basis during the 1950s and 1960s. These books were inexpensive and entertaining, and proved extremely popular with the French public. They sported distinctive, attractive color covers, and were easily found on the newstands, in railway stations, etc.

The purpose of this site is to present a history of the publication of these French
Saint works. In the absence of exhaustive published research, I had to rely for information mostly on the set of books available to me, as well as information provided by Ian Dickerson, Burl Barer, Jean-Luc Buard, Francis Valery, and Daniel Bodenheimer. I welcome any further corrections and additions submitted by the readers.

The history of the French
Saint books is little known. Most, if not all, French readers assume that there is no difference between the French pastiches, written by Madeleine Michel-Tyl, but credited to Leslie Charteris, and the originals. Even a series of reprints by the Livre de Poche publishing house smoothly proceeded to reissue originals and pastiches side by side, as if they were all the work of Leslie Charteris.

I know of no other case in which a foreign publisher was allowed to generate -- and market so successfully ! -- such a large number of pastiches -- a number greater, in fact, than that of the originals. Certainly, from both a quantitative and qualitative standpoint, the contributions of Edmond and Madeleine Michel-Tyl to the
Saint canon deserves much recognition.

Hence this site.

Jean-Marc Lofficier.


SITE CONTENTS

Article Page 1

Cover Gallery 1

Saint Detective Mag 1

About Nero Wolfe & The Toff & Fantômas

Article Page 2

Cover Gallery 2

Saint Detective Mag 2

About artist Regino Bernad

Article Page 3

Cover Gallery 3

Saint Detective Mag 3

The Saint on French Radio

Article Page 4

Cover Gallery 4

Saint Detective Mag 4

French-English Text Comparisons

Article Page 5

Cover Gallery 5

   

Bibliography

Cover Gallery 6

 

 German covers by Regino Bernad

 

Cover Gallery 7

 

 De Saint (Le Saint in Holland)
article by Rinus Daane
(4 PAGES)

The Saint Club has surplus copies of many of these French titles.
them to get the latest list of titles and prices


LAST UPDATE: 5 JUNE 2012: MORE BERNAD COVERS!

Website © 2012 Jean-Marc Lofficier. This article first appeared in a slightly different form in the Summer '94 issue of The Epistle.

Thanks to Ian Dickerson for Research Assist, Burl Barer and Jean-Luc Buard for additional information. Thanks to Jacques Baudou, Dan Bodenheimer, Marcel Bernadac, Jean-Pierre Bourgeron, Rinus Daane, Ian Dickerson, Rémi Dienis, Olivier Jaspart, Hillebrand Komrij, Charles Moreau, Gerard Nijmeijer, Patrick Verdant and Terry Morris for additional cover scans. Also thanks to Jacques Baudou and Dominique from the Bibliothèque des Littératures Policieres.




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