The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont

dated and dull...for a rainy week...

Obviously comparable to Holmes but much closer to a fallible Poirot. Entertaining because of his failings, Valmont becomes human. Enjoyable.

Easy to read short stories but very OTT. Quite dated.

This book is famous as being one of the earliest collection of detective stories and likely heavily influenced Agatha Christie when she created Hercule Poirot. Valmont certainly seems a lot like Poirot, with his constant misunderstandings of English customs, his vanities, his European pride, etc. Valmont, though, is less all-knowing and all-powerful: although the book is called THE TRIUMPHS OF EUGENE VALMONT in a good percentage of these stories Valmont actually fails, or basically fails. That's a cunning little trick: it humanizes Valmont in a way we never really get with Poirot (I'm not a big Poirot fan), makes him much more likable, I think.TRIUMPHS is an early collection of short stories written much in the mold of Sherlock Holmes. Like the Holmes stories, some of these are resolute pure detective tales, while others are really thrillers or pulpy melodramas with a detective. Looking over them, my favorite by far was "The Clue of the Silver Spoons", a straightforward detective tale that plays on a paradox right out of Chesterton. Also reasonably good is "The Ghost with the Club Foot", which is pulpy and melodramatic as all get-out but manages to work enough detection in to be satisfying -- Valmont's ultimate solution here is very nice indeed.The rest range in quality, mostly tending toward the pulpy and routine. Like a lot of books once in the public domain that are now becoming available through ebooks, I don't know if I would spend a great time tracking this thing down, but it has it's moments and hardcore fans of the genre will probably enjoy seeing one of it's forefathers in action.

OK , but not my favorite. Many short stories.