Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Shadowed by Jeanne

The sync fairies remind me from time to time, by a string of coincidences too suspicious to ignore, that Joan of Arc is still around and still important.


This is from my adult student's English magazine: a summary of an Arsène Lupin story ("La mort qui rôde," Englished as "Shadowed by Death") featuring a character named Jeanne Darcieux. From the standard English translation of the original:

Jeanne Darcieux tried to smile.

"Very well. But, as I wrote to Marceline, these are only a series of coincidences, of accidents. . . ."

"No, mademoiselle, no. One accident of this sort is allowable. . . . So are two . . . and even then! . . . But we have no right to suppose that the chapter of accidents, repeating the same act three times in such different and extraordinary circumstances, is a mere amusing coincidence. . . ."

1 comment:

No Longer Reading said...

That's good.

Looking up the name Arsene Lupin, Arsene comes from the Greek Arsenios, meaning "male, virile" (https://infogalactic.com/info/Arsenius_(name)). I would guess that Lupin is related to the Latin "lupinus", meaning wolflike. So, another connection to a wolf.

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