Author Description

The Triumphs of Eugene Valmont (1906) brings together tales of the multifarious exploits of Robert Barr's elegant and cunning sleuth, Valmont, a brilliantly ironic parody of Sherlock Holmes. Exhibiting the crucial combination of realism and imagination that characterizes the finest crime writing, the stories exude playfulness and blend mystery and quasi-Gothic thrills with humorous detours and romantic adventure. A notable figure in 1890s literary London and a friend of Conan Doyle, Barr was acutely aware of style as a form of statement and the stories are full of literary effects, commentary on the detective mystery genre, and Valmont's disparaging reflections on English values. Robert Barr (September 16, 1849 - October 21, 1912) was a British-Canadian novelist, born at Glasgow, Scotland. He immigrated to Upper Canada at age four and was educated in Toronto at Toronto Normal School. Barr was headmaster of the Central School, Windsor, Ontario, and in 1876 became a member of the staff of the Detroit Free Press, in which his contributions appeared under the signature "Luke Sharp." In 1881 he removed to London, to establish there the weekly English edition of the Free Press, and in 1892 founded The Idler magazine, choosing Jerome K. Jerome as his collaborator (wanting, as Jerome said, "a popular name"). He retired from the coeditorship in 1895.