Le manuscrit du Mystère de la chambre jaune ou la construction d’une énigme

Abstract

Found in 2008, the manuscript of Gaston Leroux’s Mystère de la chambre jaune contains some precious clues to disassemble the « machine » of this polar avant la lettre. Our purpose is to carry out a comparative study of this document and the first edition of the Mystère, which was published serially in 1907 in the literary supplement of the magazine L’Illustration. We will focus on the procedures which have structured the book as a detective story: a growing attention to the traces of the offence, the idea of the drama « in two phases », the insistence on the crime scenes turn out to be decisive in making Leroux become the first exponent of the « roman policier archaïque ». However, the writer will not resist to the temptation of plunging back into the clichés of the « family drama », as we can see in the final chapters of the feuilleton. Here, the artist considerably extends his manuscript anticipating at the same time the sequel of the yellow room affair: Le Parfum de la dame en noir.

Keywords

• Leroux (Gaston)
• Mystère de la chambre jaune (Le)
• crime fiction