Tag Archives: Book Tropes

Honour Among Thieves

French Netflix poster of season 3 of the Lupin tv show
image via Variety

On October 5th, part three of the acclaimed Lupin series will finally air on Netflix. One of my favourite shows, Lupin is an adaptation of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc, a classic French story about a world-famous gentleman thief and master of disguise. (Heads up: the show is also in French, but since I’m pro-subtitles even for my native English, I don’t mind this.)

Lupin had me thinking about the allure of gentlemen thieves—criminals with hearts (and motives!) of gold—and I thought it’d be fun to feature media of similar noble crooks.

But first, let’s define the term. According to TV Tropes, a gentleman thief has “…roguish good looks coupled with a breeding and style that manifests as a suave and debonair manner. He’s usually a charmer, too—think James Bond without the government authorization. He steals for the challenge/pleasure of the job and generally avoids violence while restricting his targets to those who can afford the loss.”

While gentlemen thieves are usually male, that’s not always the case. No doubt, several examples of such thieves have jumped to mind, but first, let’s start with some real life representatives of this trope!

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The Joy of Predictability

As someone who is prone to thinking about books way too often, it is no surprise that recent bookish trends have been on my mind lately. Of course, VPL has a history of documenting these trends. For example, Alyssia has expertly described the rise of BookTok (TikToks focusing on books) and in particular, the popularity of sad books. Despite my admiration of both books and TikTok, this is one bookish trend I can not get behind. I take no joy in watching people sob over a heartwrenching book and I have zero desire myself to sob over a book.

This of course leads me to discuss “cottagecore”, another aesthetic that continues to be popular. This aesthetic focuses on the beauty of simple living and the wonders of nature. While the cottagecore aesthetic can apply to anything (books, houses, video games, etc.), I also find that it’s not quite exactly what I enjoy. While it is aesthetically nice to look at, I am too uninvested in being in nature to enjoy it. I am frankly too much of a city person to fully be immersed in the cottagecore aesthetic.

Thus, I am positing a new bookish trope that is criminally underrated: predictability. Of course, it is no secret that book lovers tend to abhor the cheesy and the predictable. What is the point of reading a 300 page novel if I can figure out within 20 pages how it well end? Well dear reader, that is the exact comfort in it! Why would I want to read through a character’s emotional and heartwrenching life story if I did not know that they would end up okay?

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