the labyrinth - chapter one
a/n: do you guys have any idea how hard it is to get my friends to beta for saltburn?
warnings: farleigh being farleigh, which includes underage drugs, drinking, cigarettes and sex 18+
fic summary: ariadne gavin and her childhood best friend turned enemy return to saltburn for the last time
Ariadne is twenty-one now, and can hardly recall the last civilized conversation she had with Farleigh Start while sober. Everything about him is grating. She can't even imagine how he used to be her best friend.
He bites his lip as he throws an arm around his girl-of-the-week, whose name has come and gone from Ariadne's mind so quickly it was like she'd never heard it at all. Alicia? Felicia? She doesn't know and doesn't care. She doesn't. And she absolutely cannot smell the mix of his citrus and sandalwood cologne - a signature scent that they had picked out together when they were twelve, and yes, hers was the matching, feminine version of the same collection - and the sharp tang of cigarettes. She is not looking at his hair and thinking about how he's using the wrong conditioner because it's frizzing, and probably not even wearing his durag since he's waking up in a different bed every morning.
She's not paying attention to any of that.
She sits comfortably on India's lap, laughing breathily at whatever joke the girl just made. She doesn't know and doesn't care, but India tightens her grip and presses a red lipstick print into her neck, she takes another hit off of her blunt and waits for Farleigh to fade away.
Ariadne and India aren't dating, but they are fucking. Poor replacements for the two boys at the table, but replacements nonetheless.
Besides, if Ariadne had learned one thing during her education, it was that boys got off on girls making out. She liked it personally, but she knew some girls did it just to catch Felix's eye. Their loss, Felix didn't find Ariadne hot so he found none of the girls she kissed hot either. India has yet to learn this lesson.
Felix is talking about how some nerd was his hero or something because of the flat tire on his bike, Ariadne doesn't know and certainly doesn't care when the nerd himself catches Felix's eye.
Ariadne takes one look at the man and knows that Felix is going to string the poor boy along for months without even realizing it. Or, maybe he did. Ariadne doesn't care. She doesn't care much about anything these days, and when she does, she takes another hit, another shot, another something until the world fades again.
When she's sober and has no homework, she remembers to care about Farleigh, so she makes sure those two states never occur at the same time.
Against her will, she notes the way Farleigh's jaw tightens when Oliver Whatshisface approaches the table. This must be Oliver "Thus" Quick from his tutoring sessions.
Ariadne snorts as Farleigh shifts in discomfort and sinks back again as the conversation turns to who Ollie is, what college he's in, and other shit she wouldn't even care about sober.
Her attention tunes back in when the shot chant begins.
"Jagerbombs!" She and Farleigh demand at the same time. She shoots him a look of annoyance.
Farleigh makes a low rumble in his throat that only she knows to watch for. "It's your round, man!"
"I should go to bed," Oliver mumbles, suddenly green.
Farleigh shakes his head and curls entrancingly, so much so that she almost forgets to pay attention to what he's saying. "No, no, no, no. You can't snake out of your round."
Oliver squirms in his seat. Something about him is offputting, now that Ariadne's finished her blunt and is coming down from the high. "I'm not," the boy mutters.
"It looks like you are." Farleigh laughs, but Ariadne knows he's not joking. She knows that the alarm bells in her head are going off in his, and even more so, she senses his competitive streak flaring up.
The table boos except Felix, who seems to sense Oliver's unease. Ariadne rolls her eyes. Ever the angel, their Felix.
He's going to get himself killed that way. It's unnatural to Ariadne that anyone could be as trusting as he is.
"Okay, okay." Oliver concedes. Maybe Ariadne's imagining the way he seems to sneer at Farleigh as he gets up.
Oliver manages to get to his feet and heads for the bar, and Ariadne's final assessment begins to click into place. This kid was a gold-digging little weasel, but probably too weak to do any real damage, except for Farleigh, who seemed to be pissed off by the dude's very existence.
"Farleigh," Felix scolds.
"What?" Farleigh fakes innocently. She sees the way his round eyes widen and his lips open just enough that even India's head falls onto her palm in adoration. There's no denying that Farleigh is pretty.
"Just cut him a break, mate." Felix pleads.
It's not going to work. Whenever Felix asked any of them to be nice to his strays, they always got meaner. Her and Venetia included.
For example, poor old Eddie last year.
"What?" Farleigh repeats lower.
He'd never liked receiving orders from the Cattons. When they were younger, she might have soothed him back down, but it was no use now. She couldn't even if she wanted to.
The crack had become a canyon, just like her dad had foretold.
"That round's gonna cost a fucking fortune." Felix continues.
"Pub rules, Felix." Farleigh grins.
Silently, she agrees, but she decides she can't be here anymore. Farleigh's pretty, white and fox-like smile, had very suddenly become too much for her.
"I'm off." She declares suddenly, sitting up. The group groans and complains good-naturedly, and she watches Farleigh stare at her with an intensity she had grown used to.
She sits in her car for twenty minutes, smoking a cigarette and trying to pretend every time she's with Farleigh she can't feel him in her skin when she hears a tap-tap-tapping on her passenger window.
The man himself, grinning his evil grin.
She can't help herself. She unlocks the car.
"There you are, pet! I looked out the window and I saw you hadn't even driven away! How weird is that, hm?" He teases in that tone which he only takes with people he can't stand. She'd never imagined she'd be on the receiving end of it.
She takes another long drag of her cigarette. "You used to hate when they called me that. You almost broke Felix's nose over it."
"Pass." Farleigh demands. She hands him the cigarette and he puffs it gently. "You gave a shit about me then too. Venetia called me a dog and you fucking bit her. At fourteen."
"I was a weird fucking kid," Ariadne mumbles.
"What the hell happened to us?" Farleigh asks. His long fingers twist a ring, which she deciphers as nerves. She hates that she knows that. Because she wonders, if they aren't friends, and they aren't lovers, why does she know him better than she knows herself? Why does she think about the little things he's done since they were children and worry about his health? Why does she make sure with a glance that he's eating well?
What the hell happened, indeed.
Ariadne knows exactly what happened to them. She had a crush on someone incapable of loving her back and took the lowest of all low roads in her envy. She doesn't say that. She just shrugs. "I dunno, Far. I really don't."
Farleigh leans across the console, palm resting on her cheek, and kisses her.
For a moment, Ariadne sinks deep into the feeling. How many years had she craved his affection? How many times had she let him ruin her life just for a chance of this? His soft, plush lips on hers, their foreheads pressed against each other, his hot, warm tongue twirling with hers. It felt beautiful and religious and, above all else, right. Just fucking right. Like this was how it ought to have been all along.
But then she realizes that this isn't what she was waiting for. She pulls away, gasping.
"My dorm or yours?" Farleigh asks breathlessly.
Ariadne wants to cry. She doesn't want this. She wants him, but she wants all of him, not a night like he gave everyone else.
She shakes her head. "I can't. I can't, I-"
She scrambles for anything to say that isn't "I like you, and I've had a crush on you since we were seven."
"You can't cheat on Alicia." She settles on instead.
"I don't give a fuck about Alicia!" He huffs.
Ariadne sobs. "I know! I know and that's the problem, Far. You used to be so sweet. You used to love everyone and you would never hurt someone's feelings without a reason and I don't even recognize you anymore!"
Farleigh stares at her. "Is that why you stopped talking to me? Because I'm too mean, because newsflash, princess, you're not exactly all sunshine anymore either."
"I stopped talking to you because of Arabella Vaillancourt." She whispers before she can stop herself. Why would she say that? He's going to know exactly how immature and obsessed she is and-
Farleigh scrunches his nose. "Who?"
Ariadne bangs her head against her steering wheel. "You don't even remember. You shattered my worldview and it was so insignificant you don't even remember."
"I-"
"Get out of my car, Farleigh," she begs. She wishes it had venom in it. She wishes she had yelled or something. Instead, all there is left is exhaustion and heartbreak.
He doesn't argue, and that hurts even worse.
She doesn't speak to him again until graduation. Steals glances at him sometimes, after he breaks things off with Alicia, and shares twin looks of annoyance every time Oliver does something irrevocably stupid, but never words.
She misses it. Even arguing with him had been better than not having him at all.
Until, suddenly, on the last day of term as she packs her things, Farleigh bursts through her door.
"Felix invited Oliver to Saltburn." He says like he's announcing a death.
Ariadne groans. "You've got to be fucking kidding me, Start."
"He's worse than Eddie from last year," Farleigh complains, throwing himself on her bed like they're fourteen again.
Ariadne nods. "Like, times ten. Am I the only one who can tell that this kid is fucking insane?" She whines.
"No," Farleigh hums competitively. "I know it too."
"Shut up, this isn't about you," Ariadne commands.
Farleigh holds his hands up in the air in surrender before he gets distracted by her bookshelf.
"Is this that old copy of Pride and Prejudice I got you?" He asks.
Ariadne shrugs. "Yeah. I wasn't going to get rid of a perfectly good novel just because I was mad at you."
"Was?" Farleigh grins.
Ariadne sighs. "Am." She amends. "You are a mistake and a scourge on the earth."
"And," he licks his lips, "The first friend you ever had."
She doesn't dignify that with a response and sets about finishing packing her clothes.
"Do you ever miss Bel-Air?" He asks suddenly.
Ariadne closes her eyes and can almost smell the sea salt of Malibu Beach. Remember the small staff of her home rather than the expansive staff at Saltburn.
She also remembers her and Farleigh's mothers at the mini-bar drinking themselves into oblivion and her father yelling at her to be perfect and finds she even misses that too.
"Every day. You?"
"Yeah," Farleigh says, suddenly sounding very small.
He perks back up. "Arabella Vaillancourt was the girl I lost my virginity to at prep school," he declares proudly.
Ariadne bites back a smile. "Good. Now prove to me you've changed since then."
Farleigh practically skips out of her room.
Later that day comes the six-hour night drive back up to Lowick from school. Ariadne cherishes the drive. It's the only time she spends with the Cattons now when all of them are sober.
Venetia stretches her arms, as catlike as ever. "So, what're we going to do about the O-word?"
"Orgasm?" Ariadne guesses.
Venetia smirks. "Maybe for Felix, but I meant Oliver."
"Dad didn't get you the flat in town so you could be a bloody spy, y'know." Felix huffs.
Venetia pats his cheek. "But he never said it wasn't."
"I don't want to fuck him," Felix says sternly.
Venetia raises an eyebrow. "Then why the fuck did you invite him?"
Ariadne sighs. "I wish I fucking knew, Vee."
"Ari and I agree; the dude's a fucking creep," Farleigh says.
"I swear to god I saw him watching me change. And did you know he almost fucked Annabelle but he kept bringing you up and that's why she stopped hanging around?" Ariadne complains.
"Wait, what was that?" Farleigh raises a hand.
Ariadne doubles back. "He tried to fuck Annabelle. Little weasel-freak."
"I think he meant the part about Ollie watching you change, Pet, which I don't believe. He's gone through a lot. Did you know his dad died last week, right before exams?" Felix sighs sadly.
Ariadne rolls her eyes. "He's such a little snake I wouldn't be shocked if that was a lie. And I'm not kidding, I straight up saw him outside my bedroom window just staring at me."
"God, he deserves a good fuckin' punch, maybe it'll set him straight," Farleigh mutters. He's seething, and for once, Ariadne can't even tell why.
"Well, clearly not straight if he's hanging off Fi like you guys say," Venetia snickers.
They all laugh - even Felix- and the topic shifts to god-knows-what.
Ariadne scoots closer to Farleigh in the backseat, feeling like she did that first summer on this road.
On the first day at Saltburn, while they await Oliver-the-Golddigger's arrival, Ariadne holes herself up in her room to avoid running across the Weasel.
Ariadne only ever reads Pride and Prejudice at Saltburn. It is her yearly reminder that love is fickle and takes time and sometimes cannot be seized at all.
On her eighteenth birthday, she had gone with Vee to get the words "from admiration to love; from love to matrimony," along her wrist. Once, she had told Felix that the only people who understood her were him and Elizabeth Bennett.
A knock at her door has her scrambling up. "Dinner's in an hour."
She's shocked Farleigh came for her instead of Vee or Felix.
Farleigh leans against her doorway, already in his slacks and button-down, though his bowtie is disastrously loose.
"How'd you know to get me?" She hums, opening her closet.
Farleigh shrugs. "You always read when we're here. Figured you might lose track of time."
Sometimes she thinks that he must observe her as much as she does him.
"Is this a part of me telling you to show me you've grown?" She asks, pulling her tee-shirt off to slip on the black, floor-length dress for dinner.
Farleigh whistles lowly. "Maybe. Or maybe I thought it was unfair that Oliver saw you naked before me."
"You jealous bitch." She snarks. "Zip me?"
He strides across the room towards her - it doesn't take long, because he's always been much taller than everyone except Felix - and slowly zips her dress up. His fingers barely ghost over her skin and her whole body shudders.
"You look good, Gavin." He mutters.
She turns and fixes his bowtie. "Back at ya, Start. Y'know, you'd be gorgeous if you could keep your mouth shut."
"How will I lick Uncle James' boot, then?" He hums sarcastically.
She kisses his cheek. "You're improving, you should know." She pats his chest.
She walks past, but she knows he pumps his fist in the air from the sound of his clothes rustling.
Loveable damn idiot.
Dinner is an absolute bore. Elspeth gushes over Oliver, Poor Dear Pamela retells her sob story, and Venetia takes two bites of her dinner. Oliver is wearing one of Felix's suits. she can tell, the arms are too long, and the cufflinks are some old ones he had gotten for his sixteenth birthday.
She says nothing but shares a long glance with Farleigh. He rolls his eyes and she snickers.
Farleigh follows her up to her room. She was expecting it, to be fair.
He undoes his tie and throws it across the room before releasing the top few buttons of his shirt.
"Zipper." She reminds him. His lithe fingers are skimming her waist and her back, all the way up to the top of the zipper, and then back down again.
She throws on a tee shirt. "Go grab some house clothes from your room." She huffs. "Your hair has been bothering me since Oxford 'cause you've been doing it alone, I've got to do something about it."
He exits and returns in a tee shirt of his own and a pair of Fila sweatpants.
Ariadne missed this more than anything. The feeling of churning her fingers through his scalp. The way he simply relaxed into her palms. She loves it. She loves him.
Oh. Oh fuck. She loves him. She doesn't just like him, or have a crush, or want to fuck him out of her system, as she had been insisting since she was a kid. She loves him.
She breathes deeply, finishes his hair, and wraps it up in his durag. "When your curls pop back tomorrow, you'd better thank me."
He snorts. "Yeah, sure. Night, Ari."
"Night, Far." She watches him close the door to his room across the hall and scrambles over to Venetia's, swinging the door open.
Venetia is on the bed, painting her nails. "What?"
"I'm in love with Farleigh," Ariadne whispers, still shocked.
"Sorry," Venetia said automatically.
Ariadne slows her breathing to be heard. "I'm-"
"No, I heard you." Venetia interrupts. "I just think it's unfortunate."
Ariadne lays down beside Venetia and allows the girl to pet her hair. "What am I going to do?"
"Seduce him," Venetia says simply, petting and swirling a curl off Ariadne's head.
Ariadne groans, rolling away. "It's not that simple and you know it! I don't just want to fuck him, if I did I would have said so."
"So what, you want to marry him? Because I'll tell you now that's a bad idea." Venetia hums.
"No! Well, maybe? I don't know!" Ariadne whines
Venetia pins Ariadne to the bed. "Do not do anything stupid until you've decided what you want from him. I mean it, Pet."
Ariadne shrugs her off. "I'm not going to hurt him." She mumbles.
Venetia giggles. "Wasn't him I was worried about, Newmo."
Ariadne climbs off the bed, flipping off Venetia. "I'm going to sleep. Night, Vee."
"G'night Pet!" Venetia grins.
When the morning rolls around, Ariadne stretches out of bed at first light, throwing on a pair of house shorts and a cropped tank top. She would never have the old money urge to waste her nice silken robes on a simple breakfast at Saltburn.
She waves hello to Miss Portia, the maid, as she makes her way down.
"Morn' Liam, Joshie." She grins.
The two footmen wave to her. "Good Morning, Miss Ariadne."
Liam clears his throat. "Your boyfriend's already at breakfast."
"Oh fuck off, you nosy little-" Ariadne starts, but silences before Felix can pass them.
"Enjoy Breakfast, Ma'am," Liam grins.
Ariadne scrunches her nose and blows a raspberry at him before she makes her way to the table.
Farleigh's curls look decidedly better, she notices smugly, and she knows he's aware. He's already holding a cup of coffee and is probably the only one in the house who takes coffee instead of tea beside her.
"G'morning, guys." She hums. Everyone gives her similarly apathetic greetings. Felix looks like he fell out of bed.
She's halfway through her scrambled eggs when Oliver makes his way down the stairs. "Morning."
She waves, zoning out. Weasel.
"You sleep well, mate?" Felix asks, leaning a little over the table to look at Oliver closely. From an angle where she knows at least Farleigh and Felix can see her, she pokes her cheek with her tongue and pokes her finger in the air, mimicking a blowjob. Farleigh snorts so hard that coffee almost shoots out of his nose.
"Uh, yeah," Oliver mumbles. He's so mumble-y. It's grating.
"Hey, Oliver, have some breakfast." Felix coaxes.
Ariadne looks at Farleigh and rolls her eyes hard. She watches him smirk and feels a flutter of pride at the effect.
Duncan places Felix's boiled eggs on the side of his breakfast platter and retreats quickly.
Ariadne raises a hand and awkwardly points to her coffee cup, and a maid - Amelia, she thinks, the nice ginger one - pours her a new cup and then places the appropriate amount of creamer in it.
Ariadne silently mouths thank you and shakes her hands in a prayer-like stance. Amelia blushes and disappears from the room as if she were never there at all.
"Can I have a full English breakfast too, please?" Oliver asks quietly.
Ariadne looks at the table housing the food, and then to Farleigh, and then at Oliver the Weasel, and then to Farleigh again. She watches his eyes follow the same path and dip down to the magazine in his lap to keep from laughing again.
"Breakfast is on the side, darling," Elspeth says helpfully. "Just help yourself."
"How would you like your eggs?" Duncan asks, returning.
"It’s fine. I can get them." Oliver stammers. She rolls her eyes. Didn't he just see Felix's eggs delivered onto the plate?
"Not the eggs. The eggs are made for you." Farleigh corrects.
Felix gives him a sharp look, but in Farleigh's defence, he wasn't even being mean that time.
"Exactly. And everything else is on the side." Auntie Elspeth finishes.
"Fried over easy, please," Oliver says queasily.
"Ollie, we were just talking about the Shelley biography." Felix interjects, sweeping in to rescue the weasel.
Ariadne was sure they were, but she surely wasn't paying the conversation much mind. Until Oliver's arrival, she had been at peace, shockingly enough.
"Shelley who? Shelley, Belinda’s sister Shelley?" Poor, dear, idiot Pamela asks. Ariadne looks at Oliver. Pamela was Oliver's best future. A leech and an idiot who couldn't help but overstay their welcome.
"Oh, Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poet. The Romantic poet." Sir James explains as though speaking to a child.
"Oh." Pamela says simply because she is simple.
"Do you know the story about Shelley’s doppelgänger?" Venetia hums, hidden eagerness just below the surface of her tone.
Ariadne rolls her eyes. She couldn't count the amount of times Venetia had brought this up since she'd learned it.
Sir James, clearly sensing his daughter's nefarious tone, looks at her warily. "His doppelgänger?"
"Mmm. Shelley’s housekeeper was cleaning one of the rooms when Shelley walked past the window and waved at her. So, she waved back before she realized that Shelley was in Italy. And she was on the top floor of the house." Venetia had always had the perfect voice for telling a scary story.
"Oh, Vee. Stop, stop, stop. I won’t sleep." Felix balls up his fists and covers his ears.
Felix had always been a bit of a wimp, though Ariadne meant it in only the most loving of ways. Over countless summers they had held bonfires and told scary stories, and without fail, every time they did, All of them had to sleep in Felix's room because he was too scared to go to sleep. Ariadne is never annoyed by it though. It's a reminder of how sweet and pure their dear Felix is.
It was a stark contrast to Venetia, their resident investor in the macabre and overall gloomy and grotesque.
"A few hours later," Venetia continued, undeterred, "he drowned."
"Oh! Oh, that’s just given me goosebumps. Look, Pamela." Elspeth says dramatically.
"Oh, no." Pamela sighs in the same dull tone she says everything else.
"Look, Fi, the only important thing about Shelley was that he was married to the mother of science fiction." Ariadne comforts.
"I heard he fucked his sister, so there's that too," Farleigh adds helpfully.
Ariadne snorts, and so does Venetia.
"Oh, for God’s sake!" Sir James chides.
The weasel pokes his evil little head up. "I think that was Byron."
"Fucking English majors." She mouths to Farleigh. He gives a slight smile and nods.
Pamela and Elspeth talk nonsense about people Ariadne doesn't care about, so she reaches over the table, snatches Felix's apple from his plate, and bites in.
"What the hell, pet?" Felix whines.
Ariadne rolls her eyes. "You don't even like apples that much!"
Duncan delivers the eggs to Oliver's plate. "Thank you so much," he says, big blue eyes darting around like a frightened animal. then, the eyes peer down, and Oliver grimaces at the eggs.
"Is everything okay, Ollie?" Felix asks, that sweet, tentative sound in his voice that, when directed at the right person, could make you spill your deepest secrets and greatest fears.
The way he calls him Ollie, the way the Cattons always take to nicknames for their pets, makes her jaw tick. It's such an odd but effective way to claim possession over someone, and it didn't even occur to them that they were doing it.
"Er, ‘course, yeah. It’s just. Runny eggs. I get a bit sick from them."
Ariadne can't resist the urge. she whistles, quietly. Duncan is going to be pissed. The Cattons, especially Elspeth, will be horrendously embarrassed. The whole kitchen staff will have their asses handed to them.
"Sorry." He says as Duncan clears his plate of eggs, and again when Duncan leaves for more.
Farleigh smirks into his magazine. "Well, I'm goin' up to my room." He declares.
Venetia nods. "I'd like to head back to sleep an hour more."
Ariadne snorts. "I'm sure you can show Oliver to the pool by yourself, right Fi?" She grins wickedly, making a good show of yawning.
Farleigh waits in the doorway for her, and she flicks him in the chest as she passed him. He sets to follow her, undeterred. "Later, losers." She hums as she swings out.
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Ya know, I thought being a Faction Paradox fan meant it could be hard to find books.
But the things I'm finding while looking up Arsène Lupin books? Which are public domain, with some very rare, very expensive first editions from 1908-onward still floating around?
hoooooooo boy, some of the literal scams I've come across...
... First, there's this monstrosity.
first, you know something is up already when you see the cover:
(functional ID: ) The book itself is yellow, and the entire "cover" is just a medium-sized, plain white rectangle with plain text that reads "Arsene Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes (1910)". The only bit of color outside the yellow background is a tiny rectangle at the bottom of the white section, that has a simple red rose in it, and at the bottom on the yellow portion, it says Maurice Leblanc and Georgie Morehead; they are the author and english translators respectively.
Not only is this cover incredibly ugly and boring....
They didn't even put the accent on the è in Arsène !
Now, granted, I still don't know the key-combination needed to type out the è (on a regular keyboard, that is; mobile is much easier), but I also literally have a pinned tab leading to the Arsène Lupin wiki so I can literally just copy and paste his name whenever I need to, lol. I'm also not a supposedly wide-spread, professionnel publisher who specializes in reprinting rare books....
speaking of reprints!
This is their reprinting statement in the book.
[ID: plain text on a white background that reads:
"Printing Statement:
Due to the very old age and scarcity of this book, many of the pages may be hard to read due to the blurring of the original text, possible missing pages, missing text, dark backgrounds and other issues beyond our control.
Because this is such an important and rare work, we believe it is best to reproduce this book regardless of its original condition.
Thank you for your understanding.
end ID]
Now, all this wouldn't be so monstrous.......
Except this is what it looks like, reading the book.
[ID: A photo of the inside of the book, showing an unnumbered page which is mostly blank, with extremely large margins around the top, bottom, and sides of the relatively tiny "inner page" of text, which is originally labeled as page 171.
So, on top of admitting they have having zero quality control for their reprints, they're also not even selecting the correct page or printer size for their "rare reprints!" Literally so much paper is being wasted here.
"Arsène Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes" is 350 pages long in its original 1910 First Edition. That's with text that actually filled up the original page. If they'd at least chosen a smaller page size to fit their clear PDF-print, it would have been fine....ish.
But they didn't, so now this book is 350 pages long, and probably wasting half of those pages on pure blank paper.
Also, they're charging $30-$40 for these, "brand-new" on Amazon; going to their publishing website just leads any search to a generic Amazon page, full of the same extremely blatant ripoffs, including "leather hardcovers" from a print of demand location they can't even be bothered to not use a stock photo that requires them to blur out three different titles on the spine for each different angle.
Oh, and the real kicker?
Here's the exact Archive.org listing they're scraping to reprint for exorbitant amounts of money:
Literally down to the exact title, without an accent.
And this isn't the worst one I've found, either; another "public domain scraper" as I've taken to calling them, has taken this book:
and downloaded the ancient, autogenerated Epub from the Internet Archive, and without any human being looking at that Epub, converted it into a PDF and sent it off to a Print-On-Demand company to make those same generic, leather-bound hardcovers for $30+.
Would you like to know what the ancient, auto-generated epub looks like for this very old, very old scan of a book looks like? The one these scammers are reprinting and selling for an arm and a leg without anyone actually looking at the contents of what they're selling?
As a reference, this is what the original, old scan looks like:
[ID: a black and white image of two pages of text from an old book, the text is cramped, slightly blurry and tilted, and is difficult to read; the scan is from an old enough time that, from the shape of the pages not being physically joined together, that the book had to be manually cut page by page to be scanned. There are artifacts, dots and smudges throughout. end ID]
So, you ready to see what these scammers are selling to paying customers with no warning?
[ID: A screenshot of the Calibre ereader app, showing a page from the auto-generated epub from the old scan described above, showing a message in bold across that top that reads "The text on this page is estimated to be only 39.04% accurate." followed by a paragraph of complete gibberish; numbers, symbols, sanskrit letters, various special characters, etc, with no rhyme or reason. End ID.]
I don't know if this scam listing is still out there, I reported the one I found on Abe books, but they're also probably out there with a million duplicate listings on various websites.
So, yeah. Please,
If you are looking for physical copies of the Public Domain Arsène Lupin books, please make sure you carefully check what you are buying before ordering, especially online.
Make sure the 'è' in Arsène has the accent; make sure there's actual quality control, and for Arsène's sake, make sure what you're buying isn't slapdash gibberish.
If you don't know already, most of the Public Domain books that are in English and are PD in the USA can be found on Project Gutenberg (18-19 are PD in the USA this year if you include the play and its subsequent novelization; Gutenberg has 16 of these (including the play) , and you can read them completely for free, 100% legally:
I highly reccomend having the wiki page for Arsène Lupin opened up as you're reading through the books for the first time, because many of the books released at various times (and in various languages) with multiple different titles, so no two reading guides use the same title and leads to sheer confusion.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1358
if you speak French, you can also read all of Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin books, barring 1 that wasn't published until 2012, 75 years after his death, which you can read in french on:
Since USA and French Copyright law are different, if you are in the USA you cannot use any books published after 1928 (except post-humous) for derivative works, as France has a shorter copyright term of 75 years after death (except post-humous), while the USA is based on 95 years after publication, so us poor Lupin fans in the USA have to wait until 2037 before they all are Public Domain :'(
TL;DR: If you're a fan of a series which is Public Domain, you can read them online for free 100% legally; if you're looking to buy phyiscal books and you're shopping online, please take care to check for quality to make sure you're not getting scammed with an extremely poor quality ""book"" which could be complete gibberish, and/or a huge waste of money and paper.
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