A review by melissa_who_reads
Le Saint et les mauvais garçons by Leslie Charteris

2.0

I first read the Saint at my grandparents' house - my grandfather also enjoyed reading mysteries (though a different type than I usually read) and I am sure that I first read The Saint in books that belonged to him. I enjoyed them as a teenager, and these stories are about what I remember: though I do not remember reading these particular stories before. These are from very early on in the Sant's career - and it shows some, the character is not as formed as it would be later. I also learned that Leslie Charteris was of Chinese-English descent, his father being a Chinese doctor and his mother an Englishwoman, and he was brought up in Singapore and later England. As such, he was affected by the Chinese Exclusion Act, and not allowed to apply for citizenship in the US until (according to Wikipedia) an Act of Congress granted him and his daughter citizenship. The character of the Saint, interestingly, is of a man who has little to no background - as is pointed out, he doesn't get out of his exploits by appealing to mysterious elite relatives or connections: such connections as he has are decidedly middle-class and plebeian.