Souvestre et Allain : exploration stylométrique de quelques épisodes de Fantômas

Abstract

Of the duo formed by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain, we know the version told by the latter, who outlived his partner by more than half a century. The Fantômas series was thus dictated, not written, by the two authors, then assembled in a chain, with the chapters being divided equally between them after a brief joint elaboration of the plot. The debate on the veracity of this version and the real nature of their literary production system is not closed, due to a lack of more direct, complete, and verifiable information. We therefore opted for stylometric exploration using the RStylo tool and analyzed a sample of original chapters from the Fantômas series as well as texts reputedly written individually by one or the other of the two authors. The results obtained do not support a clear division of labor, but rather show a collaboration that is not modular but more stratified, mixed, and fluctuating, where the four hands, or even more, are more intertwined than expected. Further analysis with a larger corpus covering different periods of the series will therefore be necessary to hope to shed light on the mystery.