Abstract. The novel “Les Mains d'Orlac” by Maurice Renard, first published in 1920 but conceived before World War, is examined in the article in the context of modernization of the French popular literature, that took place in the early twentieth century.
Key words: novel, detective fiction, science-fiction, mass literature, Belle Époque, a severed hand.
Chekalov Kirill Aleksandrovich,
D. in Philology,
A.Gorky Institute of World Literature, Head of the Department of classic literature
and comparative literature of the Federal State Budget Institution (Moscow),
e-mail: ktchekalov@mail.ru