Fantômette

Fantômette is a series of 52 volumes created in 1961 by Georges Chaulet. The books were destined for young readers and feature a female superhero named Fantômette. It was published in the "Bibliothèque Rose" series from Hachette Editions. Fantomette's alter ego, Françoise Dupont, is a girl of about twelve years who dresses up in order to fight crime. She has two sidekicks: Ficelle, a tall and not-very-bright blonde; and Boulotte, a short and chubby brunette who is fixated on food. Neither of them are aware of her secret identity, despite meeting Fantomette regularly.

Fantomette was the first female superhero in French literature. The Fantomette books were aimed at eight- to twelve-year-old girls. There are 52 books in the series, which is still published today, as well as a comic book series by François Craenhals, a 1993 live-action TV series starring Katia Sourzac and a cartoon series in 1998.

In 1957, the author Georges Chaulet (1931–2012) proposed his first series, Les 4 As au collège, to Hachette, one of France biggest publishers. But Hachette refused, having just bought the rights to all of Enid Blyton's novels, most notably The Famous Five. It was finally Casterman, another of France main publishers, who published it. Very quickly, Les 4 As au collège was adapted as a comic book.

Strengthened by this first success, George Chaulet then proposed a new series to Hachette, this time accepted: Fantômette was born. Forty-nine volumes were then published from 1961 to 1987 in the Bibliothèque rose series. In 2006, to celebrate the 150 years of the Bibliothèque rose and after an eighteen-year absence, Georges Chaulet write a new adventure of his favorite heroïne: Le Retour de Fantômette. He died on 13 October 2012, having written more than one hundred and fifty books for youth in the course of his career.

Here is the complete list of the Fantômette novels in their original order of publication:

...
Wikipedia