Claude Duval legend, including claims of alchemy, gambling, and much womanising. He is reported to haunt the Holt Hotel along the A4260 (Oxford Road) in Oxfordshire, a hotel where he spent many nights when it was a small coaching inn. Recent historians have reappraised the legacy of Duval. James Sharpe in "Dick Turpin" regarded Duval as the most significant figure in the shaping of the highwayman myth. John and Philip Sugden's "The Thief of Hearts" reconstructs what is known of the historical Duval, using much fresh evidence, and shows that the traditions about the Frenchman were used by such literary luminaries as
Georges Duval Georges Duval Georges-Louis-Jacques Labiche (26 October 1772 – 21 May 1853), better known as Georges Duval, was an early 19th-century French playwright. Duval was originally expected to become a priest, but the French Revolution occurred when he was 17. Afterwards he joined a notary and began at the same time writing plays for small theaters. From 1805 to 1835, he was employed in public service as an office manager at the Interior Ministry, which left him time to devote to playwriting under the pen name Georges Duval. Working especially for small theaters, for which he wrpte 70 plays, Duval composed