Eugène François Vidocq
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Eugène-François Vidocq (1775 – 1857) was a French criminal turned criminalist, whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe and Honoré de Balzac. The former criminal became the founder and first director of France's first criminal investigative agency, the Sûreté nationale, as well as the head of the first known private detective agency. Vidocq is considered to be the father of modern criminology
Vidocq was Victor Hugo's inspiration for both reformed criminal Jean Valjean and his pursuer, police inspector Javert, in the novel Les Misérables.
Balzac made him Vautrin; Dumas makes him the Jackal in Les Mohicans de Paris.
Literature
In 1829, two journalists under the pseudonym of a criminal named Malgaret published the book Mémoires d'un forçat ou Vidocq dévoilé to expose criminal activities Vidocq allegedly had committed. Other police officers followed the example of Vidocq's memoirs and published their own autobiographies in the following years, among them the prefect of police, Henri Gisquet.
Vidocq's life story inspired many contemporary writers, many of them his closest friends. In Balzac's writings, he was regularly the model of literary figures: his experiences as a failed entrepreneur were used in the third part of Illusions perdues, "Les Souffrances de l'inventeur"; in Gobseck, Balzac introduced the policeman Corentin; but most clearly, the connection to Vidocq can be found in the figure of Vautrin. This character first appears in the novel Le Père Goriot, then in Illusions perdues, Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (as the main character), La Cousine Bette, Le Contrat de mariage, and finally as the main character in the 1840 theatre play Vautrin. Not only Vidocq as a person but also his methods and disguises inspired Balzac in his work.
In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (1862), both main characters, the reformed criminal Jean Valjean and Police Inspector Javert, were modeled after Vidocq, as was the policeman Monsieur Jackal in The Mohicans of Paris (1854–1855) by Alexandre Dumas. He also was the basis for Rodolphe de Gerolstein, who secured justice in the serial newspaper novel The Mysteries of Paris of Eugène Sue in the weekly newspaper Journal des débats; and he was the inspiration of Émile Gaboriau for Monsieur Lecoq, one of the first scientific and methodical investigators who played the lead role in many adventures, who in turn was a major influence for the creation of Sherlock Holmes. It is also believed that Edgar Allan Poe was prompted by a story about Vidocq to create the first detective in fiction, C. Auguste Dupin, who appeared, for example, in the short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", which is considered the first detective story. Vidocq is also mentioned in Moby Dick ("Chapter 88: Schools and Schoolmasters") and White Jacket ("Chapter VI: The Quarterdeck Officers, etc.") by Herman Melville and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
In the Sandman Slim series of urban fantasy books by Richard Kadrey, a fictionalized version of Vidocq is a friend and mentor to the protagonist James Stark. Kadrey's Vidocq has become immortal thanks to an alchemical accident and lives in modern-day Los Angeles.
Another contemporary novel that features Vidocq is Louis Bayard's The Black Tower (2008), though it is set in Restoration France.
Vidocq also appears as a major character in James McGee's novel Rebellion (2011)
Vidocq is frequently alluded to in Burt Solomon's 2017 novel The Murder of Willie Lincoln.
Pages linking in in 2023
A Scandal in Paris, Advance-fee scam, Agent provocateur, Alain Mottet, Arras, Arthur Bernède, August Vollmer, Bagne of Toulon, Brest Prison, C. Auguste Dupin, Carceral archipelago, City mysteries, Covert operation, Detective, Dobrodružství kriminalistiky, Émile Gaboriau, Francis Tukey, Frank Bender, French Restoration style, Freya Mavor, Galerie Vivienne, George Sanders, Gérard Depardieu filmography, Gouffé Case, History of music in Paris, International Short Stories, Ivan Liprandi, James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale, Javert, Jean Valjean, Law enforcement in France, Les Misérables (2012 film), Les Misérables, List of films based on crime books, List of French people, List of French-language authors, List of last words (19th century), List of Napoleonic Wars films, Louis Bayard, Ludwig Rubiner, Michel Peyramaure, Monsieur Lecoq, Nobunagun, Noel Gerson, Parfait d'amour, Paris under Napoleon, Père Goriot, Piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Private investigator, Scotland Yard, Spanish Prisoner, Sûreté, Tar water, The Duelist (2016 film), The Emperor of Paris, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mysteries of Paris, The New Adventures of Vidocq, Timeline of Paris, Vautrin, Vidocq (1939 film), Vidocq (2001 film), Vincent Cassel
See also
