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Criminal exploits, secret agent intrigue, and clever -disguises fill the pages of Francois Eugene Vidocq's memoirs. A legendary figure in history, Vidocq is known as the first detective and an inspiration to great writers such as Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo and Edgar Allen Poe. As a player in the criminal underworld, Vidocq is a master of disguises and an accomplished thief, eventually turning his unlawful talents toward catching criminals as the first French chief of secret police. Playing both sides of the law, Vidocq's life highlights the blurry line between law enforcement and the criminals they pursue. Vidocq has a knack for finding trouble throughout his topsy-turvy life, getting into one hot situation after another, often finding himself behind bars, only to escape the first chance he gets. This book will take you on a whirlwind tour of 1830s France, including the circus stage, pirate ships, prison cells and beautiful women's boudoirs. Vidocq's lifestory is unforgettable and includes some of the best crime stories and juicy tales ever written. Last year, Gerard Depardieu starred in the French film adaptation of the memoirs, -titledVidocq. "He preferred the tumultuous life of danger to the contentment of security. His story is one long swashbuckling adventure as he breaks out of jails, pursues actresses, duels to the death, raids the hells of criminals and stalks the Paris night in a thousand disguises."--Philip John Stead, Vidocq,Picaroon of Crime… (más)
Although I admire Vidocq for his resourcefulness, courage, and sense of humor, I didn't so much appreciate his misogyny, or his general war against the working classes in favor of the wealthy. At one time he says of a man that he is admirable in every way except his treachery, but this is an ironic statement from someone who again and again betrayed the trust of generally good men who acted only decently toward him. In any case, it's an interesting book worth reading. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
To attempt an analysis of the Memoirs now laid before the public would be utterly impossible, so romantic are the narratives so thrilling the horrors, so powerful the descriptions, so continuous the thread of its history. (Introduction)
It was in the month of January 1828, that I finished these Memoirs, of which it was my wish to direct the publication personally. (Preface)
I was born at Arras; my continual disguises, the flexibility of my features, and a singular power of grimacing, having cast some doubt concerning my age, it will not be deemed superfluous to declare here, that I was brought into the worrld on the 23d of July 1775, in a house adjoining that in which Robespierre was born sixteen years earlier. (Text)
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Then, both Protestants and Buonapartists who possessed sufficient to tempt their cupidity, became the objects of the Chauffeurs' attacks, and that worthy representative of the Verdets, the chamber of "incomparables", relished the joke, and thought it "fine nuts to crack." (Text)
The true object of literature is not to pander to bad passions, encourage gross taste, or cater to prurient imagination; but to correct evil propensities by excellent example, to warn by precept, to instruct whilst it delights, and to call into action all those better feelings in the heart of man which tend to his individual happiness, and have weight and moral influence on the well-being of a nation. (Sequel)
Criminal exploits, secret agent intrigue, and clever -disguises fill the pages of Francois Eugene Vidocq's memoirs. A legendary figure in history, Vidocq is known as the first detective and an inspiration to great writers such as Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo and Edgar Allen Poe. As a player in the criminal underworld, Vidocq is a master of disguises and an accomplished thief, eventually turning his unlawful talents toward catching criminals as the first French chief of secret police. Playing both sides of the law, Vidocq's life highlights the blurry line between law enforcement and the criminals they pursue. Vidocq has a knack for finding trouble throughout his topsy-turvy life, getting into one hot situation after another, often finding himself behind bars, only to escape the first chance he gets. This book will take you on a whirlwind tour of 1830s France, including the circus stage, pirate ships, prison cells and beautiful women's boudoirs. Vidocq's lifestory is unforgettable and includes some of the best crime stories and juicy tales ever written. Last year, Gerard Depardieu starred in the French film adaptation of the memoirs, -titledVidocq. "He preferred the tumultuous life of danger to the contentment of security. His story is one long swashbuckling adventure as he breaks out of jails, pursues actresses, duels to the death, raids the hells of criminals and stalks the Paris night in a thousand disguises."--Philip John Stead, Vidocq,Picaroon of Crime
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