Vautrin

Serialized novel cover for Vidocq, King of Thieves–King of Detectives (Paris: Fayard, 1882). Public Domain. Historian Paul Metzner argues that the social and political instability of the restored Bourbon Monarchy in the early nineteenth century, following French Revolution and the collapse of Napoleon’s Empire, was particularly favorable to opportunistic virtuosos, self-centered individuals who excelled at…

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