A small history of detectives.
French sleuth, with an attitude.
It is not like that they did not try it or not really wanted it. - their nevertheless hardly famous
detectives brought out defiance to the preference of the Frenchmen for distorted crime-stories.
The chain of more well-known French private detectives ("Célérité Discretion" etc;) ends with
Nestor Burma in the year 1943 as a literature detective, a dark type with a "Schlapphut" actually,
who did however not nearly hit it to the personalities of American detective figures such as
SAM SPADE, Philip Marlowe or Jake Gittes. One sees Nestor Burma still now and then in
repetitions of the French television. In Paris there are about eighty detective agencies, but in the
year 1914 we found already fifty! Eighty detective agencies - now, that is relatively few for a
metropolitan city. Possibly an explanation for this fact would be that the police of the metropolis
is so successfully and such a determinated force that a private detective acts just as "small actor
on the margin" - one could reason. Possibly. Another reason could be that France had to show
up a man of the caliber of the Eugene Francois VIDOCQ (1775 to 1857).
This detective experienced materially more, than it could possibly be invented of any author of
detective-stories for a fictitious figure. A former cheat, counterfeiter, thief, smuggler, Bigamist with
possibly even inclinations to the Transvestie, became Vidocq with excellent connections into the
underworld a demanded police informant. Finally they made "a goat to a Gardener" (this is a
german saying) and he was appointed as "Police-Chief of the Suret". In the year 1825 Vidocq's
men (and women) fetched already 1500 arrests per year and their boss could run on a magnificent
horse cart hold; he had a very good getting along. After he had to withdraw from the post as boss
of the Suret, Vidocq opened the first modern detective office of the world, he had specialized on
collection services and evenhandedly on money lending.
Later, on the high point of his activity, he employed 40 coworkers which under aliases as "Zyklop"
or "Satyr" wrote their reports. They had strictly to keep their office hours and were not allowed to
spit-out in the corridor of Vidocq´s agency. This was at that time usual with other service-employees.
Vidocq received up to 40 customers daily in his with quite good taste furnished office, which however
showed also weird paintings with the motives of French executions on its walls to his customers.
One of his sense sayings hung up in the conference room and read: "In the underworld are 2 + 2
not 4 but 44". Vidocq was such a "unique", that even the American Allan Pinkerton (the worlds
largest detective agency at present) itself placed for an advertising calling itself "Vidocq of the West".
Written stuff about Vidocq is quite in quantity, now just in the autumn of 2004 it appeared from
James Morton, an English attorney, a wonderful book.
Vidocq published (to some extent cock-and-bull stories) memoirs out in four volumes, which
sold so well that his English publisher let some chapters add still, in order to satisfy the demand.
Vidocq had generally no inhibitions with Ghostwriters; to begin with, he felt however hurt by
humans, who did not know to appreciate his pangs of conscience and his alleged sensitivity.
For our culture historians: Here it is. Here is the transition from the material detective to the
virtual-fictitious detective figure. Born still under Ludwig the 18-th, he was an expert, who got
over all political and economic tempests of his time without scrapes. He was also, at least
writes Morton this in his book, a Soziopath, who as a small boy in Arras tortured children and
domestic animals, robbed the cash-desk of his father (a baker) and the savings of his mother.
He probably had charme, looked quite good and ascended, as Michel Foucault observed, as
criminality became the "Mechanism of the mighty". Into London Vidocq was invited 1845, where
he before the "House of Lords" held a speech about "prison-discipline". On the same journey he
presented within an exhibition various things as different oil pictures ("Very old pictures of very
young Masters", as the journalists wrote), in addition he showed wax fruits, notes and memories
of transferred murderers, torture instruments and also handcuffs and weighted boots, which he
had to carry himself in prison. He appeared gladly in quite convincing linings, as a "spledid actor"
he was summarized by the TIMES. Also he seemed to have impressed Balzac, who was obviously
collecting Vidocq as the figure of the Vautrin into his "Le Pere Goriot". Vidocq died with 82 years
and his funeral in Paris was well visited. Because Vidocq had put aside some money, in order to be
able to disburse, each mourning guest received 3 franc. He was a rather unusual guy. Back to the
crime-figures of France. Now, the Frenchmen looked after Vidocq to America, on search for the
"Model PI" (private Eye), the Fantasy Fiction. This specially was the figure of Nick Carter, who
arose in the US 1886 and later at the beginning of the 20. Century appeared as a cinema hero in
France. Afterwards however - only embarrassing French clones followed these films like "Dick Cartter",
"Nick Winter", "Herlock Sholmes", "Tom Bob", "Jack Dollar" and the certainly enticing "Miss
Boston" finally in the year 1909. An unforgotten detective Fiction was of course the figure of the
Arséne LUPIN, which appeared 1907, a kind of a rough Gentleman. The author, Marive Leblanc,
placed this figure finally in his 1910 appearing novel as the boss of the Suret, who held for four
years this post and was finally arrested - by himself. "The spirit of Vidoq still wobbles", Julian
Symons (a detective story historian) wrote in his classical study "Bloody Murder". Likewise in the
tradition Vidocqs were the memoirs of Eugene Villiod, starting from approximately 1905. He
cultivated, what Dominique Kalifa described as "Image of a French Pinkerton". Villiod had large
success, partly due to the support of the talented commercial artist Leonetto Capiello, who
sketched the book envelope. "Capiellos design on the book envelope took me as prisoner
immediately, as I still was a child", said Leo Malet, the inventor of "Nestor Burma", which Kalifa
appoints as the only French detective figure, which can take it up with newer detective figures,
which were imported later in the form of comics and films from the US. Another crime film
success came from Arthur Bérnede, inventor of the detective figure Chantecoq, which became
famous, because he caught Belph‚gor, the phantom of the Louvre, in the year of 1927. The
most famous French private detectives originate regrettably from the past. In "Les Mots"
Sartre remembers 1964 on titles like "Un crime EN ballon" and notices a preference for Nick
Carter. He writes that detective novels repeated themselves too often and became easily
monotonous therefore. But the atmosphere of one into another interlocked illegal actions
fascinated him apparently. Both - criminality and virtue move in these novels outside of the law.
Killers and detective, both free, sovereign individuals, settle their arguments "by night and by knife".
Match that, Sam Spade.
Author : JAMES MORTON
Format : Hardback
ISBN : 0091887968
Publisher : Ebury Press Publication
First published: October 2004
Pages : 352 Imprint
Ebury Press "The First Detective":
"The Life and Revolutionary Times of Eugene Vidocq, Criminal, Spy and Private Eye)
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For this review in german language click on: Vidocq