SHORTER NOTICES
ONLY France, surely, could have produced such a figure as Vidocq. Tough, wily, vain, irresponsible, romantic—the epithets could pile up indefinitely and still do less than justice to his Protean character. The first acknowledged master of detection, he was all the detectives of fiction rolled into one, with the added incontrovertible advantage that he actually existed.. Mr. Stead has, justifiably, concentrated on Vidocq's career as police agent and detective, but he has drawn sufficiently on the side-lights to produce a satisfying and boldly outlined .portrait.
Vidocq was a true child of his time as well as of his country. The turbulence of Napoleonic and Bourbon politics and society, plagued by thieves and impostors, enabled him to indulge incessantly in his favourite pastime of fooling the criminal classes—and indeed plenty of others as well, including a Times reporter. Jealousy on the part of the regular police officers drove him out of his position as Head of the Stirete, and ultimately into the courts ; but, though his later chequered career included an attempt to found a paper factory and the writing of a novel, he died, at over eighty, the Grand Old Man of criminal detection.
E. C.
Previous page
