Pylades Laconic
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Research Help. (Please.)I need information on Vidocq. Really detailed, thorough, solid information. Otherwise, I won't feel comfortable writing about the police force in any fan things that I happen to work on. I went to a couple of book stores and the only thing I managed to find looked like a book for four year olds-- and was as good as for all the information it had in it. Plus, it cost about 30 dollars. Ew. Does anyone know of any good websites to check out?
Also? I need information on police activities. What would a police man; gendarme (because police/gendarmes are two different concepts, aren't they? I think they are... I think gendarmes are a part of the armed forces, or something quacky like that...); officers; Inspectors, like Javert; and the Prefect himself wear/do all day?
I think I read some where that that Inspectors like Javert didn't actually have uniforms and that most of them went with the Trench coat look. But that's about all I know, I'm ashamed to say.
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Orestes Fasting
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Honestly, Amazon is your best bet. I got an English translation of his memoirs from there, and even a simple search for his name brings up a biography by James Morton, used copies of his memoirs in French, and a book on famous outlaws and brigands of 19th century France.
The memoirs are very colorful, probably embroidered and embellished all over the place, and also very long and rambly. My copy was abridged, which I would usually consider sacrilege except that even I kind of wanted to smack him after the sixteenth tale of some harebrained prison escape. In any case, they would be very useful for ideas and for artistic verisimilitude when writing about the police force, but you might do better with a biography if you're looking for a more systematic arrangement of information.
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Sythar
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I loved the Memoirs. I have also read two biographies and am slowly translating Vidocq's 'Les Voluers'. I am afraid I have less of an idea what a normal Gendarme/Police Inspector would do all day. I would recommend wiki-ing Vidocq - though there is some misinformation out there. For instance, I have not seen in any of the bios anything that indicates that Vidocq accidentally killed his fencing instructor. Also I highly doubt he was involved in retrieving Josephine's neckalce. Believe me, Vidocq would have mentioned such a prestigious event.
I think his memoirs should be taken with a small grain of salt, but the biographies I've read indicate that for the most part they were pretty reliable.
If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me and I'll either answer them or point you to where you can get the information.
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