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sophia_sol) wrote2013-04-02 08:39 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-04-02 08:39 pm
Memoirs of Vidocq, translated and abridged by Edwin Gile Rich
HAHAHA OH VIDOCQ WHAT. <-- my reaction to nearly everything that happened in this book.
What I read was an abridgement, alas, as it was the only version my library had, so I don't know how it compares to the actuality of the full memoirs. But the version I read went like so. The first half of the book was entirely made up of an endlessly repeating cycle where Vidocq ~somehow~ ends up in a terrible scrape and then gets himself out of it, over and over and over again, all told in the most matter-of-fact way. It was awfully charming even while I spent it all going VIDOCQ LOOK AT YOUR LIFE LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES and also being vastly amused by the utter ridiculousness of it all. Apparently like three quarters of the memoirs are fabricated so it's entirely possible that most of the ridiculousness isn't even true but that's also charming because OH VIDOCQ REALLY.
The second half of the book, where he embarks on a life as a police agent, I found less engaging. It was less "Vidocq's alarming life choices" and more "here's stories of all sorts of criminals whom Vidocq with GREAT SKILL AND TALENT managed to foil!!!!" I enjoyed a lot of the incidents but found the overall experience of the second half to be a bit tedious.
The greatest virtue of the second half: ANNETTE OH WOW ANNETTE! The first half of the book has Vidocq falling in and out of relationships with women nearly as often as he falls in and out of trouble with the law, but in the second half for the first time we get introduced to a lady-friend with a sentence of ACTUAL REASONS WHY HE LIKES HER??? And then he mentions NO OTHER LADY-FRIENDS BUT HER for the entire second half of the book! And every time Annette shows up she is CATEGORICALLY AWESOME and clearly an excellent partner for Vidocq and now I a) love Annette and want to read stories that focus on HER instead of just her being a good helpmeet in the background of yet another Here Is Why Vidocq Is Awesome story and also I b) ship Annette/Vidocq super hard.
Although I have to wonder whether, due to abridgement, I lost anything about Annette or about Vidocq's relationship with her, or Vidocq's possible relationships with other women during the second half of the book. Maybe there's relevant info! Maybe he WASN'T loyal to her! Maybe there's scenes of Annette being even more awesome which the abridger thought weren't important because they're not focused on Vidocq! ALL SORTS OF THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. UGH I HATE ABRIDGEMENTS SO MUCH. SO MUCH. I have this terrible need for completeness of knowledge in all things, and being left NOT EVEN KNOWING WHAT I DON'T KNOW is awful.
Speaking of the abridgement! The thing I was most fearing was that it would abridge out the bits of queer history that one can find in Vidocq's memoirs, bits which I heard about inskygiants's post about the Memoirs. And OH NOOOO I WAS RIGHT TO BE AFRAID, there wasn't a single hint of anything queer anywhere in the entire book. PHOOEY. A pox on Edwin Gile Rich's house. And because this gives good evidence for Rich being biased in his abridgements, it makes me even more worried for what else he might have chosen to left out. AUGH.
What I read was an abridgement, alas, as it was the only version my library had, so I don't know how it compares to the actuality of the full memoirs. But the version I read went like so. The first half of the book was entirely made up of an endlessly repeating cycle where Vidocq ~somehow~ ends up in a terrible scrape and then gets himself out of it, over and over and over again, all told in the most matter-of-fact way. It was awfully charming even while I spent it all going VIDOCQ LOOK AT YOUR LIFE LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES and also being vastly amused by the utter ridiculousness of it all. Apparently like three quarters of the memoirs are fabricated so it's entirely possible that most of the ridiculousness isn't even true but that's also charming because OH VIDOCQ REALLY.
The second half of the book, where he embarks on a life as a police agent, I found less engaging. It was less "Vidocq's alarming life choices" and more "here's stories of all sorts of criminals whom Vidocq with GREAT SKILL AND TALENT managed to foil!!!!" I enjoyed a lot of the incidents but found the overall experience of the second half to be a bit tedious.
The greatest virtue of the second half: ANNETTE OH WOW ANNETTE! The first half of the book has Vidocq falling in and out of relationships with women nearly as often as he falls in and out of trouble with the law, but in the second half for the first time we get introduced to a lady-friend with a sentence of ACTUAL REASONS WHY HE LIKES HER??? And then he mentions NO OTHER LADY-FRIENDS BUT HER for the entire second half of the book! And every time Annette shows up she is CATEGORICALLY AWESOME and clearly an excellent partner for Vidocq and now I a) love Annette and want to read stories that focus on HER instead of just her being a good helpmeet in the background of yet another Here Is Why Vidocq Is Awesome story and also I b) ship Annette/Vidocq super hard.
Although I have to wonder whether, due to abridgement, I lost anything about Annette or about Vidocq's relationship with her, or Vidocq's possible relationships with other women during the second half of the book. Maybe there's relevant info! Maybe he WASN'T loyal to her! Maybe there's scenes of Annette being even more awesome which the abridger thought weren't important because they're not focused on Vidocq! ALL SORTS OF THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. UGH I HATE ABRIDGEMENTS SO MUCH. SO MUCH. I have this terrible need for completeness of knowledge in all things, and being left NOT EVEN KNOWING WHAT I DON'T KNOW is awful.
Speaking of the abridgement! The thing I was most fearing was that it would abridge out the bits of queer history that one can find in Vidocq's memoirs, bits which I heard about in
skygiants's post about the Memoirs. And OH NOOOO I WAS RIGHT TO BE AFRAID, there wasn't a single hint of anything queer anywhere in the entire book. PHOOEY. A pox on Edwin Gile Rich's house. And because this gives good evidence for Rich being biased in his abridgements, it makes me even more worried for what else he might have chosen to left out. AUGH.
no subject
Oh, man, I'm so sorry your version cut out the queer history though! THE BEST PART D:
no subject
And I TOO AM HEARTBROKEN that my version cut the queer history. NO EDWIN GILE RICH YOU ARE WRONG AND YOUR PRIORITIES ARE WRONG. Admittedly he's from the 1930's so this shouldn't be a surprise to me but I was so determinedly going into this book telling myself that I shouldn't be so pessimistic! That I shouldn't assume that just because the translator is from the ~past that it means he's going to be queer-unfriendly! AND THEN EDWIN GILE RICH BORE OUT ALL MY PESSIMISM and I was very sad.