Vautrin
Sign in to savethumb| Vautrin and Eugene de Rastignac, in Le Père Goriot|Father Goriot. thumb| Vautrin over the body of Esther Van Gobseck, in Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes|The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans. Vautrin () is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin (). He appears in the novels Le Père Goriot (Father Goriot, 1834/35) under the name Vautrin, and in Illusions perdues (Lost illusions, 1837–1843) and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, 1838–1844), the sequel of Ill
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10 sectionsContents
- Background
- Story
- Character
- Tempter, criminal and nemesis
- Lover
- Appearances
- Novels
- Theatre plays
- Cinema
- References
thumb| Vautrin and Eugene de Rastignac, in Le Père Goriot|Father Goriot. thumb| Vautrin over the body of Esther Van Gobseck, in Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes|The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans. Vautrin () is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin (). He appears in the novels Le Père Goriot (Father Goriot, 1834/35) under the name Vautrin, and in Illusions perdues (Lost illusions, 1837–1843) and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, 1838–1844), the sequel of Illusions perdues, under the name of Abbé Carlos Herrera. In prison, he got the nickname "Trompe-la-Mort" ("Dodgedeath" or "Cheats-Death"), because he managed to avoid the death sentence repeatedly.
==Background== By the time the Comédie humaine series begins, Jacques Collin is an escaped convict and criminal mastermind fleeing from the police. The character first appears in the La Comédie humaine series using the name of Vautrin, so he is usually referred to in literary criticism under this name. Balzac was inspired to the character by Eugène François Vidocq (1775–1857) a former criminal who later became chief of the Paris police.