Between beggarry and slums, an unprecedented mutation in the representations of organized crime: the image of the gang in the History of the life and trial of Cartouche (1722)

This article analyses the description of Cartouche’s gang provided by the Histoire de la vie et du procès de Louis Dominique Cartouche et de ses complices, a peddling book published in 1722 in the wake of Cartouche’s execution. This little-known representation of criminal circles was conceived as a propaganda tool intended to counteract the positive aura that Cartouche enjoyed among a significant portion of Parisian society. The pamphlet takes up some elements of an old and near-obsolete literature of gueuserie, yet it includes many innovations that should be considered not as reflections of real criminal networks but as an imaginary created to feed the fears of readers who were already affected by urban evolutions. However, this pamphlet’s imagery did not succeed in imposing itself in the long term as a representation of the 19th-century underworld, and as an accurate picture of the margins of society. Designed to justify a large-scale eradication of the Parisian thievery in the 1720s, this peddling book did not withstand the changes in crime and repressive practices that marked the second half of the 18th century, nor did it the wear and tear which goes along with propaganda writing.