The "mouchard" in panoramic literature

This study aims at analysing some problems related to the representation of the mouchard during the July monarchy by comparing three texts belonging to the field of panoramic literature: the article Espions in Louis-Sébastien Mercier's Tableau de Paris (1788); Armand Durentin's L'agent de rue Jérusalem in Français peints par eux-memes (1839-1842) and Balzac's Un espion à Paris in Le Diable à Paris (1844-1845). If Mercier's text serves as a model for later works, we will try to show how, through the 19th-century texts, this figure is involved in a broader operation of exploration of the lesser-known Parisian milieus considered more dangerous, giving rise to attempts of definition and classification with original implications. In this perspective, the caricature acts both as a visual support that dialogues with the written texts and as thematic, hermeneutic and stylistic baggage capable of bringing out the despicable but fascinating character of the spy.