Resignedly, Gilliatt sat down and began to wash himself. Madame Guénéqué watched him out of the corner of her eye.
‘He’s putting his paw over his ear! That means it’ll rain before the week is out.’
NOTES
1 Now Rue Lucien-Sampaix, in the tenth arrondissement.
2 Now Rue Jean-Jaurès, in the nineteenth arrondissement.
3 French architect (1736–1806). This rotunda is all that remains of the La Villette and Pantin toll barriers, built in 1789 and destroyed by fire during the Commune.
4 A comic opera in three acts, with lyrics by Louis Clairville, Paul Siraudin and Victor Koning, and music by Charles Lecocq (1872).
5 A comic opera in three acts, with lyrics by Henri Chivot and Alfred Duru, and music by Jacques Offenbach (1879).
6 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes was published as a serial in The Strand between July 1891 and June 1892. It was published in a single volume in 1892.
7 His real name was Émile Henry. His attack took place on Monday, 12 February 1894 at 8.52 p.m., one week after the anarchist Vaillant was executed.
8 This committee was founded in 1894 by Gabriel Bonvalot (1853–1933), known for his explorations of Turkestan and Tibet. With its headquarters at 16, Rue de Choiseul, the committee produced propaganda promoting the benefits of emigration to the colonies.
9 Thadée Natanson (1868–1951) collaborated on the review with his two brothers, Alexandre, who was the editor, and Louis-Alfred, whose pen-name was Alfred Athis.
10 A French painter and member of the Nabis group (1868–1940).
11 ‘Les Ingénus’.
12 ‘Idiot’, in Russian.
13 ‘Goodbye, sweetheart’, in Basque.
14 Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) was a Naïve and Primitive artist, discovered by Alfred Jarry. He began exhibiting in 1886, and as a result his recollections of America (where he had fought during the Mexican–American war) became well known.
15 The complete text of Diderot’s Neveu de Rameau did not appear until 1892, edited by Georges Monval, the archivist of the Comédie Française. He had found, on a quayside by the Seine, a collection of manuscripts which included the complete text of the work.
16 Pierre le Mangeur (1100?–1179?): theologian and author of Historia Scolastica, translated into French by Guyart des Moulins.
17 The six tapestries that make up The Lady and the Unicorn were discovered by George Sand in the Château de Boussac in 1835 and have been in the Musée de Cluny in Paris since 1883.
18 Louis-Pierre Anquetil (1723–1806).
19 Now Rue Henri-Turot.
20 This neighbourhood was demolished between 1927 and 1928.
21 A song by Frédéric Bérat (Rouen, 1801–Paris, 1855). ‘Ma Normandie’ was very popular during the July Monarchy, with forty thousand copies sold in one year.
22 Marie Godebska, known as Misia (St Petersburg, 1872–Paris, 1950). An excellent pianist, she was the pupil of Gabriel Fauré and married Thadée Natanson when she was fifteen years old.
23 Music by Consterno, words by Joseph Dessaix, sung for the first time in Chambéry in 1856.
24 Cited by Ernest Raynaud in Souvenirs de police (au temps de Ravachol), Payot, 1923.
25 Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse, known as Papus (1865–1916). He published innumerable articles and other works on the occult and founded the Martinist Order.
26 Stanislas de Guaïta (1861–97), French occultist and poet of Italian origin, author of, among other works, Rosa Mystica, 1885.
27 See The Marais Assassin (Gallic Books, 2009).
28 See The Père-Lachaise Mystery (Gallic Books, 2007).
29 A ballroom which was also used as a public meeting room, at 12, 14 and 16, Rue de la Douane.
30 Now called Rue du 8-mai-1945.
31 The hero of Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
32 In 1768, Sébastian Érard, the son of a Strasbourg cabinet maker, came to Paris and built his first piano.
33 Marc-Antoine-Madeleine Désaugiers (1772–1827), Ronde de table.
34 In August 1889, the decomposed body of a bailiff called Gouffé was found near Lyon. The police discovered that his body had been sent from Paris inside a suitcase. See The Père-Lachaise Mystery.
35 By M. Meyronnet.
36 A German engineer (Anklam, 1848–Berlin, 1896), who invented a glider made up of two wings, a rudder and a tail covered in cretonne, or ‘shirting’. He died while making his two thousandth flight.
37 Absurd.
38 Victor Franconi (1810–97) directed the Summer and Winter Circuses in Paris and, in 1845, founded the Hippodrome, which was demolished in 1893 but rebuilt in 1900. The Winter Circus building was designed in 1852 by the architect Hittorff, and holds five thousand spectators. It was the last permanent circus building to be constructed in Paris.
39 A song composed in 1893 by Yvette Guilbert which was very successful at the Concert Parisien.
40 Erotic or pornographic books.
41 It was sold in 1894.
42 An extract from ‘La Quarantaine’, a poem by Charles Frémine, from Chansons d’été, dated 1884 and published in 1900.
43 An artist called Salz had decorated the walls with paintings illustrating the crimes of the murderers Lacenaire and Tropmann.
44 1855–97.
45 From Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Marooning was a punishment meted out by pirates. Someone guilty of a misdemeanour would be abandoned on a desert island and given nothing but a small amount of powder and shot.
46 This quarter, between Rue de Belleville and Rue Manin, owes its name to the old gypsum quarries, from which stone was exported to America and used for buildings in New York.
47 These protests took place on 18 February 1868, at the Odéon theatre.
48 Bon appétit, gentlemen! Oh trusty ministers
Virtuous counsellors! This is how
You serve, servants who steal from their master!
49 In 1885.
50 Employed by the Society for the Protection of Animals.
51 See The Predator of Batignolles (Gallic Books, 2010).
Also by Claude Izner
Murder on the Eiffel Tower
The Disappearance at Père-Lachaise
The Montmartre Investigation
The Assassin in the Marais
In the Shadows of Paris
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
STRANGLED IN PARIS. Copyright © 2006 by Éditions 10/18, Département d’Univers Poche. English translation copyright © 2011 by Gallic Books. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Izner, Claude.
[Talisman de la Villette. English]
Strangled in Paris / Claude Izner; Translated by Jennifer Higgins.—1st U.S. Edition.
p. cm.
First published in France as Le talisman de la Villette by Editions.
ISBN 978-0-312-66217-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-03646-9 (e-book)
I. Title.
PQ2709.Z6413T3513 2013
843'.92—dc23
2013020021
First published in France as Le talisman de la Villette by Éditions 10/18
First U.S. Edition: September 2013
eISBN 9781250036469
First eBook edition: July 2013
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Strangled in Paris: A Victor Legris Mystery (Victor Legris Mysteries) Page 31