ABSTRACT
In chapter 6 we saw how Eugène-François Vidocq reported on the link between counterfeiters (called hommes de lettres in the slang of criminals) and writers, and this juxtaposition of literature and money will not be limited to the jargon of the underworld. As Nat Wing has pointed out, the metaphor of minting was, somewhat paradoxically, to become a literary commonplace, where the writer figures as the sovereign authorized to issue new currency. Wing quotes Hugo:
Tout grand écrivain frappe la prose à son effigie [...]. Les poètes sont comme les souverains. Ils doivent battre monnaie. Il faut que leur effigie reste sur les idées qu’ils mettent en circulation. (Choses vues 398)
[All great writers strike their prose in their own image […]. Poets are like sovereigns. They must mint coins; their effigy must remain on the ideas they put into circulation.]
