Stevens Memorial Library (North Andover)

Ballad of the anarchist bandits, the crime spree that gripped Belle Époque Paris, John Merriman

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-314) and index

collective biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Ballad of the anarchist bandits

bibliography

1004671291

John Merriman

the crime spree that gripped Belle Époque Paris

"For six terrifying months in 1911-1912, the citizens of Paris were gripped by a violent crime streak. A group of bandits went on a rampage throughout the city and its suburbs, robbing banks and wealthy Parisians, killing anyone who got in their way, and always managing to stay one step ahead of the police. But Jules Bonnot and the Bonnot Gang weren't just ordinary criminals; they were anarchists, motivated by the rampant inequality and poverty in Paris. John Merriman tells this story through the eyes of two young, idealistic lovers: Victor Kibaltchiche (later the famed Russian revolutionary and writer Victor Serge) and Rirette Maîtrejean, who chronicled the Bonnot crime spree in the radical newspaper L'Anarchie. While wealthy Parisians frequented restaurants on the Champs-Élysées, attended performances at the magnificent new opera house, and enjoyed the decadence of the so-called Belle Époque, Victor, Rirette, and their friends occupied a vast sprawl of dank apartments, bleak canals, and smoky factories. Victor and Rirette rejected the violence of Bonnot and his cronies, but to the police it made no difference. Victor was imprisoned for years for his anarchist beliefs, Bonnot was hunted down and shot dead, and his fellow bandits were sentenced to death by guillotine or lifelong imprisonment. Fast-paced and gripping, Ballad of the Anarchist Bandits is a tale of idealists and lost causes--and a vivid evocation of Paris in the dizzying years before the horrors of World War I were unleashed."--Jacket flaps

"The good old days" in Paris -- Victor Kibaltchiche -- Another Paris : "Misery is everywhere" -- Anarchists in conflict -- Rirette Maîtrejean -- A love story -- A bitter split -- Jules Bonnot -- The Bonnot Gang strikes -- The Bonnot Gang at bay -- How to unload stolen securities -- The police in action -- The Bonnot Gang's murder spree -- Panic in Paris -- Police dragnet -- Antoine Gauzy's variety store -- Besieged in Choisy-le-Roi -- Spectacle in Nogent-sur-Marne -- On trial -- The widow (la veuve) -- The violence of states, the clouds of war -- Aftermath