Who was Pierre Picaud, the man who would have inspired “The Count of Montecristo” Dumas

Pierre Picaud It was a shoemaker of Nîmes whose story seems to echo that of Edmond Dantésprotagonist of The count of Montecristofamous novel by Alexandre Dumàs, set between the 1815 and the 1838 between Italy and France. And it is precisely the author that tells us about his life and how he inspired him in the drafting of his work, subsequently adapted in a TV series broadcast on Rai 1. Dumas in fact does not spare us the background behind his works and tells in the “Caueries“That, in 1842had been commissioned by Girolamo Bonaparte to accompany his son toElba Island from which, during a hunting trip, the novelist saw theMontecristo island, Located about 45 km south, promising to insert the location within a future novel. It also seems, that after the insistence of the publishers Béthume and Plon, having read the Mémoires Tirés des Archives de la Police de Paristhe author let himself be inspired by the chapter entitled The diamond of revenge in the drafting of a novel set in the city of Paris, The count of Montecristo. The protagonist of the writing that had moved Dumas’ fantasy was just Pierre Picaud.

The life of Pierre Picaud

Pierre Picaudalso called François Picaud, was a French shoemaker, known for his criminal career. In the 1807the native of Nîmes lived next to his girlfriend, the rich Marguerite Vigorouxnow close to a better life achieved thanks to marriage. However, his fortune attracted the envy of three men – Solari, Chaubart and Mathieu Loupian – who, moved by jealousy, unjustly accused him of being a spy hired by England, the main enemy of Napoleonic France: due to these false accusations , Picaud was arrested and conducted in the prison of strong of Fenestrelle, Near Turin.

During the years of captivity Picaud managed to obtain a tunnel which brought him to the cell of an Italian priest, Father Torriwhich revealed an incredible secret to him: the existence of a treasure hidden a Milan. Liberated after Napoleon’s defeat, Picaud went to the city, found the treasure and assumed the identity of Joseph Lucher. Returning to France then, he started one terrible revenge Against his enemies, inflicting death and ruin: he stabbed Chaubart, ruined Loupian’s family giving his daughter in marriage to a galeotto and arresting his son on charges of robbery, poisoned solar and, finally, killed Loupian himself. Luccher architectural his plan so that the victims almost waited for his arrival, every death was in fact accompanied by a ticket on which there was progressively written “Number one/two/three“. The end of Picaud is unexpectedly at the hands of Allutwhich recognizes the revenge hidden behind those deaths, kidnaps and kills him. ALLUT then part for England and, in 1828, on the point of death he tells everything to the confessor, authorizing him to talk about it with the French police after his death: this is how the affair becomes part of the “Mémoires“read by Dumas.

Picaud or Pastorel, the background on the sources of history

Alexandre Dumas declares to have obtained the history of the shoemaker from different sources: first of all from the testimony of a friend of Picaud, ATOINE ALLUT, who was aware of the agaustizia that Picaud had suffered but had done nothing to save him, and that he had confided the story on the point of death to a French priest, Father Madeleine who, hit by the story, had then put it in writing and The text had been archived by the Paris police; and come on “Mémoires Tirés des Archives de la Police de Paris“, A work published posthumously in 1838, by Jacques Peucchet, who would contain the story told by Alduto. However, some historians questioned the reliability of this source, suggesting that the”Mémoires“They are the work of Étienne-Léon de lamothe-langonFrench novelist and false, and Picaud is a fictional version of another criminal, Gaspard-Étienne Pastorel.

Revenge that became legend

Both Edmond Dantès and Pierre Picaud are the protagonists of stories of vendettabut while Dantèswhile completing his plan, comes to forgive some of his enemies, Picaud Don’t forgive anyone. His revenge is more cruel And uncompromisingwithout space for mercy, unlike dantès who, in the end, recognizes the importance of forgiveness as a road of redemption. The figure of Pierre Picaud is an intricate intertwining of Historical reality and legend. His life, similar to that of Edmond Dantès, tells how humiliation and suffering can turn into an relentless force. Although his story can be intertwined with many others, one thing is certain: Pierre Picaud has marked the history of literature with his revenge that knows no mercy.