Trompe-la-Mort

Vautrin [vo.tʁɛ̃] is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin [ʒɑk kɔ.lɛ̃]. He appears in the novels Le Père Goriot (Father Goriot, 1834/35) under the name Vautrin, and in Illusions perdues (Lost illusions, 1837–43) and Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, 1838–44), the sequel of Illusions perdues, under the name of Abbé Carlos Herrera. In prison, he got the nickname Trompe-la-Mort (Dodgedeath or Cheats-Death), because he managed to avoid the death sentence repeatedly.

By the time the Comédie humaine series begins, Jacques Collin is an escaped convict and criminal mastermind fleeing from the police. The character first appears in the La Comédie humaine series using the name of Vautrin, so he is usually referred to in literary criticism under this name. Balzac was inspired to the character by Eugène François Vidocq (1775–1857) a former criminal who later became chief of the Paris police.

Little is known about Collin's early life. From the novels it can be gathered that he is born in or around 1779, has an above-average education and that he worked as an apprentice in a bank—a position his aunt Jacqueline had obtained for him. In the first decade of the 19th century he first came into contact with the criminal underworld. When a young Italian soldier that Collin was interested in committed a forgery, Collin took the responsibility and was sentenced to five years' hard labour in 1810. Several attempted escapes have increased the sentence to 20 years by 1818, when the first novel that includes him takes place.

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