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77 Printemps | 2013 : La transparence Miscellanes
La transparence

The Flneurs Scopic Power or the

Victorian Dream of Transparency
Le pouvoir scopique du flneur ou le rve de transparence victorien
Estelle Murail
Abstract | Index | Outline | Text | Bibliography | Annex | Notes | Illustrations | References |
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Abstracts
Franais English
This article focuses on the dream of transparency which pervaded the nineteenth-century
literary cityscape, and which, I argue, is embodied in the figure of the flneur, the ubiquitous
observer of urban life. To shed light on the function and makeup of this enigmatic figure, I
analyze the flneur through the lens of transparency and through the prism of three objects
which use transparency as their core functioning principle. I start by considering the idea that
the flneur is akin to a transparent glass pane. However, a closer look at the flneur reveals
him to be far from simply transparent. Beholding him through the lens of a stereoscope brings
his multi-layered nature into relief. This paper concludes by examining the flneurs vision,
which could be said to function like a spyglass. For the flneur, being transparent in the city
is ultimately translating modernity through his gaze, footsteps, and words. To see and to give
solidity to the dream of transparency, transparency cannot be absolute, but must be mediated
and filtered through the opacity of writing.
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Index terms
Mots-cls :
flneur, Asmodeus, Paris, vision, Londres, XIXe sicle, ville, regard, transparence, Dickens
(Charles)

Keywords :

flneur, Asmodeus, Paris, London, nineteenth century, city, gaze, vision, transparency,
Dickens (Charles)
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Outline
The Scopic Dream or the Pane of Glass
From Asmodeus to the flneur: Seeing through Surfaces
The flneur as a Transparent Medium: Invisible Glass Shell and Plane Mirror
Seeing Through the flneur: Stereoscopic Vision
The flneur as a Polymorphous Devil?
The flneur as a Dialectical Image?
Transparency as Translation: the flneur as a Spyglass
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1Anthony Vidler has shown that the ideal of transparency is one of the myths which underlie
modernity: Modernity has been haunted, as we know very well, by a myth of transparency:
transparency of the self to nature, of the self to the other, of all selves to society (Vidler 217).
As London and Paris are the undisputed nineteenth-century capitals of modernity (to borrow
Harveys expression), it seems appropriate to examine these cities through the lens of
transparency.
2This article will focus on the dream of transparency which pervaded the nineteenth-century
literary cityscape, and which, I argue, is embodied in the figure of the flneur, the ubiquitous
observer of urban life. The etymology and different meanings of the word transparency
might shed light on both the function and makeup of this enigmatic figure who has become
an epitome of modernity.
3According to the OED, the early English use of the word transparent meant to render
bodies lying beyond completely visible. The flneur, a literary figure through whose eyes we
see the city, calls attention to this scopic dreamhe literally makes the city visible and
transparent. The appearance of the flneur on the literary scene creates an opening through
which readers can peer at the city as they would through a glass pane. It might then be useful
to turn our gaze to the flneur himself, to examine what dreams he is made on. Stereoscopic
vision, I will suggest, might be the best way to approach and decipher this enigmatic figure.
Indeed, if one examines the makeup of the flneur, one can make out, beneath his smooth,
modern appearance, the palimpsestuous layers of all the scopic figures who came before him.
The flneur, it seems, might not be completely transparent after all. However, he is
transparent enough to allow the passage of something, to have the property of transmitting
light (OED). Rather than seeing him as a medium that allows us to see the city without
distortions, one might consider him as a sort of spyglass for readers. And a spyglass
inevitably transforms our vision. It sheds a different light onto the cityscapeit adds to the
city-textor subtracts elements from it. I will suggest that the transparent flneur might
ultimately be the translator of the urban text.

1 Smith, who popularized the figure of the flneur with the 1848 The Natural History
of the Idler up (...)

4I need to say a few words on the material I have chosen to focus on for this article. The
flneur was first portrayed in physiologies, a hugely popular genre of illustrated sketches that
depicted social types in a witty manner. Anthologies of physiologies such as Paris ou Le
Livre des cent-et-un or England and the English proliferated in the 1830s and 1840s.
Margaret Rose has shown how physiologies such as Smiths The Natural History of the Idler
upon Town prove that the aesthetics of flnerie travelled from Paris to London. As it is
important to trace the flneur before it appeared in the pages of the novel, to understand
where it grew from and how it traversed the literature produced in both capitals, I will start by
examining these physiologies. The flneur, although never explicitly designated as such,
figures prominently in the work of Charles Dickens.1 Figures such as Boz, Master
Humphrey, or the Uncommercial Traveller immediately spring to mind. However, as it is
impossible to do justice to the magnitude of his work upon the subject within the confines
necessarily imposed upon a paper, I shall conduct a case study of one specific Dickensian
flneur. I will focus on Master Humphrey, a curiously transparent flneur who weaves in and
out of the canvas of The Old Curiosity Shop.

The Scopic Dream or the Pane of Glass

From Asmodeus to the flneur: Seeing through Surfaces
5Nineteenth-century literature and culture seem to have been pervaded by a scopic dream,
which aimed at making all surfaces transparent, and was signified in the pervasive presence
of two figures: that of Asmodeus and that of the flneur. De Certeau, in Marches dans la
Ville, establishes a useful opposition between two modes of apprehending the city. On the
one hand, there is the all-encompassing aerial viewpoint of the map-makers and city planners,
which renders the city legible and comprehensible, which one might compare to the gaze of
Asmodeus, the omniscient devil. On the other hand, there is the walkers perception of space
at ground-level which inevitably remains illegible and has to be apprehended through a
rhetoric of walking. Many urban narratives of the period adopt both types of gazing, and the
omnipresence of both Asmodeus and the flneur in urban discourse seems to be a symptom
of this ideal of transparency.
6Asmodeus first appeared on the Parisian literary scene in 1707 in Lesages Le Diable
boiteux. In this tale, the devil takes the nobleman Don Cleofas on a nightflight over Madrid as
a reward for having released him from a glass phial. Perched on top of churches, this literary
devil had the power to see through the rooftops of the city and peer into the life of his
contemporaries. A modern-time Argus Panoptes, his position and powers meant that he could
grasp the city from above in a single glance.
7One might see Asmodeus as a satiric device which Lesage used to criticise society by
exposing its hypocrisies. The choice of a devils eye view of the cityscape, which reverses the
traditional Gods eye view of the world, foregrounds the satirical tone of the text as well as
the intent to inspect and see through social conventions. Transparency is one of the most
enduring ideals from the Enlightenment. This distanced, sharp and satirical gaze which sees
through the surface of things and elicits questioning and knowledge in the mind is a

quintessential part of the philosophie des Lumires. Asmodeus is also the physical
embodiment of Benthams panoptic gaze described by Foucault, but in this case, it is a
positive one. The devil is also intent on teaching Cleofas how to see and think clearly, which
points to the texts instructive purpose. The eighteenth-century devil is associated with
unveiling, exposing and divulging. His distanced gaze is the instrument which gives us the
true measure of man and of his city.

2 Jillian Taylor Lerner has shown how physiologies of the period created a composite
portrait of auth (...)

8The tales success was such that the lame devils literary presence persisted well into the
nineteenth centuryhe appears repeatedly in the prefaces of Parisian anthologies of
physiologies. The 1831 preface of Paris ou Le Livre des cent-et-un sets Asmodeus as the
symbolic figurehead of the collection. He also resurfaces in London, with Bulwer Lyttons
1832 Asmodeus at Large. I would suggest that Asmodeuss role changes significantly during
the period: while his gaze satirizes in the eighteenth century, it synthesises during the
following one. This seems to be attested by the striking parallels between the figures of the
lame devil and that of the editor who collects, compiles, and surveys the Parisian texts.2
These aesthetic practices travel to London, and Dickens is a case in point. He owned a copy
of Lesages book and evoked Asmodeus several times in his novels. It is possible that
Asmodeus gave him the idea for The Shadow, which was a prospective title for the magazine
which he would eventually name Household Words. Dickens described the title The Shadow
as having the potential to epitomize the Asmodean ideal:
Now to bind all this together, and to get a character established as it were which any of the
writers may maintain without difficulty, I want to suppose a certain Shadow, which may go
into any place, by sunlight, moonlight, starlight, firelight, candlelight, and be in all homes,
and all nooks and corners, and be supposed to be cognisant of everything, and go everywhere,
without the least difficulty. Which may be in the Theatre, the Palace, the House of Commons,
the Prisons, the Unions, the Churches, on the Railroad, on the Sea, abroad and at home: a
kind of semi-omniscient, omnipresent, intangible creature. I dont think I would call the paper
The Shadow: but I want something tacked to that title.
(Dickens qtd in Forster 369)
9This passage underlines the omniscience of the Asmodean gaze. One might note that
Asmodeus, from being the central narrative authority through whose eyes readers could
apprehend the city, is moved to the margins of the text. He only appears in titles or prefaces
or paratextto guide our interpretation. Asmodeuss presence reaffirms the scopic drive, but
its displacement to the threshold of the text also hints at the gradual eclipse of the synthetic
mode of gazing over the city. The hero of the physiologies themselvesand eventually, of
the novelbecomes the flneur. The power to make opaque surfaces transparent is
transferred from Asmodeus to the flneur. Indeed, discourses that develop around the flneur
heavily dwell upon the penetrating quality of his gaze. In 1812, Etienne de Jouys Hermite de
la Chausse dAntin, a famous flneur avant la lettre, explicitly compares himself to
Asmodeus. In one chronicle, he even peels off the facade of the building to reveal what is
inside. The flneur is endowed with Asmodeuss supernatural power to see through walls, or
through the layers of the palimpsesthe is the archaeologist who makes the layers of the past
visible.

The flneur as a Transparent Medium: Invisible Glass

Shell and Plane Mirror
10The Argus-like flneur is not only endowed with panoptic powers. Like The Invisible Man,
he also has the power to be transparent himself. Only by being the transparent medium
through whose eyes we see the city does he become the perfect embodiment of the scopic
dream. Being see-through himself, he allows readers to take on his empty shell to see with
and through him. This transparent flneur does not impose his physical presence on us, and
carries within him the notion of being unencumbered. One can slip into his shape and take up
his stance because he has become undetectable.
11Indeed, the physiologies constantly stress the flneurs inconspicuousnesshe is,
paradoxically, an invisible type. The flneurs characteristic polymorphismto which I shall
come back lateralso contributes to making him anonymousor transparent. The
physiologist of Le flneur Paris describes the flneur as someone who sheds his real
identity as soon as he steps out onto the pavement. Physiologies give painstakingly precise
elements of description of the flneurs outward appearance which are accompanied by
illustrations which all represent the flneur as a well-dressed man in a black coat and a top
hat, carrying a walking stick or an umbrella. This, however, is nothing more than the public,
official attire of the typical city bourgeois. Smith, by drawing up a list of types that may fit
into the category, effectively demonstrates the transparency of the figure: So, loitering
flneurs, we warn you all . . . he may be at your elbow when you least expect it. The simple
pavement-beater of Regent Street; the listless bachelor of small independence . . . the dangler
about the coulisses of the theatres, and the pit lobbies of the operas; the quiet mooners
about the streets, and the frequenters of the tranquil old Fleet Street taverns (Smith in Rose
67). The more physiologists accumulate descriptions and sketches of what he is and is not,
the more obscure, opaqueand thus invisible and transparenthe becomes.
12Paradoxically, physiologies of the flneur strove to define, describe and pin down a figure
who was utterly unrecognizable in his outward appearancea figure, in fact, who might even
be seen as the most elusive of city types. His rigorously correct, public apparel makes him
opaqueor curiously transparent. He is a mirror of the society he observes, and functions
like one. His opaque attire, like the opaque layers of a looking-glass, is necessary to create
this mirror-image of the public that circulates through the city. This opacity is a protective
shell which transforms him into a transparent vehicle through whose eyes we may explore the
city. He is a positively invisible man as opposed to the death-like invisible man at the end of
the century. His transparency of vision implies that his gaze is marked by the innocence of
the eye which characterizes artists for Ruskin (Ruskin 5). There is a sort of drive to the
dematerial in the nineteenth century in which dense matter is overcome by a desiring gaze. Is
he, in the words of Virginia Woolf, only a central oyster of perceptiveness, an enormous eye
(Woolf 178)? We must turn that scopic gaze to the flneur himself to answer this question.

Seeing Through the flneur: Stereoscopic

Vision
The flneur as a Polymorphous Devil?

13During the first half of the nineteenth century, the flneur and Asmodeus progressively
become amalgamated, and the flneur comes to dominate the discourse of the physiologies
and novels. Increasingly, he centralizes both modes of gazing and becomes the epitome of the
nineteenth-century scopic drive. However, I would like to show that Asmodeus does not
disappear: residual traces of the Asmodean gaze remain in the flneurs makeup. He is a
palimpsestuous figure made of successive, translucent layers.
14As the century progresses, the distinctions between both figures gradually break down and
the figure of Asmodeus seems to merge and morph into that of the flneur. He becomes the
figure who is capable of both being immersed in the crowd and beholding it from a distance.
The devil and the flneur are both described as age-old shape-shifting figures traversing the
centuries unscathed.
15This blurring between both figures is admirably illustrated in Gavarnis frontispiece to
Hetzels Le Diable Paris (figure 1). The engraving brings together Asmodeuss fiendish
attributes (the cloven foot, the horns) with the sartorial elegance of the flneur (the
inconspicuous, tailored black suit, the elegant cuffs and boots). More importantly, the
panoramic perspective of the map-maker, which is signified in the towering presence of
Flammche over the map of Paris, is combined with the keen and detailed gaze of the flneur,
which is signified in the metonymy of the monocle. Subsequent physiologies embraced this
downward movement in which the city observer steps down from the rooftops to penetrate
the city streets. In the 1845 Le Diable Paris, Satan sends his most faithful demon
Flammche to explore Paris and chronicle everything that is, diabolically speaking, possible
to know about [Paris] (Hetzel, I, 23) to overcome the panoramic surveys shortcomings.
Flammche could be seen as a transition figure, an Asmodeus-like figure stepping down from
his all-seeing position to descend into the city streets and don the attire of the flneur. By the
1850s, the flneur has replaced Asmodeus as the presiding figure who reigns over the texts of
Parisian anthologies. He has absorbed the Asmodean attributes and internalized the panoptic
gaze. Yet, the figure of the devil lurks beneath the modish and affable surface of the urban
pedestrian. One can discern the Asmodean heritage under the thin veneer of the modern
appearance of the flneur, who clearly appears as a multi-layered figure.
16Interestingly, these Parisian figures circulate and travel to London, and The Old Curiosity
Shop provides a good example of this transfer. The novel opens with a peculiar narrator,
Master Humphrey, who, like Dickens, explains his night-walking from his inability to sleep.
For this London flneur, pacing the city-streets at night is a fate which is a relief from the
torments of insomnia. Interestingly, after the first three chapters, he disappears, after which
the omniscient, Asmodeus-like narrator takes over.
17In Dickenss work, one notes a permanent to-and-fro movement between omniscience and
the flneurial viewpoint. The Old Curiosity Shop illustrates this transition most clearly. Once
Master Humphrey has served his purpose and introduced Nell and other major characters, he
retires from the scene to let the objective, third-person narrator take over. In chapter 33, the
narrator mentions Asmodeus, in a metatextual gesture which points to the texts own
omniscienceor desire for omniscience: The historian takes the friendly reader by the hand,
and springing with him into the air, and cleaving the same at a greater rate than ever Don
Cleophas Leandro Perez Zambullo and his familiar travelled through that pleasant region in
company, alights with him upon the pavement of Bevis Marks (OCS 250).

18In this passage, the narrator is a curious blend between the all-seeing devil and Master
Humphrey, the flneur from the beginning of the tale, whose vision is partial and who
speculates about his characters future. This curious blend between these two opposed modes
of apprehension of the city seems to be encapsulated in a passage from Master Humphreys
Clock, in which he recounts a recent expedition to the top of Saint Pauls:
It is night. Calm and unmoved amidst the scenes that darkness favours, the great heart of
London throbs in its Giant breast . . . Draw but a little circle above the clustering housetops,
and you shall have within its space everything, with its opposite extreme and contradiction,
close beside. Where yonder feeble light is shining, a man is but this moment dead . . . . Does
not this Heart of London, that nothing moves, nor stops, nor quickens,that goes on the
same let what will be done, does it not express the Citys character well?
(Dickens 1840, 226)
19Here, Master Humphrey combines the age-old, panoptic gaze of Asmodeus with the
specific gaze of the flneur which closes in on minute details. I shall now resort to visual
analysis to attempt to understand the relationship between these two figures.

The flneur as a Dialectical Image?

20I will use an 1853 daguerreotype by Charles Ngre, entitled Le Stryge (figure 2) to
deconstruct the nature of the flneuror rather, to explore the multi-layered nature of this
construct. After showing how the image manages to encapsulate the fusion of Asmodeus and
the flneur, which points to this shift of paradigm in urban vision, I will explore the
archaeological nature of the image to understand how the historic depth of both figures
affects the construction of the flneur. This will lead me to propose that the flneur, just like
this daguerreotype, functions like a dialectical image.
21Ngres image, which shows a melancholylooking gargoyle side by side with a flneur
like gentleman gazing at the city, suggests that the latter reconciles both types of vision.
Taylor Lerner seems to corroborate this analysis: the urban observer, from being a somewhat
passive figure, has morphed into a skilled observer of city life, who has adopted the
Asmodean panoptic gaze and who is also endowed with the power to move about the city,
and fathom out the layers of the urban palimpsest. He captures the essence of modernity and
enables his contemporaries to understand it. In Ngres photograph, one might say that the
prostrate and despondent creature is lost in the labyrinth of his own mind and is incapable of
interacting with and apprehending the bustling city which lays at his feet, whereas the flneur
standing next to him has come up to his level to apprehend the teeming expanse which
spreads beneath them. The ascent of the flneur thus points to a city-observer who is much
more involved in the hermeneutic deciphering of the city space. This interpretation endorses
the view that the flneurs gaze is more powerful than ever. The juxtaposition of both figures
makes the flneur into the modern double of Asmodeus, reminding us that the flneur is a
descendant of the devil. This image brings to light the palimspestuous nature of this modern
literary figure who appears in the periodical press and who, by morphing into a new shape,
overshadows its earlier forms. The flneur, like Asmodeus, is a figure of endless
transformation, who is defined by polymorphismbut whose superiority lies in his capacity
to combine the close, precise gaze of the urban stroller with the panoptic gaze of the devil.

22This image is, in a sense, archaeological. The medieval presence of the gargoyle is
symbolic of a gesture that looks back to the past. It seems to suggest that looking to the past
might be a key to unlocking the mysteries of the present. These archaeological overtones take
Asmodeus and the flneur apart again. It suggests that they are separate figures existing in
different times precisely around the period when Asmodeus is on the brink of extinction and
seems to have been subsumed by the flneur. In this image, the traces of the old in the new
are made evident, not least in the use of the recently developed daguerreotype technique. The
medieval nature of Asmodeus is not only reinforced by its contrast with the modern flneur,
but also by several other elements. The city spreading around them is strikingly reminiscent
of a site excavation. The photograph was taken in 1853, which is the year Haussmann
launched his Renovation of Paris. Paris was re-discovering its past at the same time as it was
asserting, constructing and literally building up its modernity. As a result, the period was
marked by a resurgence of the medieval. The idea of the Vieux Paris was thus essentially a
product of the citys modernisation, which was uncovering what lay below the surface.
23I would say that Ngres photograph encapsulates, in visual terms, the movement of a
cradle rocking back and forth between modernity and the [medieval age] (Benjamin 1999,
356) which leaves its mark on Paris during that period. The quasi-archeological layers of the
cityscape in the background remind us that the citys past lurks right below its surface, and
reflect, on a different plane, the archeological makeup of the flneur. All the gazing figures
who preceded him are ancestral layers which are part of the imagined historicity of the
flneur and underlie our perception of the figure. There is an interesting reciprocity here
between subject and objectbetween the flneur himself and the city he is gazing at.
Moreover, the physical proximity between the gargoyle and the modern gentleman standing
next to him seems to point to the dialectical relationship between past and present which
constitutes the essence of the flneur. The historical depth of the image thus destabilizes its
meaning, and brings out its dialectical nature. In the light of this, Lerners initial reading of
the photograph has to be reconsidered.
24Indeed, I would also argue that one might also read the image differently and see the
presence of the melancholy gargoyle as undermining the idea of omniscience. Ngres
photograph emphasizes the historicity of Asmodeus. The medieval nature of the gargoyle
reminds us that the devil was originally the agent of deceptive vision, illusion, delusion and
hallucination.Indeed, the devil had the power to adopt any bodily form or shape whatever,
the power to create exact simulations of people and events, and, above all, the power to
disrupt the cognitive process itself by physically entering either brain or eye or both and
moving images around them at will (Clark 3). In the eighteenth century, he became the agent
of distanced clear-sightedness. That vision is revised and transformed yet again by
nineteenth-century physiologists, who deem the devils panoptic vision insufficient.
Asmodeus, then, becomes the embodiment of abysmal doubt, which his posture seems to
denote. I would suggest that the presence of the petrified Asmodeus also hints at the
impossibility of ever fully apprehending the city. His half satirical, half-melancholy presence
might be the recognition of the limits of the gaze, which might see the most when it accepts
and confronts what it cannot fully comprehend. On the one hand, the ghostly and antiquated
presence of Asmodeus erodes the polished surface of the all-seeing flneur. On the other
hand, it bestows depth and wealth of meaning on the flneur. The photographs interest lies
precisely in the fact that it does not reconcile opposites, but upholds the ambiguity of the
flneurs gaze and position within the city.

25To understand how this dialectical image functions, one might look at it as one would
through the transparent lenses of a stereoscope. Wheatstones 1838 invention was, according
to Crary, the most significant form of visual imagery in the nineteenth century. This device
combines two images that are side by side to produce a three-dimensional depth perception.
Stereoscopic viewing joins two disparate images together and brings them into relief. It is an
operation of reconciling disparity, of making two distinctive views appear as one (Crary
120). The daguerrotype offers us the possibility of viewing the disparate images of Asmodeus
and the flneur stereoscopicallyit merges the figure of the devil with that of the modern
viewer while simultaneously throwing them into sharp relief. The stereoscope uses
persistence of vision, the continuance of a sensation after the stimulus which caused it is
removed (OED). Similarly, Asmodeus persists through the flneur after it has vanished from
view. The functioning of the device matches that of Ngres image. Stereoscopic viewing
gives us an insistent sense of in front of and in back of that seems to organize the image
as a sequence of receding planes (Crary 125). The flneur symbolically stands in front of
Asmodeus, whose presence brings both figures into relief. The daguerreotype, like a
stereoscopic image, offers itself with a hallucinatory clarity, but when taken together [the
two figures] never coalesce into a homogeneous field. Part of this fascination of these images
is due to this immanent disorder (Crary 126). Crarys observation here underlines the
instability of the flneur as a construct, who is a constantly-evolving, Protean figure. His
remark also reminds us that the shifting perspectives from which we behold the flneur are
part of its construction. The stereoscope, once again, helps us understand how we perceive
this figure, and points to the importance of the notion of time as well as space. As well as
underlining the temporal and historical depth of the figure, the stereoscope shows us that to
perceive this reconstructed, three-dimensional figure, we, as readers, need time to adjust our
vision: Stereoscopic vision gives both time and space their due, for the coordination of the
two images requires a minute delay in perception (Jay 1845). This also implies that the
flneur too must adjust his vision to the multi-layered cityscape. The idea of immanent
disorder, of discrepancy inherent in the flneurs perception as well as our perception of the
flneur goes against the idea of transparency. What happens to the scopic dream, then, if the
flneur is not absolutely transparent?

Transparency as Translation: the flneur as

a Spyglass
26The flneur, then, is not purely transparenthe does not make the city manifest, evident,
obvious and clear (OED), or restore it without distortions. I would like to argue that he is
more of a spyglass for readers. However, the notion of spyglass brings to mind the notion of
mediation, of diffraction and refractionit signifies a change, or a shift in perspective. The
Latin prefix trans, which means across, evokes an active movement that cuts across, or
goes to the farther side (OED). The implication is one of action, motion or motivation. By
constantly morphing into modern, transparent shapes and outwardly shedding its former
shells, the flneur takes us through the changes that affect the nineteenth century and
displaces the urban gaze. By doing this, he is also articulating or translating the complexity of
urban experience to make it shareable and accessible.
27The flneur is the reader and interpreter of modern life. We need the experience of the city
to be mediated, to be refracted through the lensor monocleof the flneur to be able to
apprehend modernity. The flneur interprets and reorganizes the citys images and messages

to make it intelligible. Benjamin wrote that a real translation is transparent; it does not cover
the original, does not black its light, but allows the pure language, as though reinforced by its
own medium to shine upon the original all the more fully (Benjamin 2000, 81). We need this
literary translation to comprehend modernitythe flneur is often described as a learned
exegete and reader of the urban text: Il y a sous la premire enveloppe de chaque chose des
rapports inconnus, des aperus ignors, tout un nouveau monde dides, de rflexions et de
sentiments qui sveillent et jaillissent tout coup sous le regard exerc de lobservateur,
comme la source cache sous la sonde du gologue (Lacroix 712). The discourse of and
about the flneur allows the passage and apprehension of modern experience. His task is to
translate the complex and elusive urban modernity. According to Benjamin, the modern is
as varied in its meaning as the different aspects of one and the same kaleidoscope (Benjamin
1999, 545). We need this modernity to be filtered through a conscience, through the opacity
of writing to apprehend it.
28Let us now examine Master Humphreys translation of his experience of London. We are
seeing London through his eyes, but from the very beginning, he tells us that his nightwalking gives him opportunity of speculating upon the characters and occupations of those
who fill the streets (Dickens 2000, 9). The word speculate is particularly interesting here
because it encapsulates what Master Humphreys flnerie effectively does. At first sight,
Master Humphrey is the transparent shell who walks us through the London streetshe is all
eyes for us. Indeed, this is precisely what the now obsolete meaning of to speculate implies:
to look at, gaze at something; to examine, inspect, or observe closely and narrowly (OED).
However, the current use of the word indicates that he does not only record the city for us. To
speculate is, above all, to observe or view mentally, to consider, examine, or reflect upon
with close attention; to contemplate; to theorize upon. Thus, Master Humphrey is not only
reading the city, he is primarily re-readingor translatingthe city-space. In his insomnia,
the mental spaces and the metropolis become inseparable, and the following passage
illustrates how much re-writing his night flnerie actually entails: A glimpse of passing faces
caught by the light of a street-lamp or a shop window is often better for my purpose than their
full revelation in the daylight; and, if I must add the truth, night is kinder in this respect than
day, which too often destroys an air-built castle (Dickens 2000, 9). Transparency, the
property of transmitting light, is of no concernif anything, daylight is an obstacle. The
passage shows that he is looking for something hidden, and by reading and re-reading the
streets, he is effectively re-writing London. He is literally translating the urban experience
through the prism of his own curiosity and speculations. For De Certeau, physical circulation
across the city, with its associated mechanisms of dreams, memories and fables, is the key to
unlocking the urban experience. Master Humphreys meandering writing reflects and
translates his own physical and mental flneries. Speculation is at the heart of the text Master
Humphrey is writing with his footsteps. His flnerie pays off since he does stumble upon a
curiosityLittle Nelland a story. Far from being a mere see-through window open onto the
modern city, the flneur is more like a spyglass. We can only have a transparent access to
the city when it is refracted through the opacity of writing.
29This paper has examined the flneur through the lens of transparency and through the
prism of three objects that use transparency as their core functioning principle. Starting with
the metaphor of the glass pane and an overview of the nineteenth-century scopic drive, and
narrowing its angle gradually to focus on the stereoscopic makeup of the flneur, it closed in
on the flneurs mode of vision, which, it suggested, might be said to function like a spyglass.
One might argue that the scopic dream could best be encapsulated through the metaphor of
the glass pane. Indeed, constructions of the flneur are underpinned by this dream of a

crystal-clear, all-seeing, and penetrating vision, which implies that he is akin to a transparent
glass pane himself. However, a closer look at the flneur reveals him to be far from simply
transparent. Beholding him through the lens of a stereoscope brings his multi-layered nature
into reliefand focus. If we shift our focus away from his construction to close in on the
flneurs vision, the comparison with a spyglass becomes increasingly apt. For the flneur,
being transparent in the city, is ultimately translating modernity though his gaze, footsteps,
and words. The opaque locust swarms of writing to which Benjamin refers do not eclipse
the sun (Benjamin 1979, 62) but, on the contrary, embody the abstraction of the flneurs
gazethey allow pure language to shine upon the city. To see and to give solidity to the
dream of transparency, transparency cannot be absolute, but must be mediated and filtered
through the opacity of writing.
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Bibliography
DOI are automaticaly added to references by Bilbo, OpenEdition's Bibliographic Annotation
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Users of institutions which have subscribed to one of OpenEdition freemium programs can
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available on the right.
BENJAMIN Walter, One-Way Street and Other Writings, trans. Edmund Jephcott, Kingsley
Shorter, London: NLB, 1979.
BENJAMIN Walter, The Arcades Project, trans. Howard Eiland, Kevin McLaughlin.
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Reader, ed. Lawrence Venuti, London: Routledge, 2000, 7583.
CLARK Stuart, Vanities of the Eye, Oxford: OUP, 2007.
CRARY Jonathan, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth
Century, Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 1992.
DE CERTEAU Michel, LInvention du quotidien; arts de faire 1, Paris: Gallimard, 1990.
DICKENS Charles, Master Humphreys Clock, London: Chapman & Hall, 1840.
DICKENS Charles, The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), London: Penguin Classics, 2000.
FORSTER John, Life of Charles Dickens (18724), Uitgeverij: Diderot, 2005.
DOI : 10.1017/CBO9781139107884
HETZEL Pierre-Jules (ed.), Le diable Paris, 2 vol., Paris: Hetzel, 184546.

JAY Martin, Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French

Thought, Berkeley and Los Angeles: U of California P, 1993.
LACROIX Auguste, Le Flneur, Les Franais peints par eux-mmes: Encyclopdie morale
du dix-neuvime sicle, vol. 3, ed. Louis Curmer, Paris: Curmer, 18401842.
ROSE Margaret A. (ed.), Flneurs & Idlers: Louis Huart, Physiologie du flneur (1841);
Albert Smith, The Natural History of the Idler upon Town (1848), Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2007.
RUSKIN John, Elements of Drawing (1857), London: George Allen, 1895.
DOI : 10.1017/CBO9780511696183.006
TAYLOR LERNER Jillian, A Devils-Eye View of Paris: Gavarnis Portrait of the Editor,
Oxford Art Journal, 2008, 31 (2).
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Essays, ed. David Bradshaw, Oxford: OUP, 2008.
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Annex
Figure 1Paul Gavarni, Frontispice of Le Diable Paris, 18441846, wood engraving, in
P.-J. Stahl [Hetzel].

Zoom Original (jpeg, 104k)

Le Diable Paris, 2 vol. (P.-J. Hetzel: Paris, 18451846), I.
Figure 2Charles Ngre, Le Stryge, 1853, calotype, gelatin-silver print, muse dOrsay,
Paris.

Zoom Original (jpeg, 64k)

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Notes
1 Smith, who popularized the figure of the flneur with the 1848 The Natural History of the
Idler upon Town, was friends with Dickens.
2 Jillian Taylor Lerner has shown how physiologies of the period created a composite portrait
of authorial expertise by blending the figures of the lame devil, the ragpicker and the editor.
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List of illustrations
Figure 1Paul Gavarni, Frontispice of Le Diable Paris, 18441846,
wood engraving, in P.-J. Stahl [Hetzel].
Caption Le Diable Paris, 2 vol. (P.-J. Hetzel: Paris, 18451846), I.
URL http://cve.revues.org/docannexe/image/252/img-1.jpg
File image/jpeg, 104k
Title

Figure 2Charles Ngre, Le Stryge, 1853, calotype, gelatin-silver print,

muse dOrsay, Paris.
URL http://cve.revues.org/docannexe/image/252/img-2.jpg
Title

File
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image/jpeg, 64k

References
Electronic reference
Estelle Murail, The Flneurs Scopic Power or the Victorian Dream of Transparency ,
Cahiers victoriens et douardiens [Online], 77 Printemps | 2013, Online since 05 December
2013, connection on 11 July 2015. URL : http://cve.revues.org/252
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About the author

Estelle Murail
Estelle Murail is currently a joint-supervised Ph.D. student at universit Paris-Diderot and
Kings College London. Her Ph.D. is entitled Beyond the flneur: Walking, Passage and
Crossing in Paris and London in the Nineteenth Century. She is also agrge and ATER at
the universit Paris-Est Marne-La-Valle.
Estelle Murail est doctorante en littrature britannique, inscrite en cotutelle luniversit
Paris Diderot et Kings College London. Sa thse sintitule Au-del du flneur : marche,
passage et croisements Paris et Londres au dix-neuvime sicle . Elle est agrge
danglais et occupe les fonctions dATER luniversit Paris-Est Marne-La-Valle.
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