Champfleury, ou l’écrivain-collectionneur en chiffonnier

In Champfleury’s works, the chiffonnier is both a representation of the Parisian, and a symbolic figure. While la chiffonnerie is formed through fiction and occupies a central place in La Mascarade de la vie parisienne, its metaphorical investments are no less remarkable: it is just as closely linked to pantomime rags as it is to collectionism, which begins with collecting, and to the writing practices of a “realist” author who does not hesitate to recycle his observations and his texts.