The Arcades Project - Operi

knowing it; yet notlllng is more foolish than the conventional thesis which ration­
alizes his behavior, and which fonns the uncontested basis of that voluminous
literature that traces the figure and demeanor of the flaneur-the thesis, namely,
that the flaneur has made a study of the physiognomic appearance of people in
order to discover their nationality and social station, character and destiny, from
a perusal of their gait, build, and play of features. TI,e interest in concealing the
true motives of the flaneur must have been pressing indeed to have occasioned
such a shabby thesis. [M6a,4]
In Maxime Du Camp's poem "Le Voyageur;' the fI&neur wears the costume of
the traveler:
"l am afraid to stop-it's the engine of my life;
Love galls me so; I do not want to love."
"Move on then, on with your bitter travels!
The sad road awaits you: meet your fate."
Maxime Du Camp, Les Chants modernes (paris, 1855), p. 104. [M7,l]
Lithograph. Cabmen Doing Battle with Omnibus Drivers. Cabinet des Estampes.
[M7,2]
As early as 1853, there arc official statistics concerning vehicular traffic at certain
Parisian nerve centers. " In 1853, thirty-one omnibus lines were serving Paris, and
it is worth noting that, with a few exceptions, these lines were designated by the
same letters used for the autobus lines operating at that time. Thus it was that the
'Madeleine-Bastille' line was already Line E." Paul d'Ariste, La Vie et le monde
du boulevard, 1830-1870 (Paris