This article, in its begininn, offers na apparently unusual approximation between two works: 1) the French Adventures of Rocambole (1857-1870), a Ponson du Terrail feuilleton , that is structured upon the secret society ‘The Hearts Jack Club’, headed first by the sordid Count Andrea and later by his nephew Rocambole; 2) the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte of Karl Marx, that tells the rise of the Napoleon’s nephewfrom the secret society ‘10th of December’ and also the real and at the same time phony adventures of a ‘mediocre canaille’. It is shown that the French press at that time identified the character of Rocambole as though it was the Emperor’s. This article remarks as a Rocambole could be a character of ours days, searches for a definition for the word ‘rocambolesc’ in this period of corruption and violence. It talks about the appeal that these kind of mock, rascal heroes have on readers, comparing to examples from Machado de Assis and Graciliano Ramos.
Rocambole; Louis Bonaparte; feuilleton ; rocambolesc; vile hero; rascality; violence; imaginary.