An alcoholic, insane, or financially reckless relative could spell disaster for families struggling to adapt to industrial capitalism in nineteenth-century Montreal. Faced with the possible decline of their social status and fearing for their respectability, many households filed for judicial interdictions that deprived deviant members of their civil capacity and sometimes led to their confinement in institutions. Based on an analysis of over five hundred interdiction proceedings initiated between 1820 and 1895, "Fous, Prodigues, Ivrognes" examines the interactions between families, the legal system, and doctors involved in the regulation of deviance in nineteenth-century Montreal. Moving away from the traditional focus on institutions, Thierry Nootens looks at the family - rather than the state, the medical profession, or the asylum - as the primary site for defining and regulating a range of deviant behaviours.