Eugène Sue

Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (French pronunciation: [øʒɛn sy]; 26 January 1804 – 3 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated The Mysteries of Paris, which was published in a newspaper from 1842 to 1843.

Early life

Sue was born in Paris, France. He was the son of a distinguished surgeon in Napoleon's army, Jean-Joseph Sue, and had Empress Joséphine as his godmother. Sue himself acted as surgeon both in the 1823 French campaign in Spain and at the Battle of Navarino in 1827. In 1829 his father's death put him in possession of a considerable fortune, and he settled in Paris.

Literary career

Sue's naval experiences supplied much of the material for his first novels, Kernock le pirate (1830), Atar-Gull (1831), La Salamandre (1832), La Coucaratcha (1832–1834), and others, written at the height of the Romantic movement of 1830. In the quasi-historical style he wrote Jean Cavalier, ou Les Fanatiques des Cevennes (1840) and Latréaumont (1837). His Mathilde (1841) contains the first known expression of the popular proverb "La vengeance se mange très-bien froide", translated in 1846 as "Revenge is very good eaten cold" by D. G. Osborne, also constituting the first known English usage of the proverb later expressed in English as "Revenge is a dish best served cold".

He was strongly affected by the socialist ideas of the day, and these prompted his most famous works, the anti-Catholic novels: The Mysteries of Paris (Les Mystères de Paris) (published in Journal des débats from 19 June 1842 until 15 October 1843) and The Wandering Jew (Le Juif errant; 1844–1845), which were among the most popular specimens of the serial novel. The Wandering Jew is a Gothic novel depicting the titular character in conflict with the villain, a murderous Jesuit named Rodin. These works depicted the intrigues of the nobility and the harsh life of the underclass to a wide public. Les Mystères de Paris spawned a class of imitations all over the world, the city mysteries. Sue's books caused controversy because of their strongly violent scenes, and also because of their socialist and anti-clerical subtexts.