author
Charles Mérouvel
1832–1920
Best known for melodramatic, fast-moving popular fiction, this 19th-century French novelist and playwright wrote under a pen name and became a familiar name to feuilleton readers. His stories often turned on scandal, suffering, and emotional reversals, helping define the era's taste for sensation.
1 Audiobook
Angèle Méraud
by Charles Mérouvel
About the author
Born Charles Chartier in L'Aigle, France, on December 1, 1832, he published under the name Charles Mérouvel and built a career as both a novelist and a dramatist. French library and reference sources identify him as a major feuilleton writer, and Gallica describes him as one of the notable figures of the roman de la victime, a strain of popular fiction centered on persecution, injustice, and emotional ordeal.
Mérouvel wrote prolifically for a wide reading public, with works including Chaste et flétrie!, Le Péché de la générale, and Monsieur le marquis. His fiction was closely tied to the world of serialized and popular publishing, where suspense, moral conflict, and dramatic twists mattered as much as literary prestige.
He died on June 20, 1920, in Mortagne-au-Perche. Though he is not as widely read today as some of his contemporaries, his books remain a useful window into the tastes of late 19th-century French popular literature and the emotional power of the newspaper serial.