Eugène Sue

Born in Paris in 1804, Eugène Sue first trained in medicine and worked as a naval surgeon before devoting himself to writing. His early fiction drew on the sea and on adventure, but he became truly famous when he began publishing novels in serial form for newspapers.

That format suited him perfectly. Chapter by chapter, he kept readers hooked with dramatic twists while also exploring the lives of people across the social scale, especially those pushed to the margins. The Mysteries of Paris became an enormous success in the 1840s and helped define the popular serialized novel, while The Wandering Jew confirmed his wide appeal.

Sue's books were often sensational, but they were also shaped by a strong concern for social conditions in modern city life. He spent part of his later life in exile after the political upheavals of mid-19th-century France, and he died in 1857. Today he is remembered as a major popular novelist whose storytelling brought mass readership and social drama together.