Sue, Eugène

(1804-1857)

   novelist

   Born in Paris, Eugène Sue (the pen name of Marie-Joseph Sue) was the son of a noted physician. A naval physician himself, after many travels he took up the life of a dandy. An admirer of American author Fenimore Cooper, Sue started in literature with novels about the sea (La Salamanche, 1832), then wrote novels about everyday life and customs (Mathilde, 1841), and became successful with Les Mystères de Paris, the first of his serialized works, that augured the humanitarian ideals later found in those of victor hugo. Sue's Le Juif errant (1844-45), directed against the Jesuits, and his Sept Pêches capitaux (1847-49) were also well received. By the power and exactness of his description of the world of the working classes and the downtrodden, the portrayal of innumerable characters who animate his works, Sue can perhaps be considered the initiator of realism. Often rich in detail, his work is also an expression of a basic, Manichean morality and, to a certain degree, social conservatism.