Eugène Sue

(1804 - 1857)

Eugène Sue used his experience as a naval surgeon to provide color for his widely popular and melodramatic fiction, which was often serialized in newspapers and devoured for its sensationalism—and willingness to portray the poor in a sympathetic way. In 1850 he was elected to the National Assembly as a socialist. For opposing Louis-Napoléon’s 1851 coup d’état, Sue was imprisoned, then went into exile in the French Alps until his death in 1857.