ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1842 France became gripped by a literary phenomenon the like of which hitherto had been unknown there and, to a large extent, anywhere else. From June 1842 until October 1843 French readers were spellbound by the serialization of a single work of fiction, Les Mystères de Paris by Eugène Sue. Although both the author and his novel are now largely forgotten, it would be difficult to overstate the sensation caused at the time by this feuilleton, as serialized fiction in France was then known. Cabinets de lecture, reading rooms where most of the reading public could hire newspapers and journals to read, were forced to ration the time allowed for the Journal des Débats, the Parisian newspaper whose circulation soared as a result of Sue’s serial. The great literary commentator of the period, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, wrote in July 1843 when Les Mystères de Paris had the nation in its tightest grasp:
That both society ladies and chambermaids were anxious to read the same work is significant. The appeal of Les Mystères de Paris across the social spectrum in France was one of the factors that set it apart from earlier fiction by Sue or indeed by any other French author. This breadth reflected one of the consequences of the profound social and economic changes that characterized the nineteenth century in France, indeed in Europe as a whole. Increasing industrialization, the growth of urban population, improved railway connections throughout the country and an increase in literacy brought on by educational reforms earlier in the century had revolutionized
the publishing market, particularly for fiction. Up until this change novels had been produced in the traditional three-volume format and had been effectively luxury items, exclusively available to the social elite. Responding to the economic and social shifts of the period, newspapers began to compete for a growing market of new readers and in the late 1830s serialized fiction, the feuilleton, became a powerful component in the subsequent circulation battle between periodicals.
