ABSTRACT
Eugène Sue's novel Les Mystères de Paris was published in serial form in the newspaper Le Journal des débats between June 1842 and October 1843, and reached what appears to have been an unprecedented readership. The anti-literary Marshal became incurably addicted to Les Mystères de Paris, with the result that when Sue was arrested and gaoled by the National Guard for evading military service and refused to issue any more instalments while in prison, Soult ordered his immediate release. As Sue published his novel in instalments, he was inundated by a flood of letters from his readers. It is believed there may have been around 1200 of these, of which roughly 400 have survived, so far unpublished. Since Sue was publishing the novel in instalments, without, as far as we know, a detailed master-plan drawn up in advance, its method of composition left the novel at certain points theoretically open to changes in narrative direction.
