The Wandering Jew

Joseph Marie Eugene Sue (1804-1857), a French novelist, was born in Paris. He acted as surgeon both in the Spanish campaign undertaken by France in 1823 and at the Battle of Navarino (1828). His naval experiences supplied much of the materials of his first novels, Kernock le Pirate (1830), Atar-Gull (1831), La Salamandre (2v/1832), La Coucaratcha (4v/1832- 1834), and others, which were composed at the height of the Romantic movement of 1830. In the quasi-historical style he wrote Jean Cavalier; ou, Les Fanatiques des Cevennes (4v/1840) and Lautraumont (2v/1837). He was strongly affected by the Socialist ideas of the day, and these prompted his most famous works: Les Mystres de Paris (10v/1842-1843) and Le Juif Errant (tr. The Wandering Jew) (11v/1844-1845), which were among the most popular specimens of the roman-feuilleton. His period of greatest success and popularity coincided with that of Alexandre Dumas, pre, with whom he has been compared.