Eugène Sue - Les Mystères de Paris - 1843

First illustrated book edition of one of the most powerful socially critical feuilleton novels — a key work of socially critical urban literature of the 19th century in a decorative contemporary binding.

Publisher: Librairie de Charles Gosselin, Paris, 1843-44, complete in 4 volumes. First illustrated edition, published a few months after the original, illustrated with numerous vignettes and 47 woodcut and 34 copperplate plates after Staal, Daubigny, Nanteuil, Daumier. Half-leather bindings of the period, 27 x 19 cm.
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Content-wise, Sue unfolds a wide panorama of Paris under the July Monarchy: at the center is the mysterious Rodolphe, who goes incognito into the city’s underworld and comes into contact with figures from all social strata — criminals, workers, prostitutes, petty bourgeois, nobles. The novel combines melodramatic plotting with sharp social observation and addresses poverty, crime, the judiciary, morality, and social responsibility. At the same time, it established a new sensitivity to urban life realities and is regarded as an important catalyst for later realistic and socially engaged literature.
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