Mysteries of Paris

Jan 14, 2026 5:34 AM

Author:Eugene Sue

Mysteries of Paris

The first new translation in over a century of the the brilliant epic novel that inspired Les Misérables

From July 1842 through October 1843, Parisians rushed to the newspaper each week for the latest installment of Eugène Sue's The Mysteries of Paris, one of France's first serial novels. The suspenseful story of Rodolphe, a magnetic hero of noble heart and shadowy origins, played out over ninety issues, garnering wild popularity and leading many to call it the most widely read novel of the 19th century. Sue's novel created the city mystery genre and inspired a raft of successors, including Les Misérables and The Count of Monte Cristo.

The intricate melodrama of The Mysteries of Paris unfolds around a Paris where the fortunes of the rich and the poor are helplessly tangled, despite the vast gulf between them. In the Cité, a seedy neighborhood where criminals gather, Rodolphe encounters a young prostitute of breathtaking purity who goes by the name Songbird. He saves her from an attack by a ruffian called the Slasher, setting off the dominoes of an epic narrative traversing the ranks of French society. As Rodolphe pursues his own mysterious quest for redemption, a circle of characters from all walks of life forms around him-some following his every move and others gravitating to his boundless generosity. From the nefarious pairing of the Schoolmaster and the Owl, a hardened criminal and an unfathomably cruel street merchant, to Morel, a gem-cutter so virtuous he refuses to steal even the smallest ruby to feed his starving family, the lines between good and evil in Sue's Paris are always clear, but never unyielding. Though the immense literary and historical resonance of Sue's magnum opus has been for years overshadowed by Hugo's achievement, this stunning new translation is a revelation, promising to bring the unmitigated pleasures of Sue's cliffhangers and criminals to a new century of readers. Sensational, steamy, tightly-plotted, pulpy, proto-socialist, heartbreaking, and riveting, The Mysteries of Paris is doubtless one of the most entertaining and influential works to emerge from the 19th century.

Reviews

Look Homeward, Angel is one of the most important novels of my life ... It's a wonderful story for any young person burning with literary ambition, but it also speaks to the longings of our whole lives; I'm still moved by Wolfe's ability to convey the human appetite for understanding and experience

—— Elizabeth Kostova, author of 'The Historian'

Language as rich and ambitious and intensely American as any of our novelists has ever accomplished

—— Charles Frazier, author of 'Cold Mountain'

Put everything else on hold. Turn off the phone. Be prepared to be swept away by this wonderful book. I couldn't put it down and loved every delicious page. Dinah Jefferies has a remarkable gift for conjuring up another time and place with lush descriptions, full of power and intensity. I was totally captivated by its passionate and dangerous story of Nicole, as she fights to find her place in the turmoil of 1950s Vietnam, torn between loyalty and love. Deeply layered, full of twists and surprises, but with an edge of darkness, this book is an exciting, exhilarating, extraordinary story that is beautifully written. I loved it. A must read

—— Kate Furnivall

Beautifully written and heart-rending, this has a magical setting with a real sense of period

—— Katie Fforde on 'The Tea Planter's Wife'

A terrific emotional and atmospheric read

—— Elizabeth Buchan on 'The Tea Planter's Wife'

Dinah Jefferies has once again created a gloriously atmospheric and tension-filled novel. Immensely enjoyable, poignant and compelling.

—— Isabel Wolff on 'The Tea Planter's Wife'

My ideal read; mystery, love heart-break and joy - I couldn't put it down

—— Santa Montefiore on 'The Tea Planter's Wife'

The ideal book...always wanting to know what happens next, together with the description of the period and characters, all make this a compelling read

—— Woman's Weekly

Beautifully atmospheric, with twists to keep you enthralled

—— My Weekly

Lush and romantic, with an authentic feel of place and period, Jefferies should have another hit on her hands here

—— Sunday Mirror

Historical writing of wonderful intelligence

—— Kate Saunders , Saga Magazine

Clark expertly spins a story of people trying to work out who they are amid the wreckage of old social certainties. Acute and perceptive

—— Daily Mail

The Magicians is a spellbinding, fast-moving, dark fantasy book for grownups that feels like an instant classic. I read it in a niffin-blue blaze of page turning, enthralled by Grossman's verbal and imaginative wizardry, his complex characters and most of all, his superb, brilliant inquiry into the wondrous, dangerous world of magic

—— Kate Christensen , author of The Epicure's Lament and The Great Man

The Magicians is Harry Potter as it might have been written by John Crowley...This is one of the best fantasies I've read in ages

—— Elizabeth Hand , Fantasy & Science Fiction

The author has taken all that is held dear in the fantasy genre, reverently (most of the time) tipping the hat to Rowling, Tolkien, Lewis, Le Guin and others, and shown it from a completely different and unique angle

—— Fantasy Book Review

...a gripping fantasy thriller that will please all the older Harry Potter fans out there

—— Yours Magazine

Sumell’s compulsively readable novel in stories introduces a restless underachiever as irresistible as he is detestable, surely one of the most morally, violently, socially complex personalities in recent literature…. Sumell’s debut is humbly macho, provoking outrage, pity, and finally tenderness. Perhaps this is a book readers will hate to love, but only because it feels, like Alby, all too real

—— Booklist

There's a special alchemy here that you are going to want to witness...offhand and funny, and then the tender heart emerges from the shadows, so tender, and comes at us with a knife. Every story here is two: one the fun, the other the blade

—— Ron Carlson

Focusing on the single reality that human beings die, Sumell wakes up, and boy oh boy is he ever pissed off... Sumell, on Alby's behalf, fights back, and he fights dirty. Using cunning, reckless rage, and bravura comic timing, he kicks death's ass... Bystanders get hurt, the reader got hurt, but at least I was reminded that I was part of this whole shitty deal. You'd like to believe that there are consolations, and there are. Being sentient, for example. Being able to read, for instance. Having read Making Nice

—— Geoffrey Wolff

The self-destructive narrator lashes out with reckless intimacy, random violence, and an often hilarious misplaced rage that shoots to wound rather than kill. What saves its victims and the reader is a naked rendering of a heart sorting through its broken pieces to survive. The result is an eloquent empathy, an uplift of hope-filled grace

—— Mark Richard

Making Nice will grab you by the throat, raise your blood pressure, and cause you to chortle in a crowd. It will also break your heart. When they're writing the history of the best characters of our time, Alby will be there, telling the others to get in line

—— Matthew Thomas , author of We Are Not Ourselves

Making Nice is a little bit special. A truly original portrayal of grief

—— Benjamin Judge , Book Munch

Making Nice has an anarchic humour and a goofy, ingenuous humanity that makes every page feel new… Some jokes…aren’t just funny, they are insightful, unexpected and hilarious. In its rampage to nowhere, Making Nice achieves the remarkable feat of making it feel better to travel hopelessly than to arrive.

—— Sandra Newman , Guardian

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