Sue
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Sue. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARIE JOSEPH EU- GENE , a French novelist; born in Paris Dec. 10, 1804. He adopted his father's profession of medicine, became a surgeon in the army , and served in Spain in 1823. In 1825 he joined the naval service, and in the capacity of surgeon was present at the battle of Navarino in 1827. On his father's death in 1829, he inherited a fortune, and having abandoned his profession , he devoted himself to literary composition. His first work was a sea novel entitled "Kernock the Pirate," which was quickly followed by "Plick and Plock," "Atar-Gull," "The Salamander" and the "Lookout of Koatven." Among his first historical novels were "Latreaum "Latreaumont ," "Jean Cavalier," and "The Commander." His most famous works are: "The Mysteries of Paris," and "The Wandering Jew." He wrote also: " Arthur"; "Hotel Lambert"; "Mathilde, or the Recollections of a Young Woman "; "The Foundling"; "The Seven Capital Sins "; and "The Mysteries of the People ." In 1850 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly, and sat as an advanced radical. After the coup d'état by Napoleon III. in 1851 he left France and retired to Savoy. He died in Annecy, Savoy, July 3, 1857. SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, CAIUS , a Roman author; lived and wrote between A. D. 75 and 160. His father was Suetonius Lenis, a tribune of the 13th legion under Otho. The son mainly known to us as a biographer and miscellaneous writer was educated for the Roman bar . He seems never to have sought public employment. Pliny speaks in high terms of his writings; his integrity married, but, so far as is known, had tegrity and learning . Suetonius was no children. He obtained, through Pliny's interest from the Emperor Trajan the jus trium liberorum, a distinguished privilege. Suetonius filled the office of Magister Epistolarum to Haopportunities for seeing and utilizing drian, a position which gave him vast many important imperial documents. The date of his death is unknown. He in part enumerated by Suidas, conwas a voluminous writer . His works, sisted of grammatical treatises and works antiquarian , legal, moral, and biographical, most of which have been lost. His "Lives of the Twelve Cæsars," "Lives of Eminent Grammarians," and toricians," survive. His "Lives of the a portion of " Lives of Eminent Rhe- Cæsars" still maintains the reputation merous. Editions of Suetonius in which it has been held for centuries. are very nu- The two earliest were published at Rome, 1470, a third at Venice, quarto, 2 vols.), of J. A. Ernesti (1748), 1471. The editions of Burmann (1736 , and of Fr. Oudendorp (1751), are well known. manic tribes in classic authors; used
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
su, Eugene (1804-1857), a French novelist. His father was a physician of Paris. Sue was educated for medicine and served in the army and navy as a surgeon. In 1829 he came into wealth by the death of his father, and henceforth devoted himself to writing novels. His noted works are The Mysteries of Paris and The Wandering Jew. The former deals with the wicked ways of a wicked city. The latter is a powerful description of the supposed wanderings and adventures of a Jew, unable to die, forbidden to rest, and condemned to move on for one thousand years. The tale is founded on the legend of the Jew who refused to permit Christ to rest a moment when toiling along bearing His cross to the place of crucifixion.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biographical outline given by Collier's in 1921 still stands: Eugène Sue really was a naval surgeon turned millionaire novelist, a radical deputy in 1850, and an exile in Savoy after Louis Napoleon's coup, dying at Annecy in 1857. What has moved is his standing. Collier's could list his titles as familiar household reading; today he is barely read for pleasure in English, but is closely studied as the inventor of the mass-market newspaper serial — 'The Mysteries of Paris' (1842–43) set off a worldwide craze for 'mysteries of' novels about London, New York and Berlin, and Marx and Engels devoted a long attack on it in 'The Holy Family'. A complete modern English translation of 'The Mysteries of Paris' appeared from Penguin Classics in 2015, the first in well over a century, and Aiton's brisk summary of it as a book about 'the wicked ways of a wicked city' is now read as an early experiment in social reportage rather than mere sensation.
Written for this edition, 2026.