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girlwithherheadinabook's review
3.0
Review originally published here: http://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/2016/02/review-the-mysteries-of-paris-eugene-sue.html
Weighing in at nearly one and a half thousand pages, The Mysteries of Paris is an intimidating book by anyone’s standards. Serialised over a sixteen month period in the 1840s, it was a sensation in its day, inspiring Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Having never heard of it before, I was surprised at how familiar it felt; the dark and frightening underbelly of Paris is not so very different from Dickens’ account of Victorian London, the waifs and strays remind me also of Guy de Maupassant’s short stories (yes, half of my degree was in French literature) but there is also more than a few characters who recall the main players of Hugo’s masterpiece. However, there were also moments of extraordinary darkness, moments which reveal a society which still remembers all too well the days of revolutionary lawlessness, where the characters know that they can rely on nobody for aid – The Mysteries of Paris is almost Shakespearean in the peaks and troughs which it deals out to the protagonists.
The central protagonist is the enigmatic Rodolphe, an apparent Parisian worker who is really a German duke in disguise. He goes about settling the affairs of the lesser men, rescuing those who he feels can be redeemed and punishing those who he judges beyond penitence. At the time, many Parisian citizens believed that these ‘courts of morality’ were a good idea, so in some ways The Mysteries of Paris presents what was to many an ideal, even when at times Rodolphe’s methods appear medieval. He is aided in his mission by English nobleman Sir Walter Murph and a young ex-slave doctor known as David, all of whom are individuals truly pure of heart and conscience but overshadowed by the dark memories of old betrayals, the true natures of which only become clear as the novel goes on.
As a historical piece, this is a truly fascinating novel – long before Les Miserables, Sue reveals the working classes as people, and as victims of their inhumane social conditions rather than predisposed to vice. The young girl Songbird has fallen into prostitution, but it is recognised by those around her that she has had little real option and has been abused by those around her since a child – nobody could argue that she is undeserving of her redemption. The Slasher is also commended for his overall good heart despite his violent past, that he too has had little in the way of positive influences in his life to set him in a better direction. Rodolphe’s schemes to save the people he meets are occasionally complicated by others but never thwarted, giving the book a positive feel despite the horror which it depicts in such detail – despite central themes that challenge the overall status quo (and which some have argued set the stage for the 1848 revolution), this is still a novel with a traditional structure and which finishes with everyone back in their appropriate places.
Billed as the first English translation in a century, The Mysteries of Paris is not a light read but it has been a worthwhile one. It feels like the precursor for so much that came after – it inspired a series of novels around the world (The Mysteries of New York, The Mysteries of London …) and indeed it does have a Dickensian flavour about it, but yet without Dickens’ tendency to sanitise the working classes. While many of Sue’s characters do tend towards the caricature and the womenfolk slot stubbornly into either Virgin or Whore with no overlap (even the Songbird somehow remains snowy-white), there is still a sense of these characters as people, as citizens and a keener sense of fraternal fellowship than the more paternalistic Dickens was ever able to muster. Yet despite the over-riding moral theme, this is also an adventure story, with the author being a follower of John Fennimore Cooper – certainly the sidestreets of Sue’s Paris are just as wild as the West of Cooper’s frontier fiction. Like so much of serialised fiction, there are repeated twists, turns, cliffhangers and shocking revelations – enough to keep the reader coming back for all ninety episodes – in short, like a Victorian television boxed-set. Too long over-shadowed, The Mysteries of Paris is well worth picking up – the length may be intimidating but don’t be fooled – this is novel crafted by a master story-teller.
Weighing in at nearly one and a half thousand pages, The Mysteries of Paris is an intimidating book by anyone’s standards. Serialised over a sixteen month period in the 1840s, it was a sensation in its day, inspiring Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Having never heard of it before, I was surprised at how familiar it felt; the dark and frightening underbelly of Paris is not so very different from Dickens’ account of Victorian London, the waifs and strays remind me also of Guy de Maupassant’s short stories (yes, half of my degree was in French literature) but there is also more than a few characters who recall the main players of Hugo’s masterpiece. However, there were also moments of extraordinary darkness, moments which reveal a society which still remembers all too well the days of revolutionary lawlessness, where the characters know that they can rely on nobody for aid – The Mysteries of Paris is almost Shakespearean in the peaks and troughs which it deals out to the protagonists.
The central protagonist is the enigmatic Rodolphe, an apparent Parisian worker who is really a German duke in disguise. He goes about settling the affairs of the lesser men, rescuing those who he feels can be redeemed and punishing those who he judges beyond penitence. At the time, many Parisian citizens believed that these ‘courts of morality’ were a good idea, so in some ways The Mysteries of Paris presents what was to many an ideal, even when at times Rodolphe’s methods appear medieval. He is aided in his mission by English nobleman Sir Walter Murph and a young ex-slave doctor known as David, all of whom are individuals truly pure of heart and conscience but overshadowed by the dark memories of old betrayals, the true natures of which only become clear as the novel goes on.
As a historical piece, this is a truly fascinating novel – long before Les Miserables, Sue reveals the working classes as people, and as victims of their inhumane social conditions rather than predisposed to vice. The young girl Songbird has fallen into prostitution, but it is recognised by those around her that she has had little real option and has been abused by those around her since a child – nobody could argue that she is undeserving of her redemption. The Slasher is also commended for his overall good heart despite his violent past, that he too has had little in the way of positive influences in his life to set him in a better direction. Rodolphe’s schemes to save the people he meets are occasionally complicated by others but never thwarted, giving the book a positive feel despite the horror which it depicts in such detail – despite central themes that challenge the overall status quo (and which some have argued set the stage for the 1848 revolution), this is still a novel with a traditional structure and which finishes with everyone back in their appropriate places.
Billed as the first English translation in a century, The Mysteries of Paris is not a light read but it has been a worthwhile one. It feels like the precursor for so much that came after – it inspired a series of novels around the world (The Mysteries of New York, The Mysteries of London …) and indeed it does have a Dickensian flavour about it, but yet without Dickens’ tendency to sanitise the working classes. While many of Sue’s characters do tend towards the caricature and the womenfolk slot stubbornly into either Virgin or Whore with no overlap (even the Songbird somehow remains snowy-white), there is still a sense of these characters as people, as citizens and a keener sense of fraternal fellowship than the more paternalistic Dickens was ever able to muster. Yet despite the over-riding moral theme, this is also an adventure story, with the author being a follower of John Fennimore Cooper – certainly the sidestreets of Sue’s Paris are just as wild as the West of Cooper’s frontier fiction. Like so much of serialised fiction, there are repeated twists, turns, cliffhangers and shocking revelations – enough to keep the reader coming back for all ninety episodes – in short, like a Victorian television boxed-set. Too long over-shadowed, The Mysteries of Paris is well worth picking up – the length may be intimidating but don’t be fooled – this is novel crafted by a master story-teller.
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