For the People, by the People? Eugène Sue's 'Les Mystères de Paris'
A Hypothesis in the Sociology of Literature

Christopher Prendergast

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Research Monographs in French Studies 16

Legenda

1 December 2003  •  154pp

ISBN: 1-900755-89-0 (paperback)  •  RRP £75, $99, €85

ModernFrenchFiction

Eugène Sue (1804-57), like his contemporary Alexandre Dumas père, was one of the most successful writers of his time. Les Mystères de Paris, the novel for which he is most remembered, became a publishing sensation. In its serial form, it took the public by storm -- readers fought for copies of the next instalment -- and in book form its print-run reached an unprecedented 60,000. Christopher Prendergast's study engages with the problematic of emerging forms of popular literature on the basis of a specific hypothesis: that Les Mystères de Paris, written and published in serial form, was, through the pressure of Sue's reader-correspondents (many of them barely literate), a collective production, 'written by the people for the people'. Prendergast examines the phenomenon of popular literature and reader response in the nineteenth century to illuminate larger issues in the sociology of literature.

Christopher Prendergast is Emeritus Professor of Modern French Literature at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of King's College and a Fellow of the British Academy. He has published on nineteenth-century literature, art history and cultural theory.

Reviews:

  • ‘What is particularly fascinating in Prendergast's work is his detailed analysis of the voluminous correspondence received by Sue as his novel progressed... The substantial Bibliography is itself illustrative of the various analyses that have been made over the years, among which For the People By the People? now earns a major place.’ — John Dunmore, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 26.2, 2005, 60-61
  • ‘This is a brilliant and lucid book, richly documented and subtle, and as engaging as it is authoritative.’ — David H. Walker, French Studies 58.4, 2004, 561

Bibliography entry:

Prendergast, Christopher, For the People, by the People? Eugène Sue's 'Les Mystères de Paris': A Hypothesis in the Sociology of Literature, Research Monographs in French Studies, 16 (Legenda, 2003)

First footnote reference: 35 Christopher Prendergast, For the People, by the People? Eugène Sue's 'Les Mystères de Paris': A Hypothesis in the Sociology of Literature, Research Monographs in French Studies, 16 (Legenda, 2003), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Prendergast, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Prendergast, Christopher. 2003. For the People, by the People? Eugène Sue's 'Les Mystères de Paris': A Hypothesis in the Sociology of Literature, Research Monographs in French Studies, 16 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Prendergast 2003: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Prendergast 2003: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

This Legenda title was first published by European Humanities Research Centre, University of Oxford but rights to it are now held by Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge.

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