Author. Born at the Hôtel de Blossac in Rennes in Brittany. He became a lawyer in 1836. Paul moved to Paris, where he gained a footing by the publication of his novel Le Club des phoques in 1841 in the Revue de Paris. It was soon followed by two more swashbucklers: Rollan Pied de Fer in 842, Les Chevaliers du Firmament and Le Loup Blanc both of these written in 1843. The latter novel features a heroic albino who fights for justice in a disguise, one of the earliest of a crimefighter with a secret identity. Paul's break came with the Les Mystères de Londres in 1844, a sprawling magazine written to cash in on the success of Eugène Sue's Les Mystères de Paris. In it, Irishman Fergus O'Breane tries to avenge the wrongs of his countrymen by seeking the annihilation of England. The plot anticipates that of Alexandre Dumas, père's The Count of Monte Cristo by one year. The novel also features a Mafia like criminal secret society called the Gentlemen of the Night. With Les Mystères de Londres, Paul became the equal of Dumas and Sue in the eyes of his contemporaries. Paul tried to gain literary recognition with social satires such as Le Tueur de Tigres in 1853, but in vain. He returned to popular literature with more swashbucklers such as La Louve in 1855, this was a sequel to his earlier Le Loup Blanc and L'Homme de Fer in 1856. The perennial best seller Le Bossu in 1857. He also penned the seminal Knightshade, The Vampire Countess and Vampire City. His greatest claim to fame was as one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable in 1862 can claim to be the world's first modern detective novel. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs in 863-75, a criminal saga written over a twelve year period comprised of seven novels. After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Paul became a born again Christian, he stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, sadly leaving the tale of the Black Coats uncompleted. In 1882 he suffered when he was embezzled and he became paralyzed and unable to write. In 1884 he lost his wife. In 1887 he died at the hospice of the Brothers of Saint-Jean de Dieu, where he had been taken when his wife died. Paul was 70 years old.
Author. Born at the Hôtel de Blossac in Rennes in Brittany. He became a lawyer in 1836. Paul moved to Paris, where he gained a footing by the publication of his novel Le Club des phoques in 1841 in the Revue de Paris. It was soon followed by two more swashbucklers: Rollan Pied de Fer in 842, Les Chevaliers du Firmament and Le Loup Blanc both of these written in 1843. The latter novel features a heroic albino who fights for justice in a disguise, one of the earliest of a crimefighter with a secret identity. Paul's break came with the Les Mystères de Londres in 1844, a sprawling magazine written to cash in on the success of Eugène Sue's Les Mystères de Paris. In it, Irishman Fergus O'Breane tries to avenge the wrongs of his countrymen by seeking the annihilation of England. The plot anticipates that of Alexandre Dumas, père's The Count of Monte Cristo by one year. The novel also features a Mafia like criminal secret society called the Gentlemen of the Night. With Les Mystères de Londres, Paul became the equal of Dumas and Sue in the eyes of his contemporaries. Paul tried to gain literary recognition with social satires such as Le Tueur de Tigres in 1853, but in vain. He returned to popular literature with more swashbucklers such as La Louve in 1855, this was a sequel to his earlier Le Loup Blanc and L'Homme de Fer in 1856. The perennial best seller Le Bossu in 1857. He also penned the seminal Knightshade, The Vampire Countess and Vampire City. His greatest claim to fame was as one of the fathers of the modern crime thriller. Because of its themes and characters, his novel Jean Diable in 1862 can claim to be the world's first modern detective novel. His masterpiece was Les Habits Noirs in 863-75, a criminal saga written over a twelve year period comprised of seven novels. After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Paul became a born again Christian, he stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, sadly leaving the tale of the Black Coats uncompleted. In 1882 he suffered when he was embezzled and he became paralyzed and unable to write. In 1884 he lost his wife. In 1887 he died at the hospice of the Brothers of Saint-Jean de Dieu, where he had been taken when his wife died. Paul was 70 years old.
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