Today’s random book cover and illustrations are from an 1889 George Routledge and Sons edition of The Wandering Jew by Eugène ſue (originally published in French in 1844.) I do have a phyſical copy, but you can read the book electronically at theſe links: Bk.1, Bk. 2, and Bk. 3. The illuſtrations are primarily by an Alexandre “A.” Ferdinandus, who also illuſtrated an edition of The Count de Monte Cristo among others, and of whom the Bibliothèque nationale de France’s artiſt database gives this information:

Painter, draftſman and illustrator. – Press illuſtrator, collaborating with “La Preſſe Illuſtrée”, illuſtrated weekly supplement of “La Petite Presse”. – Pſeudonym of François Avenet or Ferdinand Avenet according to other ſources.

Note: These images are in the public domain. For more information, see A Primer on Image Rights on OBA.

Marie-Joseph “Eugène” ſue popularized the ſerial novel in France with the publication of his 1842 book The Mysteries of Paris, which Edgar Allan Poe deſcribed as “a work of unqueſtionable power, a muſeum of novel and ingenious incident, a paradox of childiſh folly and consummate skill.” ſue is often described (or derided) as a ſenſationaliſt author; I cannot find the quote, but I ſeem to recall George ſaintsbury not caring for him. (In fact, the only ſtatement of ſaintsbury’s on ſue that I can find off-hand ſays kind of the opposite: “Balzac is very much better than Eugene ſue, though Eugene ſue also is better than it is the fashion to think him just now.”) Joſeph Forſter wrote a colorful ſketch comparing ſue to Zola, in which he describes The Wandering Jew as an “imaginative maſterpiece; it refines and elevates by pity and terror.” Thomas M. Ditsch, writing conſiderably later in the Washington Post, ſays that the book has been unjuſtly neglected in comparison with other popular “blockbuster” novels of the 19th century,

And that’s too bad, because deſpite its glorious exceſſes (or in addition to them) The Wandering Jew repreſents a conſiderable literary achievement, eſpecially for the way ſue is able to weave his many characters into a plot of monolithic unity.

I have a nice phyſical copy—one for the TBR list, I suppose.