SUE, Joseph Marie (1804-1859), generally known as Eugène Sue, French novelist, ranked by some as the chief practitioner of the melodramatic style in fiction, was born at Paris on 10th December 1804. Unlike most voluminous writers of light literature, Sue was a man of fortune. He was the son of a surgeon in Napoleon’s army, and is said to have had the empress Josephine for godmother. But in later life he became something very different from a Bonapartist, and his residence in Savoy for the last years of his life was due to his having been banished from France after the coup d’état. Until his father’s death in 1828 Sue pursued the same profession and was present as a surgeon both in the campaign undertaken by France in 1823 for the re-establishment of royal power in Spain and at the battle of Navarino (1828). His naval experiences supplied much of the materials of his first novels, Kemock le Pirate, Attar-Gull, La Salamandre, La Coucaratcha, and others, which were composed at the height of the romantic movement of 1830, and displayed its Byronic enthusiasm, its fancy for outlandish subjects and names, and (in a very full measure) its extravagance. Then he took to more serious work, writing a naval history of France of no merit. His next venture was the historical or quasi-historical novel, in which style he composed Jean Cavalier (1840), besides other stories of adventure. About this time he was strongly affected by the socialist ideas of the day, and his attempt to display these in fiction produced (with others) his most famous and perhaps best works,— Les Mystères de Paris (1842) and Le Juif Errant (1844-45). These were among the most popular specimens of the roman-feuilleton, then at the height of its popularity. The political and philosophical or ...

SUETONIUS. Caius Suetonius Tranquillus was one of the many second-rate authors and men of letters who lived in the early period of the Roman empire. He was the contemporary of Tacitus and the younger Pliny, and his literary work seems to have been chiefly done in the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. His father was an officer in the army and military tribune in the XIIIth legion, and he himself began life as an advocate. To us he is known as the biographer of the twelve Caesars, from Caius Julius down to Domitian. These lives are valuable as covering a good deal of ground where we are without the guidance of Tacitus. As Suetonius was the emperor Hadrian’s private secretary, he must have had access to many important documents. It would seem from occasional references which he makes to himself in the course of the work that he was a youngish man in the reign of Domitian, and so would have had opportunities of conversing with men who had lived in the days of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and had been present at the scenes of civil war and anarchy which followed the reign of the last-named. The most interesting fact about Suetonius is that he was a friend and correspondent of the younger Pliny, and the fact certainly tells in his favour. Several of Pliny’s letters are addressed to him, and they all imply esteem and intimate friendship. Sometimes we find Pliny putting in a good word for him, as, for instance, on one occasion doing his best to help him in buying a small property at a fair price, not very far from Rome, with a house of moderate size and land enough to amuse but not to engross a man of scholarly tastes (i. 24). In another letter (v. 10) he playfully rallies him on his dilatoriness in publishing his works. Pliny does not mention the subject of these works. ...

SUEUR, Eustache Le (1617-1655), one of the founders, of the French academy of painting, was born 19th Novem ber 1617 at Paris, where he passed his whole life, and where he died on 30th April 1655. His early death and retired habits have combined to give an air of romance to his simple history, which has been decorated with as many fables as that of Claude. We are told that, persecuted by Lebrun, who was jealous of his ability, he became the intimate friend and correspondent of Poussin, and it is added that, broken-hearted at the death of his wife, Le Sueur retired to the monastery of the Chartreux and died in the arms of the prior. All this, however, is pure fiction. The facts of Le Sueur’s life are these. He was the son of Cathelin Le Sueur, a turner and sculptor in wood, who placed his son with Vouet, in whose studio he rapidly distinguished himself. Admitted at an early age into the guild of master-painters, he left them to take part in establishing the academy of painting and sculpture, and was one of the first twelve professors of that body. Some paintings, illustrative of the Hypnerotomachia Polyphili, which were reproduced in tapestry, brought him into notice, and his reputation was further enhanced by a series of decorations (Louvre) in the mansion of Lambert de Thorigny, which he left uncompleted, for their execution was frequently interrupted by other commissions. Amongst these were several pictures for the apartments of the king and queen in the Louvre, which are now missing, although they were entered in Bailly’s inventory (1710); but several works produced for minor patrons have come down to us. In the gallery of the Louvre are the Angel and Hagar, from the mansion of De Tonnay Charente; Tobias and Tobit, from the Fieubet collection; several pictures ...

SUEZ (Suweis), the port of Egypt on the Red Sea and southern terminus of the Suez Canal (see below), situated at the head of the Gulf of Suez in 29* 58' 37" N. lat. and 32° 31' 18" E. long. (see vol. iv. pl. XXXVI.).

The new harbours and quays are about 2 miles south of the town, with which they are connected by an embankment and railway, crossing a shallow which is dry at low water; the terminal lock of the freshwater canal is on the north of the town near the English hospital and the storehouses of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The site is naturally an absolute desert, and till the water of the Nile was introduced by the freshwater canal in 1863 the water-supply of Suez was brought across the head of the gulf from the “wells of Moses” on the Arabian coast, or else carried on camels, an hour’s journey, from the fortified brackish well of Bir Suweis. Thus, in spite of its favourable position for commerce, Suez before the canal was but a small place. While the canal was in progress the population rose from 5000 to 15,000, but has since declined. The canal, in fact, carries traffic past Suez rather than to it; and with its mean bazaar and mosques and mongrel population the town makes an unfavourable impression on the visitor, save for the imposing view over the gulf, with the Sinai Mountains on its eastern and Mount 'Ataḳa on its western shore....