The crucifixion of Jesus

Towards the end of his life, for several years, Eugène Sue, the author of *The Wandering Jew* and *The Mysteries of Paris*, embarked on a monumental project: a sprawling novel tracing the life of a working-class family from the year 57 BC to the accession of Napoleon III. It was entitled *The Mysteries of the People*.
Through the episodes, which unfold in pastoral Gaul, under Roman or Frankish occupation, and far beyond across the centuries, this vast epic recounts the people’s tireless struggle for emancipation in the style of the serialised novel so dear to its author: battles, massacres, revolts and conspiracies fill several thousand thrilling pages.
They also provide an opportunity for the illustrators and engravers to indulge, whenever the narrative lends itself to it, in a touch of somewhat naïve eroticism. Hence the title of our series of images: ‘Gauloiseries’.