[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paulfval.jpg]]
->''"That insignificant literature sometimes has higher aspiration, but it never declares them, '''and that is the secret of its power'''."''
--> (Faval's defence of popular literature)

Paul Henri Corentin Féval, père (30 September 1816 - 8 March 1887) was a French novelist and dramatist.

He was the author of popular {{swashbuckler}} novels such as ''Le Loup Blanc'' (1843) and the perennial best-seller ''Literature/LeBossu'' (1857). He also penned the seminal vampire fiction novels ''Le Chevalier Ténèbre'' (1860), ''[[Literature/TheVampireCountess La Vampire]]'' and ''[[Literature/VampireCity La Ville Vampire]]'', and wrote several celebrated novels about his native Brittany and Mont Saint-Michel, such as ''La Fée des Grèves'' (1850).

Féval's greatest claim to fame, however, is as one of the fathers of modern crime fiction. Because of its themes and characters, his novel ''[[Literature/JohnDevil Jean Diable]]'' (1862) can claim to be the world's first modern novel of detective fiction. His masterpiece was ''[[Literature/TheBlackCoats Les Habits Noirs]]'' (1863–1875), a criminal saga comprising eleven novels.

After losing his fortune in a financial scandal, Féval became a born-again Christian, stopped writing crime thrillers, and began to write religious novels, leaving the tale of the ''Habits Noirs'' uncompleted.
----
!!Works by Paul Féval on this wiki include:

[[index]]
* ''Literature/GentlemenOfTheNight''
* ''Literature/TheVampireCountess''
* ''Literature/LeBossu''
* ''Literature/{{Knightshade}}''
* ''Literature/JohnDevil''
* ''Literature/VampireCity''
* ''Literature/TheBlackCoats''
[[/index]]

!!Adaptations of his works on TV Tropes include:

* ''DerivativeWorks/LeBossu'':
** ''Film/{{Le Bossu|1959}}'' (1959)
** ''Film/OnGuard'' (''Le Bossu'', 1997)
----