SOULIE, MELCHIOR FRÉDÉRIC, a fertile writer of French romances, was the son of a teacher of philosophy, and was born at Foix, on the 23d of December 1800. In his youth his residence was unsettled. He accordingly received a sort of peripatetic education at Nantes, Poitiers, Paris, and Rennes. He entered on the study of the law, but gave himself up to literature. His first work was a volume of fugitive pieces, bearing the title of Amours Françaises. Having come to Paris, he now became foreman to an upholsterer, and wrought hard during his leisure hours at poetry and the drama. His Romeo and Juliette, after much tossing about from theatre to theatre, at last was got acted in 1828, and met with considerable success. Soulié continued to labour for the theatres and for periodicals till 1833, when his Clotilde having gained great success, he was engaged on various newspapers as a feuilletonist. He produced upwards of thirty fictions in this capacity, of which his Mémoires du Diable in 1842 was by far the most popular. The great demand for this novel unquestionably gave rise to Suc's Mystères de Paris. Soulié bought an estate at Bièvre, where he died September 22, 1847.