* KOCH, CHARLES PAUL DE, the son of a Dutch banker, guil lotined during the reign of Terror, was born at Passy in 1794. Originally intended for his father's business, he spent several years in a banker's counting-house in Paris, where he began to write, "he knew not why." His first attempts were theatrical, consisting of vaudevilles, operas, melodramas, of which he produced a considerable number, before his first novel, L'Enfant de ma Femme,' appeared, in 1S27. The knowledge of life, manifested in this wurk, and its humour, caused it at once to become popular. It was followed by `Jean' iu 1829; by Frera Jacques,' in 1830; by his chef-d'couvre, Le Cocu,' iu 1831; by `Gustavo' and 'Mon Oncle Raymond,' in 1832 ; by Georgette,' `Andre le Savoyard,' and 'Le Barbier de Paris,' in 1833. In the year 1834 he produced 'Scour Anise and Un Bon Enfant.' Although the earliest of his fictions, the foregoing are usually considered his best. In them the novelist has painted the Parisian manners of his time, above all those of the petite bourgeoisie, the shopkeeper, the student, and the grisette with remarkable felicity, but at the same time with equal liceuce.
In 1836 he published '3f, Dupont ; ' in 1837, ‘Mteurs Parisiennes; ' in 1842, La Femme, le Mari, et l'Amant; ' in 1844, La Famine Gogo.' He has since produced many others of less note. Owing to his great fertility of invention, De Koch has sometimes been com pared to Alexandre Dumas, whom he does not resemble in most other things. His style is very negligent, especially in his recent novels. But, although it must be regretted, that a writer of so much true humour and genial mirth, too often passes over the limits of sobriety, Paul de Koch by no means belongs to that class of novelists, whose writings, if they do not directly inculcate immorality, at least depict very loose specimens of morality as models for imitation.