His first book, published in 1859, was Les Amants. In total Malot wrote over 70 books. By far his most famous book is Sans Famille (Nobody's Boy, 1878), which deals with the travels of the young orphan Remi, who is sold to the street musician Vitalis at age 8. Sans Famille gained fame as a children's book, though it was not originally intended as such.
He announced his retirement as an author of fiction in 1895, but in 1896 he returned with the novel L'amour Dominateur as well as the account of his literary life Le Roman de mes Romans (The Novel of my Novels).
He died in Fontenay-sous-Bois in 1907.

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