The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B009CLN1OK | Format: EPUB
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Description
Pulitzer Prize, Biography/Autobiography, 2013
By the author of the internationally best-selling biography The Orientalist, The Black Count brings to life one of history's great forgotten heroes: a man almost unknown today yet with a personal story that is strikingly familiar. His swashbuckling exploits appear in The Three Musketeers, and his triumphs and ultimate tragic fate inspired The Count of Monte Cristo. His name is Alex Dumas. Father of the novelist Alexandre Dumas, Alex has become, through his son's books, the model for a captivating modern protagonist: The wronged man in search of justice.
Born to a black slave mother and a fugitive white French nobleman in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but then made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy.
He was only 32 when he was given command of 53,000 men, the reward for series of triumphs that many regarded as impossible, and then topped his previous feats by leading a raid up a frozen cliff face that secured the Alps for France. It was after his subsequent heroic service as Napoleon's cavalry commander that Dumas was captured and cast into a dungeon - and a harrowing ordeal commenced that inspired one of the world's classic works of fiction.
The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world's first multi-racial society. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son. Drawing on hitherto unknown documents, letters, battlefield reports and Dumas' handwritten prison diary, The Black Count is a groundbreaking masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 13 hours and 35 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: September 18, 2012
- Language: English
- ASIN: B009CLN1OK
The creative way in which Tom Reiss has written "The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Crisco" is remarkable. In writing the biography of General Alexandre Dumas, the father of the famous author Alexandre Dumas, Reiss engages the reader with the connections between the real life experiences of the father and the characters, plots, and locations used by the son in his novels "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers." Many of General Dumas exploits such as his imprisonment without trial in the Taranto fortress in the Kingdom of Naples by "The Holy Faith Army" would become inspiration for the son's later book "The Count of Monte Cristo."
Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie arrived in France from Saint-Domingue (Haiti) as a slave in 1776 at age 14, the son of a white fugitive aristocrat, the Marquis de la Pailleterie, and a black slave, Cessette Dumas. Enlisting in the army in June of 1786 Thomas-Alexandre would change his name to Alexandre Dumas for a number of reasons. Among the possible reasons, anger at his father for having sold him in Saint-Domingue or as an aristocrat's son he would be damaging his father name (the Marquis) by enlisting as a private instead of officer as was expected. Note: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie would have had difficulty becoming an officer because of his mixed race and the law making it difficult to claim his rightful title.
Alexandre's rise through the military ranks from private to general would be meteoric owing to the circumstances of the French Revolution and because of his individual attributes, such as bravery on the battlefield, his strength, equestrian ability, and swordsmanship.
Cudos, Mr. Reiss, you have written a masterpiece!
This detailed book reads like a novel, with its fluid narrative that presents the autobiographical story of Alex Dumas and his tremendous contribution to the French Revolution. Mr. Reiss weaves a fascinating story while incorporating a plethora of resources having expended years of effort in accumulating tremendous research materials to substantiate the accuracy of this account.
It is a quick read that connects the dots and encompasses critical historic moments leading to the re-creation of France and eventually much of the European theater.
Surely, this epic tome will become required reading for historians, who want a fresh perspective on the French Revolution and how the freed mulatto slave, Alexandre Dumas born in what is now Haiti, demonstrated throughout his military career, using his tremendous strategic skill, honor, courage and fighting aptitude to win many battles!
At first, Mr. Reiss presents a brief history of his father, Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie who having left France to seek his fortune in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), then a resource rich colony of France, known for its great production of sugar cane. He married a wealthy woman and purchased a plantation and slaves to become a sugar producer. Later, he purchased a black woman, Marie-Cessette, who was considered quite a beauty for a tremendous sum. Together, they had four children, including a son named Thomas- Alexandre (whom later detached from his father's noble status instead used part of his mother's full name, to be known as Alexandre Dumas or Alex Dumas).
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