Broadway Books The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo (Pulitzer Prize for Biography)

Not as thrilling as described and a little monotone

A obra é muito interessante e bem escrita, lê-se como um romance. Mas a edição não corresponde - letra minúscula, papel fraco e amarelado, formato incomodo. O esforço de leitura pode deteriorar a apreciação da obra.

This historical biography is based on the life of the famous author, Alexandre Dumas’s father, Thomas-Alexandre, known as Alex Dumas. After time spent in the War of the Polish Succession that ended in 1738, Frenchman Alexandre (Antoine) Davy de la Pailleterie, a future marquis, left France to seek his fortune in Saint-Domingue, the island of Hispaniola. At that time, the Spaniards owned, Santo Domingo, the east side of the island, and the French owned the west, Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Because of sugar planting, Saint-Domingue was one of the wealthiest islands in the world. Antoine moved in with his younger brother, Charles, who had married well and became a well-known sugar planter. Antoine scrounged off his brother for a decade, kept several slave mistresses, and refused to work. Charles and Antoine’s relationship ended violently. Antoine fled with three of his brothers’ slaves, one of which was his latest mistress. To probably resist arrest, Antoine moved up into the highlands, a densely wooded mountains, eventually settling in Jérémie, an isolated area of Haiti. There, he changed his name to Antoine de l’Isle—Antoine of the island. Antoine purchased a mistress for a very high price, Marie Cessette Dumas. Marie Cessette bore him four children. The eldest child was Antoine’s favorite, Thomas-Alexandre, born in 1762. When Antoine returned to France, he would eventually send for fifteen year old Thomas-Alexandre. Antoine sold Marie Cessette and their other three children. In France, Antoine made sure his son was well educated. Thomas-Alexandre became an excellent swordsman. As a young man, Thomas-Alexandre, enlisted in the dragoons, and rejected his father’s surname, Davy de la Pailleterie, and took his mother’s surname, Dumas. He would never again be known as Thomas. Instead, he used Alexandre (Alex) Dumas. He even listed his father as Antoine Dumas. As a Lieutenant Colonel, Alex, who was later commissioned as a General, married Marie-Louise Labouret of Villers-Cotterets, France. They would have three children: two daughters and Alexandre Dumas, Jr. their last child, the future author, was born 10 years later. The book is filled with an enormous amount of French history, some of which includes the shrewd General Bonaparte. At one point, General Dumas and Bonaparte fought together. General Dumas sailed to Egypt with Bonaparte. General Dumas appeared to be a loving husband and good father. On the front, he was a courageous, strong-minded, intuitive leader, unbiased toward his troops. From his men he received much devotion and admiration. His flaw was sometimes not using tact and being too critical. He had high expectations of a soldier’s performance. Yet his bold criticism toward inept superiors or those favored by superiors cost him promotions or unkindness later in life. General Napoleon showed farsightedness concerning his own future ambitions. However, he appeared to be intolerant of criticism expressed by General Dumas, and inflated his own self-importance when he and Dumas were generals. Napoleon was willing to cruelly exploit others for his own gain, especially concerning the Rights of Man decree. When Napoleon became emperor, the law, previously decreed by former King Louis XVI of France, April 4, 1792, which provided citizenship for all property owning free men of color on the islands, became invalid in 1800. In France, interracial marriages as well as interracial education were outlawed. People of color who had lived free in France were to be rounded up and sent back to the colonies. They could no longer live in Paris or the surrounding suburbs. This appears like history repeating itself. German citizens had experienced this during the Second World War, and currently Dominicans of Haitian descent are being denied citizenship because of their place of birth. Without giving too much away, this is a superb historical biography, well written, full of information, and a pleasure to read. The history in France and on the island, Saint-Domingue, will amaze you. I took my time reading this book. Surprisingly, Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, incorporated some of his father’s famous expeditions when writing his book. The author, Alexandre Dumas, expresses a genuine, tender love and admiration for his father, General Dumas. This book deserves five stars.

Loved it! Fascinating story!!

So interesting. More people should know about this story especially concerning race relations of the past and how things were better at one short period of time only to return to years of racism again.

Un excellent livre. Surpris, en tant que français, de découvrir cette histoire authentique écrite par un Américain. Un livre très bien écrit et instructif. Le seul reproche que j'en ferais est la manière (de la part de l'auteur) d'inscrire la vie de Dumas dans l'histoire de France et en particulier cette tendance à donner une image très négative de Napoléon dans le seul but d'élever l'histoire du "Comte Noir". Cela contribue, certes, à justifier l'écriture de cette histoire (si elle ne rentre pas dans un contexte historique, cette histoire n'a aucun intérêt), mais cela aurait pu être fait avec un peu plus d'objectivité.