Book description
Who was the real Count of Monte Cristo? In this extraordinary
biography, Tom Reiss traces the almost unbelievable life of the man
who inspired not only Monte Cristo, but all three of the
Musketeers: the novelist's own father.
Born in St Dominigue in 1762, the son of a French nobleman and a
sugar plantation slave, General Alexandre Dumas did not have an
auspicious start in life. Things got worse when his father sold him
into slavery to pay his passage back to Normandy. But six months
later, Dumas' fortunes changed. His father bought him out of
slavery and raised him in France, where Dumas went to the nation's
finest schools and fencing academies, and having enrolled in the army
became known as France's most handsome and strongest soldier. By the
time Napoleon invaded Egypt, Dumas was his top cavalry commander.
But Napoleon was threatened by the physical prowess and popularity
of this black nobleman. He engineered his disgrace and imprisonment,
and to please the sugar growers reintroduced slavery. A brief
flowering of freedom and equality was over and forgotten, but Dumas'
legacy would live on in the novels of the son who adored him.
Reiss tells this tale with magisterial authority. Long years of
research have led him across Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East
in search of forgotten documents. He has journeyed through the Alps
where Dumas scaled unscalable ice cliffs. He has walked the streets of
Cairo where Dumas' intrepid cavalry charge is still remembered. The
result is an enthralling book that entertains, astounds and
triumphantly resurrects a lost hero from the world's first multiracial society.
Richly detailed, highly researched and completely absorbing...A
triumph -- Amanda Foreman Totally thrilling...Brings to life one of
history's great forgotten characters -- Simon Sebag Montefiore We
believe we know the glories of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic
Wars. We believe we understand the horror of slavery and the oppression
of Africans. But what is the relationship between the grand goal of
liberation and the deep tragedy of racism?As Reiss shows us, answers can
be found in the extraordinary life of a forgotten French hero of the
great revolutionary campaigns -- a hero who was black -- Timothy Snyder
Tom Reiss can do it all: gather startling research and write inspired
prose; find life's great stories and then tell them with real
brilliance. In The Black Count the master journalist-storyteller opens
the door to the truth behind one of literature's most exciting stories,
and opens it wide enough to show the delicate beauty of the lives within
-- Strauss, National Book Critics Circle Award Winning Author Of Half A
Life And Chang And Eng Born in 1964, Tom Reiss is an American author
and journalist who lives in New York. He is the author of
The Orientalist
, an acclaimed biography of Lev Nussimbaum (aka Kurban Said) which was
shortlisted for the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize.
