Alexandre Dumas
2 books analyzed
Biography
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) was the grandson of a Haitian slave — his father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, was Napoleon's most decorated general of color and was later effectively erased from French military history by Napoleon himself. Dumas inherited his father's mixed race and his father's facility with identity construction — the need to be accepted in worlds that were not built for you. He was the most popular French writer of the nineteenth century and also the most financially reckless. He earned millions, spent more, and died relatively broke. He understood, personally, what it meant to be destroyed by forces beyond your control and to rebuild yourself through sheer force of will.
Alexandre Dumas at a glance
Works
The Count of Monte Cristo
1844 · 1276 pages · ★★★☆☆ Challenging
A perfect revenge fantasy that asks, at its darkest hour: what does vengeance cost the man who exacts it?
The Three Musketeers
1844 · 700 pages · ★★★☆☆ Challenging
The novel that invented the swashbuckler genre, written by a man whose own father was a revolutionary general and whose mixed-race heritage made him an outsider in the French literary establishment.
Diction Across Works
theatrical-propulsive
formal-theatrical