The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo (Pulitzer Prize for Biography)WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY • ONE OF ESQUIRE’S BEST BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. But, hidden behind General Dumas's swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave—who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution—until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat. 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. TIME magazine called The Black Count "one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that sheds light on the historical moment that made it possible." But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son. |
Contents
| 3 | |
cHAPTER The Sugar Factory | 23 |
The Black Code | 34 |
Norman Conquest | 47 |
No One Is a Slave in France | 58 |
Americans in Paris | 73 |
cHAPTER s Black Count in the City of Light | 80 |
A Queens Dragoon | 89 |
The Black Devil | 207 |
cHAFTER le Leader of the Expedition | 217 |
The Delirium of | 238 |
Dreams on Fire | 255 |
cHAPTER le Prisoner of the Holy Faith Army | 264 |
Citizeness Dumas Is Worried | 283 |
The Dungeon | 290 |
Wait and Hope | 304 |
Summers of Revolution | 107 |
cHAPTER e Regeneration by Blood | 121 |
cHAPTER Io The Black Heart Also Beats for Liberty | 131 |
Mr Humanity | 146 |
The Battle for the Top of the World | 160 |
The Bottom of the Revolution | 175 |
The Siege | 189 |
EPILosue The Forgotten Statue | 324 |
Acknowledgments | 331 |
Authors Note on Names | 339 |
| 387 | |
| 405 | |
Other editions - View all
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte ... Tom Reiss Limited preview - 2013 |
The Black Count: Glory, revolution, betrayal and the real Count of Monte Cristo Tom Reiss No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
ADPC Alex Dumas Alexandria Alps American Antoine Antoine-Vincent Arnault Antoine's aristocratic Army of Italy Austrian battle Bianchi Bonaparte British Cairo Carnot cavalry century Charles Charles's château Chevalier de Saint-Georges Citizen colonies color command Committee of Public Count de Maulde Davy Dermoncourt Dolomieu dragoons Dumas wrote Dumas's Egypt enemy Ernest Roch Europe father fight fortress France France's French army French Revolution Général Alexandre Dumas guards horses Ibid island Italian Jacobin Club January Jean-Baptiste Kléber Jonquière Joubert July June king Kingdom of Naples Kléber Labouret Legion letter liberty Louis MAD Safe Malta Mamelukes Manscourt March Marie-Louise Marquis military minister mixed-race Moniteur Mont Cenis Monte Cristo mulatto Murat Naples Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte National night officers Pailleterie Paris patriots plantation political prisoners Public Safety Regiment Republic republican revolutionary royal Saint-Domingue Saint-Georges ship slavery slaves soldiers sugar Taranto Thomas-Alexandre thousand took town troops Vendée Villers-Cotterêts