French Literature Reviews - 2026

T. Reiss, Dumas, le comte noir
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Tom Reiss

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

Glory, Revolution, Betrayal: The True Story of the Count of Monte Cristo

Flammarion, 2013

EAN: 9782081295285

23.00 EUR

Publisher's description:

A biography of the father of the famous author Alexandre Dumas, whose extraordinary life inspired the novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The journalist traces the turbulent journey of the son of a French nobleman and an enslaved woman from Saint-Domingue, who rose to become a general during the French Revolution and led troops in Egypt, before being imprisoned on Bonaparte's orders for denouncing the Jaffa massacre.

This biography examines the life of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, tracing his path from his origins as the son of a French nobleman and an enslaved woman in Saint-Domingue to his rise as a general during the French Revolution. The text follows his military campaigns, his command in Egypt, and his subsequent imprisonment resulting from his criticism of the Jaffa massacre.

Readers interested in nineteenth-century biography and the social upheavals of the revolutionary period may find this historical account relevant to their studies. The broader historical landscape of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era provides the backdrop for understanding the complexities of race, rank, and military ambition during a time of intense political transformation in France and its colonies.