Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Difficult to slog through. Unlike all other Dumas., January 22, 2008
This review is from: The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon (Hardcover)
If you're a Dumas fanatic like me, you'll probably want to read this book just for closure, regardless of what I say! But I'll write a review anyway. The problem with a novel like this is that I don't know what flaws are attributable to Dumas and the possibility that he was slipping, or cutting corners, as he got older, and what's attributable to the person who finished writing the novel.
It could have been much better if it were written as two separate volumes: one, the general history of the Napoleonic era which is presented in the book, and the other, the history of the Comte de Sainte-Hermine. So much of this very large book has nothing at all to do with the titular character. In fact we are well into the book before the man ever shows up. Then in a chaperoned tete-a-tete with the woman he loves, he divulges the entire history of the Sainte-Hermine family to date. (So we don't learn about his previous history as it's happening, as with Edmond Dantes in "The Count of Monte Cristo"; we're simply given several pages of Sainte-Hermine hitting the highlights for his intended. They become engaged, and at the betrothal dinner he mysteriously vanishes before signing the wedding contract.
Then we have another huge section about Napoleon, the Royalist rebels, etc. A very long section! It was a very GOOD section but I'd totally forgotten about Sainte-Hermine when suddenly we learn he is in prison and begging Fouche to execute him rather than keep him a prisoner. This brief scene takes a few pages...then it's back to a whole big, big section about Napoleon and his troubles. It made me wonder why this book was titled after Sainte-Hermine, since up to about the midpoint of the book, he's a completely minor character...almost a glorified extra.
At the approximate middle of the book, however, the Comte gets out of prison (legally) and the narrative switches to actually being about his life as he is living it. From here to the end it's mostly a very entertaining story of Sainte-Hermine and what's happening in his life, with a few sprinkles of the regular history in the background. This is how I expected the book to be from the start. So it sort of evened out in the middle and got better as it went along.
This also suffers from comparisons to the similar Monte Cristo. In the latter, we know that Edmond has spent his jail time learning from the Abbe Faria and then that he spent the next X years undercover, learning things to create his Monte Cristo persona. Sainte-Hermine, by comparison, spends three years in prison, during which we are told that his hobby is reading. Afterwards, though, he comes directly out of prison and into the narrative, where he shows himself to be an expert at just about everything, including (!) chugging three bottles of champagne that have been poured into a big bowl, and showing no ill effects. Don't you thimk a man just out of a 3-year prison stint would have some difficulty holding his liquor?
So, as a Dumas fanatic I'm glad I read this, but I'd have to rank it absolute last on the Dumas list. If he had stuck to a plain historical novel of the time of Napoleon, then, well, it would probably still be last on the list, but not by as wide a margin.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read only after Dumas' other Works, November 6, 2007
This review is from: The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon (Hardcover)
If you have read my reivews of Dumas' other works, you will see that I have said in the past that "Dumas never disappoints". However, I think that this book comes as close to that as ever. Although I say that, I still give the book 4 stars because I just like how Dumas writes. However, there is no question in my mind that his other works are much better. I will list them in order of my preference: 1) The Count of Monte Cristo; 2) The Three Musketeers; 3) 20 Years After; 4) The Knight of Maison Rouge; 5) Le Reine Margot; 6)The Vicomte de Bragelonne. I have not read the Black Tulip or the other 2 Musketeers books.
This book does have its good points. The history of the Count's family is very good. The wedding scene is also very good. The fencing parts of the stories are good. The history of the times is good but it takes a long time to get through. The part of the story in Burma is also a long part that has nothing to do with Nepolean. It was a little slow during these times. The other problem with the book is that it was not finished at the time of Dumas' death. However, that did not take too much away from the book. I also found that there was nothing that the Court could not do. He tries to get himself killed on many occasions so he can die an honorable death but only comes out smelling like a rose. It is as if he is super-human - which is fine for a little bit but not the whole story.
Overall, I was glad that I read it but I would rather have taken the time to read his other works first. If you have not read Dumas then you are really missing out on a great writer. If you have not read him and want to start, begin with his other works. I would suggest the unabridged version of the Count of Monte Cristo. It is long but well worth the read. When you have read many of his other works, then pick this one up. It is a good read but not as good as his other major works.
Given the above review, I can still say that Dumas does not disappoint.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dumas' Last Stand, July 17, 2008
This review is from: The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon (Hardcover)
I haven't read Alexandre Dumas since I was a teen (a long time ago), but I remember "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" quite well. Then again, what I remember best may be the movie versions I watched again and again as a kid. When I saw that a "lost" novel had been published for the first time, I thought it was time to revisit Dumas' work. I'm glad that I did.
As a finished unfinished novel, "The Last Cavalier" is fair and worth three "stars." It was originally published as a newspaper serial and Dumas never had the chance to re-edit/rewrite it for book publication as he did his other works. Dumas was paid by the word, and there are thousands here that would surely have been cut. The titular hero, Hector (René, Comte Leo) de Sainte-Hermine, is over the top invincible and incomparable. He has no flaws (in a Doc Savage, pulp fiction, sort of way), so it's hard to identify with him; and Dumas interrupts Hector's story too often with what's happening elsewhere in history. Did I mention he was paid by the word? Still, Hector's panache and romp through Napoleonic history is a tour de force worth reading. Characters like George Cadoudal, the corsair (privateer) Surcouf, Napoleon, Nelson at Trafalgar, and Minister of Police Fouché come alive with idiosyncrasies and feats of personal codes of honor to delight any swashbuckling fan.
For me, as a writer, what was even more fascinating was the book's preface by Claude Schopp, who found and reconstructed the novel. In it, Dumas is quoted as saying that he is "more a novelizing historian than a historical novelist." In this light, I look at the book as more of a history than a novel and am interested in re-exploring Dumas' other books from that perspective. Also, in the preface is a letter from Dumas outlining his complete plan for the novel. It is as complete a synopsis of the whole story as any editor could wish for. So it was great to be able to refer to that and see where and how Dumas added and changed the story line (Hector's entire time as a seaman and in India are not in the outline). This alone was worth the extra "star."
I highly recommend this book to any reader, Dumas fan or not.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
