Here is the remarkable true story of the real Count of Monte Cristo – a stunning feat of historical sleuthing that brings to life the forgotten hero who inspired such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
The real-life protagonist of The Black Count, General Alex Dumas, is a man almost unknown today yet with a story that is strikingly familiar, because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used it to create some of the best loved heroes of literature.
Yet, hidden behind these swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: the real hero 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 was briefly sold into bondage but made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy. Enlisting as a private, he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution, in an audacious campaign across Europe and the Middle East – 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. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2012: Generations have been enthralled by Alexandre Dumas' characters, especially the wronged hero in The Count of Monte Cristo and the daring swordsmen in The Three Musketeers. Yet few realize that these memorable characters were inspired by Dumas' father, General Alex Dumas, the son of a French count and a black Haitian slave. Tom Reiss brings the elder Dumas alive with previously unpublished correspondence and meticulous research, providing the context necessary to understand how exceptional his life as a mulatto general in a slave-owning empire truly was. From single-handedly holding a bridge in the Alps against 20 enemies to spending years held captive in a fortress, Alex Dumas is a fascinating character that not even his son's vivid imagination could have dreamed up. --Malissa Kent
An Essay by Author Tom Reiss
I've always loved exploring history. It's like an uncharted hemisphere, and when you look at it closely, it has a tendency to change everything about your own time. I'm also drawn to outsiders, people who have swum against the tide. I often feel like a kind of detective hired to go find people who have been lost to history, and discover why they were lost. Whodunnit?
In this case, I found solid evidence that, of all people, Napoleon did it: he buried the memory of this great man – Gen. Alexandre Dumas, the son of a black slave who led more than 50,000 men at the height of the French Revolution and then stood up to the megalomaniacal Corsican in the deserts of Egypt. (The "famous" Alexandre Dumas is the general's son – the author of The Three Musketeers.) Letters and eyewitness accounts show that Napoleon came to hate Dumas not only for his stubborn defense of principle but for his swagger and stature – over six feet tall and handsome as a matinee idol – and for the fact that he was a black man idolized by the white French army. (I found that Napoleon's destruction of Dumas coincided with his destruction of one of the greatest accomplishments of the French Revolution – racial equality – a legacy he also did his best to bury.)
I first came across Gen. Dumas's life in the memoir of his son Alexandre, the novelist. And what a life! Alex Dumas, as he preferred to be known, was born in Saint Domingue, later Haiti, the son of a black slave and a good-for-nothing French aristocrat who came to the islands to make a quick killing and instead barely survived. In fact, to get back to France in order to claim an inheritance, he actually "pawned" his black son into slavery, but then he bought him out, brought him to Paris, and enrolled him in the royal fencing academy, and then the story begins to get interesting.
What really stuck with me from reading the memoir was the love that shows through from the son, the writer, for his father, the soldier. I could never forget the novelist describing the day his father died. His mother met him on the stairs in their house, lugging his father's gun over his shoulders, and asked him what he was doing. Little Alexandre replied: "I'm going to heaven to kill God – for killing daddy." When he grew up, he took a greater sort of revenge, infusing his father's life and spirit into fictional characters like Edmond Dantes and D'Artagnan, with shades of Porthos, too. But the image of the angry child stuck with me and drove me onward to discover every scrap of evidence I could about his forgotten father.
And recovering the life of the real man behind these stories was the ultimate historical prospecting journey for me: I learned about Maltese knights and Mameluke warriors, the tricks of 18th-century spycraft and glacier warfare, torchlight duels in the trenches and portable guillotines on the front; I got to know about how Commedia del Arte influenced Voodoo and how a Jacobin sultan influenced the Star-Spangled Banner, about chocolate cures for poisoning and the still brisk trade in Napoleonic hair clippings. I discovered the amazing forgotten civil rights movement of the 18th century – and its unraveling – though the most amazing thing about this story of a black man in a white world was how little race stood in his way: how Alex Dumas's future father-in-law never once questioned his daughter marrying a man of color but only asked that he get promoted to sergeant first (later he lovingly referred to his son-in-law simply as "the General").
Finally, the memoir set me not only on a historical adventure but on an adventure in the present day that was straight out of a Dumas novel. I began by visiting the gray town in northeast France where the general died – where I found a dead museum secretary, a locked safe, and a host of unlikely, inspiring characters to make my journey a far from lonely one.
Review
Winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Biography!
“Tom Reiss wrings plenty of drama and swashbuckling action out of Dumas’ strange and nearly forgotten life, and more: The Black Count is one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that also sheds light on the flukey historical moment that made it possible.”
--Time
“A remarkable and almost compulsively researched account…The author spent a decade on the case, and it shows.”
--Christian Science Monitor
“Fascinating…a richly imaginative biography.”
--New York Times Book Review
"It would take an incredibly fertile mind to invent a character as compelling, exciting and unlikely as Gen. Alexandre (Alex) Dumas [hence] you might forget, while reading, that The Black Count is a work of nonfiction; author Tom Reiss writes with such narrative urgency and vivid description, you'd think you were reading a novel…The Black Count reminds us of how essential stories, whether true or invented, can be.”
--National Public Radio
“Vibrant…Sometimes the best stories are true. This is one of them.”
--Ebony
“Reiss details the criminal forgetting of Alex Dumas…This remarkable book stands as his monument.”
--Washington Post
“Superb... as improbable and exciting as [Dumas’s] best books… but there is much more to this book than that.”
–Newsweek/The Daily Beast
“Lush prose and insightful details make The Black Count one of the best biographies of 2012…a tale that is as easily engrossing as one of Dumas’ page-turning and timeless works.”
--Essence
“Impressively thorough…Reiss moves the story on at an entertaining pace…fascinating.”
--Wall Street Journal
“To tell this tale, Reiss must cover the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and the rise of Napoleon toward Empire; he does all that with remarkable verve.”
--Boston Globe
“Fascinating [and] swashbuckling...meticulously evokes the spirit of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France...Dumas comes across as something of a superhero...a monument to the lives of both Dumas and his adoring [novelist] son.”
--The Seattle Times
“A piece of detective work by a prize-winning author...brilliantly researched.”
--The Daily Mail (U.K.)
“Sometimes real life does, indeed, trump even the wildest of fiction…With a narrative that is engaging and entertaining, Reiss sets the literary table for one of the most satisfying adventure stories of the autumn. Richly detailed, meticulously researched and beautifully written, this is the unlikely true story of the man behind one of the greatest books in literature.”
--Tucson Citizen
“Triumphant…Reiss directs a full-scale production that jangles with drawn sabers, trembles with dashing deeds and resonates with the love of a son for a remarkable father.”
--The Herald (U.K.)
“Fascinating….Reiss argues that Dumas is an important, criminally neglected figure [and] it’s difficult to argue with him…A truly amazing story.”
--NPR.org
“A story that has everything…The Black Count has its own moving narrative thread, made compelling by Reiss’s impassioned absorption with the general’s fate.”
--The Literary Review
“A thoroughly researched, lively piece of nonfiction that will be savored by fans of Alexandre Dumas. But The Black Count needs no partner: It is fascinating enough to stand on its own.”
--Bookpage
“A compelling new work by literary detective Reiss, author of The Orientalist, tracks the wildly improbable career of [Count of Monte Cristo author] Alexandre Dumas’ mixed-race father…Reiss eloquently argues the General’s case.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“Alex Dumas, an extraordinary man whose sensational life had been largely lost to history solely because of his race, takes the spotlight in this dynamic tale…Reiss capitalizes on his subject’s charged personality as well as the revolutionary times in which he lived to create an exciting narrative.”
--Publishers Weekly
“Thrilling…Reiss makes clear that Alex lived a life as full of adventure, triumph, and tragic loss as any of his son’s literary creations…This absorbing biography should redeem its subject from obscurity.”
--Booklist
“From pike-wielding mobs to prisoners locked in a fortress tower, The Black Count is as action-packed as The Count of Monte Cristo. Unlike Dumas’s famous adventure novel, however, Reiss’s incredible tale is true.”
– Candice Millard, New York Times bestselling author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic
“Tom Reiss has literally drilled into locked safes to create this masterpiece…. His portrait of a man who was arguably our modern age’s greatest unknown soldier is remarkable.”
– James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys
“A masterful biography, richly detailed, highly researched, and completely absorbing. The Black Count is a triumph.”
– Amanda Foreman, New York Times bestselling author of A World on Fire and Georgiana
“It’s hard to imagine a more colorful or engaging subject than the man who inspired The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. In the wonderful hands of Tom Reiss, Alex Dumas comes to vivid life, illuminating far-flung corners of history and culture. This is a terrific book.”
– Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston
“The Black Count is a dazzling achievement. I learned something new virtually on every page. No one who reads this magnificent biography will be able to read The Count of Monte Cristo or any history of slavery in the New World in the same way again.”
– Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University
“Rousing and thought-provoking, The Black Count is an adventure like no other. I marveled at every twist and turn of this remarkable true story, brought to life with the charm and personal touch that has become the trademark of Tom Reiss.”
– Laurence Bergreen, New York Times bestselling author of Columbus and Over the Edge of the World
“A riveting, beautifully written and well-researched story of the seemingly impossible. It could never have happened in the United States, and with great skill, Reiss shows how the moment that produced Alex Dumas was lost with the rise of nineteenth-century racism.”
– Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for
The Hemingses of Monticello
“In the early 1800s, General Alex Dumas was purposefully disappeared by his enemies, and for too long his story has remained silenced. The Black Count vividly vindicates the great general, restoring him to his rightful place at the center of the Age of Revolution. Carrying us from the plantations of the Caribbean to Paris, the Alps, and Egypt, Reiss tells an engrossing tale of a life of social struggle, adventure, and courage—and of the frustrations and joys of a researcher on the trail of a forgotten truth.”
– Laurent Dubois, author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History
“A tale worthy of Dumas himself—of impossible odds, shrinking before the irresistible forces of daring, ingenuity and in-your-face talent.”
– Ted Widmer, author of Ark of the Liberties
“The real-life history of General Alex Dumas is as poignant and swashbuckling a tale as any his novelist son could have dreamed. Tom Reiss has the dramatist’s sense of setting and scene, the reporter’s persistence, and the historian’s eye for truth. Would that the imprisoned Count of Monte Cristo had a copy of this book!”
– Darrin M. McMahon, author of Enemies of the Enlightenment and Happiness: A History
“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.”
– Darin Strauss, National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author of Half a Life
“Tom Reiss tells this amazing story, largely unknown today, with verve, style, and a nonpareil command of detail.”
– Luc Sante, author o...
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Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie arrived in France from Saint-Domingue (Haiti) as a slave in 1776 at age 14, the son of a white fugitive aristocrat, the Marquis de la Pailleterie, and a black slave, Cessette Dumas. Enlisting in the army in June of 1786 Thomas-Alexandre would change his name to Alexandre Dumas for a number of reasons. Among the possible reasons, anger at his father for having sold him in Saint-Domingue or as an aristocrat's son he would be damaging his father name (the Marquis) by enlisting as a private instead of officer as was expected. Note: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie would have had difficulty becoming an officer because of his mixed race and the law making it difficult to claim his rightful title.
Alexandre's rise through the military ranks from private to general would be meteoric owing to the circumstances of the French Revolution and because of his individual attributes, such as bravery on the battlefield, his strength, equestrian ability, and swordsmanship. Rising above the racial injustices of the period General Dumas excelled as one of the most legendary cavalry generals in Europe.
"The Black Count" is an admirable biography; the military life of Dumas revolves around the French Revolution 1789-1799 of which Reiss covers in a concise although brief manner. The book is well researched and the determination by the author to seek out all letters, diaries, and official military records is evident in his Prologue and the bibliography. I found the book fascinating and informative and look forward to more works by Tom Reiss. I highly recommend this book and give it the 5 Stars it deserves.
This detailed book reads like a novel, with its fluid narrative that presents the autobiographical story of Alex Dumas and his tremendous contribution to the French Revolution. Mr. Reiss weaves a fascinating story while incorporating a plethora of resources having expended years of effort in accumulating tremendous research materials to substantiate the accuracy of this account.
It is a quick read that connects the dots and encompasses critical historic moments leading to the re-creation of France and eventually much of the European theater.
Surely, this epic tome will become required reading for historians, who want a fresh perspective on the French Revolution and how the freed mulatto slave, Alexandre Dumas born in what is now Haiti, demonstrated throughout his military career, using his tremendous strategic skill, honor, courage and fighting aptitude to win many battles!
At first, Mr. Reiss presents a brief history of his father, Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie who having left France to seek his fortune in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), then a resource rich colony of France, known for its great production of sugar cane. He married a wealthy woman and purchased a plantation and slaves to become a sugar producer. Later, he purchased a black woman, Marie-Cessette, who was considered quite a beauty for a tremendous sum. Together, they had four children, including a son named Thomas- Alexandre (whom later detached from his father's noble status instead used part of his mother's full name, to be known as Alexandre Dumas or Alex Dumas). When mismanagement led to great debt, Alexandre Pailleterie eventually fled Haiti to return to France , nearly penniless, he sold his mistress and their three living children as slaves, to acquire the money necessary to purchase passage to France for himself and Alexandre. Once they arrived in France, Alexandre attended school and trained as a swordsman, quite quickly, his talent at swordsmanship, gained him great renown throughout France.
Alex joined the military and quickly arose through the ranks, his great intelligence and exceptional bravery in battle soon got him the recognition of his superiors and subsequent promotions. Within very little time, he was moved up the ranks rapidly. Breaking the color barrier again and again soon becoming in charge significant numbers of men, first among the "dragoons"- free men of color, mainly from Saint-Domingue; eventually he was given charge of thousands of white men. His assignments met with marvelous tales of courage. He was entrusted on many occasions to perform reconnaissance missions and often his actions caused the enemy to cede an area or surrender before any great fighting ensued. There are numerous tales of his tremendous valor and talent when ambushed; on one such event, he alone fought 8 men killing 3 and wounding others, those who could fled; while he only sustained a few light surface wounds. Eventually, his accomplishments were fully acknowledge and he was bestowed the title of General. His fame and great accomplishments of service led to a terrible captivity in Naples, Italy where multiple attempts of poisoning nearly killed him due to his already declining health. Likewise, physical attacks were rendered, though he was far outnumbered and despite of his poor health, he proved his expert skills were still far superior to his enemy combatants.
His career terminated in sad fashion as Bonaparte sought to destroy him. Napolean Bonaparte, once an equal to Dumas, was a consummate politician, who took credit for many of Dumas's strategies and successes. His deceit and cunning allowed him to install puppets among the various bodies of the new government; who in turn advanced Bonaparte in power and notoriety. As his influence increased, his jealousy of Dumas allowed him to systematically dismantle the authority and career Dumas had earned. Had Dumas not attained such tremendous admiration even among those whom he confronted in battle or was sent to occupy; Napolean more than likely would have attempted to set him up for treason or used some other means to murder Dumas.
Were he alive today, he would probably be in charge of the equivalent of our Special Forces or some other distinguished elite military command post. Few displayed such a commitment that surpassed all other priorities; having chose to repeatedly lay down his life to build a new France which empowered all people at all costs; being given extended assignments, many lasting years at time away from his adored wife and children, salary and health and eventually his life.
It was his son, Alexandre Dumas, who continued to memorialize his father's exploits through stories "The Count of Monte Cristo", "The Three Musketeers" and also a biography.
This is a must read for those who love history. Enjoy!
While I would consider myself to know more history than the average joe, my knowledge and understanding of France's past was clearly more slight than I realized. That gap has been diminished immeasurably by this wonderful book. For it deftly and skillfully places the events of the times in the context of the life I was reading about, merging the biography of a gallant, fiery and elegant man and an overview of one of the most tumultuous periods in history. And does so in a manner that manages to keep the reader focused on what was happening at the time, rather than dragging in those irritating, "If only he had known what was about to happen" or "His dreams would soon be shattered" brickbats. And the sordid and sad tale of the temporary revolutionary racial equality and its demise was wonderfully told. That itself would make a great book.
My only complaint, and it is just a minor irritation but one that prevents the fifth star, is the incessant authorial interjections. I guess when you see the author's name is Tom, not Thomas, you can expect a more casual book, and while the author is clearly a scholar and superlative researcher, there were, for my taste, too many "When I read this..." and "While discussing that.." moments. I know you read these documents. Bringing yourself in was just, to me, clumsy and unnecessary.
But an exciting, nay, amazing tale of a man who was born nowhere with nothing, rising to the top by his own efforts, and then through bad luck and bad people being brought low. When they film this, as they surely must, I hope they remain true to the facts, for this is a glorious and informative tale of honor, dedication, strength, passion and patriotism. A wonderful telling of a spectacular tale.
From his dad. Read more
