Audiobook. I grew up with the Three Musketeers, is strange that in all these years I never tried to learn more about Alexandre Dumas, I knew his son was also a famous writer, but I didn't know his grandma was a black caribbean slave, I didn't know his father was a legendary black fighter on the French revolutionary army and later the Napoleonic Egyptian invasion.
The book touches in several fascinating topics, the enigmas of current french bureaucracy, racism and acceptance in France, the incredible contradiction of Napoleon's legacy (indeed it was the best of times, it was the worst of times), Paris pre-revolution, the reign of terror, the utterly adventurous and incredibly history of Thomas-Alexandre's Dumas, and no less fascinating way in influenced his son's novels. any true fan would love to know that some of the most beloved passages of Three Musketeers and Count of Montecristo were taking from his father's own adventures and later misfortunes.
Thomas-Alexandre was at some point sold as a slave along with his mother, by his own father who was the white plantation owner, but later re-purchased and recognized as a legitimate son, taken to France and spoiled rotten with a life of luxury, a Dandy in Louis XVI's france. He was incredibly tall, described as imposingly athletic and handsome even by his enemies, and a natural with the sabre.
I won't spoil the book by telling about his act of personal heroism that got him the General rank, or what happened between him and Napoleon later (you have to read the book!), but is amazing to see how progressive was revolutionary France when related to race (the author compares it constantly with how backward was the US then), and how, among the multitude of progressive ideas that Napoleon brought forward (meritocracy!), the one where he had to go back was slavery, given that his backers in his ascent to power were plantation owners.
A Pulitzer prize, and a great read. Finished it Dec 2013,
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