The Black Count: Uncovering the Epic Story of Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

Urenna: This historical biography is based on the life of the famous author, Alexandre Dumas’s father, Thomas-Alexandre, known as Alex Dumas.

After time spent in the War of the Polish Succession that ended in 1738, Frenchman Alexandre (Antoine) Davy de la Pailleterie, a future marquis, left France to seek his fortune in Saint-Domingue, the island of Hispaniola. At that time, the Spaniards owned, Santo Domingo, the east side of the island, and the French owned the west, Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Because of sugar planting, Saint-Domingue was one of the wealthiest islands in the world.

Antoine moved in with his younger brother, Charles, who had married well and became a well-known sugar planter. Antoine scrounged off his brother for a decade, kept several slave mistresses, and refused to work. Charles and Antoine’s relationship ended violently. Antoine fled with three of his brothers’ slaves, one of which was his latest mistress. To probably resist arrest, Antoine moved up into the highlands, a densely wooded mountains, eventually settling in Jérémie, an isolated area of Haiti. There, he changed his name to Antoine de l’Isle—Antoine of the island.

Antoine...

United States on Oct 06, 2016

E.Roman: Studying history or reading historical biographies is like putting together the pieces of a humongous jigsaw puzzle. Every book you read adds more pieces and makes the whole picture a lot clearer. In certain cases it also takes you on an emotional journey when you catch a glimpse of the remarkable lives people lived - how they suffered and how they triumphed in the face of innumerable and unimaginable obstacles as well as the conniving of countless scoundrels along the way. I must say I couldn't help but be highly impressed by the heroics and the humanity of this 'Black Count' (Alex Dumas) - someone most worthy of our admiration, but overshadowed in history by his arch nemesis Napoleon. Known as 'der schwartze Teufel' (the black devil) to the Austrians for his ferocity in battle, Dumas' exploits and his leadership are awe inspiring.

One of the particularly illuminating aspects of this book is its profile of the evolution and devolution of attitudes towards race and slavery throughout pre- and post-revolutionary France and its colonies - the conflict between the revolutionary ideals of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" versus the economic interests of the colonial...

Canada on Jan 03, 2016

Wras: This is a very good biography, the subject and the period are so interesting that is as exciting as the best of fiction. The writer puts the events in context and explains what was happening at the time and why, making the story well rounded and more informative than just a single person anecdotes; it helps understand motivations and explains some of the extraordinariness of General Alexandre Dumas, a mixed race officer in the french army, Born in St Domingue (Haiti) in 1762, and father of the famous writer and the inspiration to many of his novels, the Count of Monte Cristo, The three of the Musketeers.
He was born to slavery but rose to command in the french revolution, the expeditions to Egypt with Napoleon and survive many adventures, while behaving with more honor than some of the more famous contemporaries. He was a true inspiration, to art and humanity.
This book has more depth than most because it explains, the idiosyncrasies of the period, from extrange medicines, to reasons laws change and how this changes affect the individual, sometimes it presents us with two versions of an event, the official and the one his son recorded or how time and politics changed the...

United Kingdom on May 29, 2015

Steven Ledbetter: I read quite a few biographies, but it has been a long time since I was so captivated by one, especially a biography of someone I had not previously heard about. Still, as a youth I had enjoyed "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers", and when I learned that the subject of Tom Reiss's book was the father of Alexander Dumas and the model in many ways of Edmond Dantes, the self-styled Count of Monte Cristo, I decided to check it out.
The writing is vivid and the story is filled with amazing incidents and dramatic twists. The son of a ne'er-do-well French aristocrat who went to Saint Domingue (Haiti) when it was still a French possession, and a black local woman who would have had essentially no status, Alex Dumas had the most astonishing life. Taken to France by his father shortly before the Revolution, he benefited from the kind of classical education that an aristocrat could expect, and became a superb horseman and swordsman. When his father (almost inevitably) had run through all his wealth and most of his property, he told the young man that he could no longer support him, but that he would get him into a military position as an officer. Alex, who was...

United States on Mar 18, 2015

Uthman Morrison: This book deserves the highest rating for daring to throw a revealing light on yet another egregious blot on the universally received projection of the French revolution as the proud source and impetus behind the political implementation of the highest democratic values as regards the fundamental and inalienable freedoms and rights of man. The book provides a thoroughly researched account of the setbacks and disadvantages suffered by outstanding players of African and Caribbean origin on a revolutionary stage intended to remain exclusively white and European, and whose historical contributions to the birth of the Revolutionary Republic would have been rendered all but impossible or otherwise rendered invisible at the hands of its leaders, particularly Napoleon himself, had they had it all their own way, even at the height of their evidently hollow claims to the promulgation of liberty, equality and fraternity for all of mankind. The author is to be congratulated on extracting from years of painstaking academic research into one of modern history's most studied and analysed events, a new, fascinating and thoroughly readable account of the French Revolution from a hitherto...

United Kingdom on Feb 10, 2014

Andrew Fontenelle: The life and military record of General Alexandre Dumas almost seems like the stuff of legend. His son, Alexandre Dumas (Pere) the writer, used him as the model for some of his most well known characters including Edmond Dantes (the Count of Monte Cristo) and d'Artagnan (the Three Musketeers).

Alexandre Dumas (or Alex Dumas as he signed his name), was born in Saint Domingue to an African Women and a French Marquis and rose very quickly through the ranks solely on his own merit to become a General in the French army. A popular and striking commander who always lead from the front and would typically be found in the thickest and most dangerous of the fighting. Unfortunately like his comrade in arms, teacher and fellow revolutionary, Chevalier de St George, he was to face racism, bigotry and betrayal.

In "The Black Count", Tom Reiss has written a most comprehensive biography of the General and the events which shaped and affected his life. From his early days in Saint Dominque to his rise to prominence during the French Revolution, the author draws on a wealth of information including personal memoirs and letters, the writings of his novelist son, visits to various...

United Kingdom on Nov 17, 2012

S Riaz: This is a biography of General Alexandre Dumas, father of the novelist and a man who experienced and achieved a great deal in his amazing life. His son was not yet four when he died in 1806, but obviously hero worshipped him and incorporated many of the tales of his life, told by his mother, into his novels. In fact, his fathers life reads very much like a novel and is an astounding account of a man who was born the son of a slave and lived through a revolution and the rise of Napoleon.

The first part of this book looks at the early life of Alexandre Dumas, who was himself the son of a Marquis, a French nobleman in hiding on the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue, and Marie Cessette Dumas, who was a slave. Saint-Domingue was a place where the sons of impoverished noble familes could strike it rich, as sugar was a scarce and luxurious commodity. The Marquis, known then as Antoine Alexandre de I'Isle, had effectively come 'to sponge' off his younger brother, who had married the daughter of a plantation owner. Eventually he had four children with Marie Cessette Dumas, although when he eventually returned to France he took only his youngest child, Alexandre, with...

United Kingdom on Oct 17, 2012