This is a fun little story in which the stakes are absurdly small, the ending predictable, and the political commentary long since irrelevant. The tale does not live up its own billing of a dramatic adventure but it has a lot of charm. Its an easy read, despite the opening four chapters of mob-cannibalism.
It's genuinely funny in some places, though I can't tell just how much of the humour (and enjoyment of the book overall) is through intentional skill or is a reaction to its overly earnest leading charcters and shameless pandering to an ancient french audience.
The translation I picked up (Oxford Classics) comes with amusing footnotes that debunk and deride Dumas' understanding of history and science and contains some of the amusing flowery prose that was abridged for readability. The foreward suggests that this book was written to keep Dumas solvent and while reading it I could imagine him grinning as he strings the tale along, knowing that it's going to sell no matter what because of his name. Still, if you like your classics then you're not taking a risk trying this one. I enjoyed it but not one I'd read again.
Interesting. This was pretty much my experience reading the count of monte cristo, so now I’m skeptical to read anymore Dumas like the three musketeers.
That's surprising to me because I loved Monte Cristo when I read it, though it's been nearly ten years. I wonder if its down to how the translations are edited which makes Dumas better or worse to read. I've not read three musketeers either but I'll take a look for it when I'm next at the library.
Dumas was paid by the word and produced a chapter a week for the newspaper. He was often in need of money. Even in the Three Musketeers, you can feel it in some unnecessary dialogue or too long a description. Yet, he makes up for it, and I'm sure Monte-Cristo and the Musketeers trilogy are worth the waste of ink. I enjoyed The Black Tulip but to be fair, I had read an abridged version as a child.
Yeah I did see that.His ghost writer Auguste Maquet supposedly helped with the black tulip as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Maquet?wprov=sfti1
Yes, 19th century French literature is highly collaborative work. Maquet is his main collaborator (probably overshadowed), but Dumas fed every hungry author by giving them work, and generally just worked with others. If you read his Memoirs, on the night of the premiere of Dumas' Christine, Victor Hugo and Alfred de Vigny were the one rewriting his play for the next day because Dumas had to entertain guests (Christine was a romantic play, so a big scandal and lots of guests).
Interesting. I will have to look into that.