The Black Count

Tom Reiss

From Shelf: I know what you've read this summer

By walking the same ground as Dumas - from Haiti tothe Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto - Reiss, like the novelistbefore him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero.'Entrances from first to last.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY 2013'Completely absorbing' Amanda Foreman'Enthralling' Guardian'The Three Musketeers! The Count of Monte Cristo! The stories of courseare fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration forthe swashbuckling stories was, in fact, Dumas's own father, Alex - the sonof a marquis and a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from privatein the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider who had grown upamong slaves, he was all for Liberty and Equality. Alex Dumas was thestuff of legend' Daily MailSo how did such this extraordinary man get erased by history? Why arethere no statues of 'Monsieur Humanity' as his troops called him? TheBlack Count uncovers what happened and the role Napoleon played inDumas's downfall. By walking the same ground as Dumas - from Haiti tothe Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto - Reiss, like the novelistbefore him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero.'Entrances from first to last. Dumas the novelist would be proud'Independent'Brilliant' Glasgow Herald