A brief summation of Alexandre Dumas’s career would be that he wrote books as exciting as his life. In his career, he produced works at a rate so prolific that he is estimated to have published 100,000 written pages in his lifetime. Dumas was a versatile writer who wrote plays, poetry, drama, cookbooks, travel journals, and novels for which he is better known. In his lifetime, he enjoyed immense popularity and gained financial success with his books. Here are some of his most notable works:
5. The Black Tulip
‘The Black Tulip’ is a historical fiction novel set in 1672, against the background of the Tulip mania in the Netherlands and the mobbing of Johann and Cornelius de Witt on the suspicion that they were rebels against William III of Orange. Alexandre Dumas published it in 1850.
The story introduces a challenge set by the city of Haarlem, inviting people to attempt growing tulips with black bulbs. The reward is set at 100,000 francs, in addition to the fame and respect the winner will acquire. The protagonist, Cornelius van Baerle, a horticulturist, begins to promote the growing of tulips and sets out to tackle the challenge.
His neighbor, Isaac Boxtel, a gardener competing for the reward, watches him and tries to scheme Cornelius out of his chances. When his plans fail, Boxtel informs the authorities that Cornelius is also a rebel because he was the godson of Cornelius de Witt, who was mobbed earlier. Cornelius is arrested and thrown in jail. He is fortunate and falls in love with the jailer’s daughter, Rosa, who believes in him, and together, he continues working towards growing the black tulip. This novel shares similar love, revenge, and serendipity themes with ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’.
4. The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later
This is the third and final installment of the D’Artagnan romances and was serialized between 1847 and 1850. The story is set ten years after the last novel. It is the largest of the three books and comprises at least three distinct books.
The first, ‘The Vicomte of Bragelonne‘, narrates D’Artagnan and Athos helping restore Charles II to the English throne and Aramis and Porthos being involved in a plot with the French Superintendent of Finances. Book Two, ‘Louise de la Valliere‘, focuses on a romantic intrigue in the court of Louis XIV. His brother, Philippe, marries the sister of the English King. To defuse romantic tension between himself and his sister-in-law, King Louis turns his attention to Louise de la Valliere, the love interest of the Vicomte of Bragelonne. The climax of the series, ‘The Man in the Iron Mask, is more popular than any of the books in the series besides ‘The Three Musketeers’. It introduces a mysterious man imprisoned in the Bastille who is the spitting image of King Louis XIV of France, and D’Artagnan is involved in a plot to switch one for the other.
3. Twenty Years After
Published in 1845, Alexandre Dumas’s ‘Twenty Years After’ is the sequel of ‘The Three Musketeers‘ and chronicles events twenty years after the first book. The history behind this work has moved to the Fronde civil wars between the forces of Louis XIV and the combined forces of the princes, nobles, and the law courts in France, the revolution of Oliver Cromwell, and Charles I’s execution in England.
The story treats the regency of Queen Anne, and Cardinal Mazarin replaces Cardinal Richelieu as Minister. D’Artagnan, though, a musketeer as he had wanted, has been stuck in the post of lieutenant for twenty years to his frustrations. Hearing of his exploits with the musketeers of the past, Mazarin approaches him to enlist him and the musketeers to fight on the side of the monarchists.
D’Artagnan accepts and searches for the musketeers, each having gone his own way. Only Porthos joins him; Aramis and Athos are committed to the side of the Republicans. The former friends find that they have to confront each other on the battlefield, and their friendship is tested against their political loyalties and convictions in the swashbuckling adventure going across both sides of the Channel. A more complex story than ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘Twenty Years After’ explores themes of loss and failure, compromise and disillusionment.
2. The Three Musketeers
‘The Three Musketeers’ is among the two most famous works of Alexandre Dumas. It is a swashbuckler adventure of court intrigue, political schemes, and romance, published as a serial novel in 1844.
This historical novel is set between 1625 and 1628, during the Ancien Regime period. It serves as a social commentary on the French court’s injustices and abuse of power at the time. It also highlights the conflicts between the monarchists and the republicans.
D’Artagnan, a young Gascon, comes to Paris to enlist in the prestigious Musketeers of the Guard and has a run-in with three musketeers, Athos, Aramis, and Parthos, which leads to a proposal to settle their differences in a duel. At the duel, in an unlikely turn of events, D’Artagnan bands with the three musketeers to fight against Cardinal Richelieu’s posse, who attempts to arrest them for illegal dueling. This incident sparks a friendship and sets the stage for them to play roles in the high-stakes political intrigue and romantic affairs in the French court and high society.
This is the first novel in the D’Artagnan romances and is so popular to have been adapted into movies and other media while inspiring numerous works of art. The term, the three musketeers, has become a common literary trope and is an idiom for three inseparable friends. The figure of D’Artagnan is based on a real-life character, Charles de Batz de Castelmore.
1. The Count of Monte Cristo
Published in 1844, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ is arguably Alexandre Dumas’ most famous work. It is an adventure story of revenge and love. The novel is set in the era of the Bourbon Restoration and Napoleon’s first exile on the island of Elba. As usual, Dumas uses historical events to create a realistic background for this story. Elements of his plot are often embedded in historical events.
Edmund Dantes is a young sailor set up, arrested, and jailed without trial in a fortress prison. He was framed as a spy for the Bonapartists. In prison, he meets an old priest, Abbe Faria, who tutors him in the ways of sophistication and helps Dantes deduce, from the story he tells Abbe Faria, the ones responsible for his imprisonment. Abbe Faria also reveals to Dantes the location of a hidden treasure he was aware of on the island of Monte Cristo. When the priest dies, Dantes escapes the prison, finds the treasure, and enters Paris as the enigmatic Count of Monte Cristo to wreak vengeance on those who sought to destroy him. In this classic tale, Alexandre Dumas raises questions about the morality of revenge and has been popular since it was published.
