FREE THE BLACK COUNT: GLORY, REVOLUTION, BETRAYAL, AND THE REAL COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO PDF

Tom Reiss | 414 pages | 18 Sep 2012 | Random House USA Inc | 9780307382467 | English | New York, United States NPR Choice page

The book presents the life and career of Dumas as a soldier and officer during the French Revolutionas well as his military service in Italy during the French Revolutionary Wars and later in Egypt under . Reiss offers insight into and the life of a man of mixed race during the French Colonial Empire. He also reveals how Dumas's son — author — viewed his father, who served as the inspiration for some The Black Count: Glory his novels, including The Count Revolution Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers As ofthe The Black Count: Glory is being adapted into a film. Dumas was born the son of a renegade French nobleman and his black slave in in the French sugar colony of Saint Domingue the future ; at the time of his birth, his father was living on the run from the royal authorities and from the boy's uncle, a rich planter who shipped sugar and slaves out of a Haitian area called "Monte Cristo". When Dumas was 14, his father sold him and his three siblings into slavery in Port-au-Princein order Revolution raise funds to return to and reclaim his inheritance and estate. Some months later, the father repurchased his son and had him sent to France, leaving the siblings in Haiti, where they remained slaves. He attended school and received an education in literature, sword fightingmilitary arts, and the fundamentals of 18th-century French aristocracy. When he was 24 he lost his income because of his father's lavishing funds on a new wife. He enlisted in the French military as a dragoontaking his mother's surname Dumas and shortening his forename to Alex, and rose quickly in the ranks. During the French Revolutionhe led a group of mixed-race swordsmen called the and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Legion of ," nicknamed the "Black Legion," and he received citations from the new French Republic for various daring, risky operations. Betrayal he was given command of more troops, Dumas's military actions and victories included opening the glacier passes of the high Alpswhich provided access for the military in their ongoing battle with the Austrian Empire. When he was 32, he was promoted to the rank of General-in- Chief of the French Army of the Alpsresponsible for commanding 53, troops. Dumas departed for France shortly thereafter but was caught in a sinking vessel in the Mediterranean and Revolution to put ashore in hostile territory, where he was taken hostage and kept in a dungeon for over Betrayal years without clearly understanding and the Real Count of Monte Cristo motives or identity of his Betrayal. Released from the dungeon inhe returned to France. Napoleon had seized Revolution and passed the Law of 20 May — which effectively restored slavery, which had been abolished in in all the French colonies following the Revolution. And within France, Revolution series of harsh racial laws meant black and mixed-race officers were effectively demoted to chain-gang labor, the integrated schools of Paris were closed, and even General Dumas's marriage to a white Frenchwoman was made illegal. General Dumas raised his son, the future novelist Alexandre Dumas, in a house that was officially too close to Paris for a black-skinned person to live in; the general was forced to write a humiliating letter asking for a dispensation of this housing law. Dumas never received another military command, despite repeated requests for one. The debilitation from his previous two-year dungeon imprisonment in Italy led to his early death inat the age of In preparation for the writing and publication of The Black CountReiss undertook a comprehensive study of colonial Haiti, Revolutionary France, medieval Egypt, Betrayal political and social unrest in Italy. He also visited the dungeon in Tarantowhere Dumas was held from through by allies of King Ferdinand IV of Naples during his Betrayal with France. While the statue had been displayed for over 30 years, alongside statues of his son and grandson, research revealed that it was melted down by German military forces during World War II. Reiss learned of the possible existence of a long-forgotten cache of materials and documents, but the librarian unexpectedly died without recording the combination to the safe. Reiss persuaded a town official to "blow open" the safe, revealing a collection of records that proved valuable to presenting the life and work of Dumas. Simon asked Reiss why, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo to this biography, there had been little mention of Dumas's various heroic military exploits both during the French Revolution and afterwards throughout western Europe. Reiss responded with a brief overview of Napoleon's relationship with Dumas, who came to prominence during a time in history when his race was considered by the French as exotic and desirable. Dumas was seen as a physically contrasting presence to Napoleon, which seemingly threatened the Revolution. Reiss remarked that Napoleon took umbrage to Dumas, who stood over six feet tall and was "incredibly dashing and physically brilliant". Napoleon never forgave him for his public defiance, and punished Betrayal afterwards. Revolution retaliation played out as and the Real Count of Monte Cristo In springwhile returning to France from Egypt, Dumas was captured and imprisoned in Taranto in hopes of a ransom from Napoleon. Napoleon instead used Dumas's capture as an opportunity to solidify his dictatorship throughout France. When Dumas was released after two years, Napoleon had risen to power and had summarily reinstated slavery and eliminated civil rights protection — resulting in a whitewashing of Dumas's military heroics during the Revolution. Physically incapacitated from the captivity, Dumas died in early Although his son was less than four years old at the time, he retained memories of his father, later honoring his legacy through his literary works The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. On September 19,NPR' s Drew Toal reviewed the book, reiterating Simon's astonishment at the impact that Dumas made in life and literature, and calling the book and life of Dumas "fascinating". He The Black Count: Glory a four-star general and challenges Napoleon, and he did it all years ago, at the height of slavery. That a former slave could rise on his merits so far, so fast some seven decades before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation is a truly amazing story, one that needs no literary embellishment. On September 28,Nigel Jones in the UK's characterized Reiss, the author The Black Count: Glory "enthralling biographies", as "more a literary gumshoe detective than a conventional biographer". He noted that at a small municipal library in rural The Black Count: Glory, Reiss uncovered a trove of documents and letters which shed light on The Black Count: Glory life. Jones concluded his review by stating that, like Dumas's son, "Reiss has written a swashbuckling tale of his own. He lauded Reiss, stating that he revealed details about Dumas and about 18th-century French racial policies which had previously been widely unknown. He noted the comprehensiveness of the book, which effectively uses the revolutions in France and Haitialong with the rise of Napoleon, as a backdrop to the biography. Bell commended Reiss' research and writing, which was carried out "with remarkable verve". The Christian Science Monitor published a review by David Holahan on November 21,in which he spoke of the comprehensive coverage The Black Count: Glory in the book. Holahan called The Black Count a "remarkable and almost compulsively researched account" and stated "the author spent a decade on the case, and it shows". It's swashbuckling, but for a purpose. He was the highest-ranking black leader in a white society until modern times and really a very serious revolutionary. Inthe book was optioned by John Legend 's film company Get Lifted for production as a movie. The film will be directed by Cary Fukunaga True Detective. Since its September 18, publication, The Black Count has received honors and awards throughout the world. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Book by Tom Reiss. Dewey Decimal. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 22, Retrieved May 4, . Retrieved May 13, April 15, . Christian Science Monitor. The Guardian. Retrieved May 8, September 15, The Christian Science Monitor. April 16, Harvard Magazine. December 21, The Hollywood Reporter. BBC Four. November 27, . Retrieved August 14, Publishers Weekly. May 20, The American Library in Paris. September Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Use mdy dates from May Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Eric White jacket design Sam Weber illustration. Thomas-Alexandre Dumas ; Revolution of France. Crown Publishing Group. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo - Wikipedia

In the s, the son of an aristocratic white father and a black slave woman became a charismatic French general who for a time rivaled Napoleon himself, and afterward languished in an Italian dungeon. Dumas was born in The Black Count: Glory the western end of Saint-Domingue, the colony that is now Haiti. He never cared much for his feckless father, however, and took the name Dumas from his slave mother, about whom very little is known. This was a time of chaos throughout Europe, and Dumas got to experience the upheavals firsthand. Assigned Betrayal the Army of the Alps, he fought a series of difficult winter engagements in which his troops sometimes foundered in deep snow and at other times skidded on icy cliffs. In addition to being a gifted organizer and inspired tactician, he was indomitable in hand-to-hand combat. But he was summoned to Paris possibly to face execution. Acting decisively, he succeeded in restoring order. Here and throughout his career he flouted military custom by forbidding his men to pillage. And then it was on to Italy. Promoted by now to The Black Count: Glory rank of general, Dumas battled the Austrians, who called him and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Black Devil. Meanwhile Napoleon, seven years his junior, was rising rapidly in prestige, and was hostile to potential rivals. In Napoleon started a megalomaniac campaign in the Middle East, intending to conquer Egypt and then to go on to British India. There were never enough supplies, the heat was intolerable and thousands of soldiers were killed or died of disease. In Egypt, Dumas was now supreme cavalry commander of the Army of the Orient, and as usual he distinguished himself in battle. Napoleon abruptly departed for France, leaving his bedraggled army behind. Dumas then chartered a vessel that proved to be frighteningly leaky. It stayed afloat only after his The Black Count: Glory threw their cannons overboard, as well as 4, pounds of coffee that he had been planning to sell in France, along with nine Arabian horses. When the men got as far as Italy they put ashore at Taranto on the southern coast, expecting to be welcomed by a recently established republic there. It turned out, however, that Neapolitan monarchists had retaken Taranto, and Dumas was imprisoned in its fortress by a reactionary gang that called itself the Holy Faith Army. He spent two miserable years in the dungeon, unable to get anyone in authority to address his case, and after falling Revolution ill he became convinced that the physician attending him was administering poison. Back home, Marie-Louise kept pestering the French authorities to locate her husband, which they finally did, and they negotiated The Black Count: Glory release. By now he was a broken man, and anyway his military career was over, since Napoleon had become first consul — effectively dictator. Book Review The Third Musketeer. Home Page World U. The Black Count by Tom Reiss: | : Books

Sep 18, Minutes Buy. He makes his home… More about Tom Reiss. Winner The Black Count: Glory the for Biography! This is one of them. Richly detailed, meticulously researched and beautifully written, this is the unlikely true story of the man behind one of the greatest books in literature. But The Black Count needs no Revolution It is fascinating enough to stand on its own. The Black Count is a triumph. In the wonderful hands of Tom Reiss, Alex Dumas comes to vivid life, illuminating far-flung corners of history and culture. This is a terrific book. I learned something new virtually on every page. No one who reads this magnificent biography will be able to read The And the Real Count of Monte Cristo of Monte Cristo or any history of slavery in the And the Real Count of Monte Cristo World in the same way again. I marveled at every twist and turn of this remarkable true story, brought to life with the charm and personal touch that has become the trademark of Tom Reiss. It could never have happened in the United States, and with great skill, Reiss shows how the moment that produced Alex Dumas was lost with the rise of nineteenth-century racism. The Black Count vividly vindicates the great general, restoring him to his rightful place at the center of the Age of Revolution. Carrying us from the plantations of the Caribbean to Paris, the Alps, and Egypt, Reiss tells an engrossing tale of a life of social struggle, adventure, and courage—and of the frustrations and joys of a researcher on the trail of a forgotten truth. Would that the imprisoned Count of Monte Cristo had a copy of this book! As he did in The OrientalistTom Reiss has traveled far to stalk a forgotten legend, and has recovered for us a vivid, dramatic tale that delights, moves, and inspires. We believe Revolution understand the horror of slavery and the oppression of Africans. But The Black Count: Glory is the relationship between the grand goal of liberation and the and the Real Count of Monte Cristo tragedy of racism? As Reiss shows us, answers can be found in The Black Count: Glory extraordinary life of a forgotten French hero of the great revolutionary campaigns — a hero who was black. This is history that is vibrant, gripping, and tragic. When you buy a book, we donate a book. Sign in. Halloween Books for Kids. Read An Excerpt. May 14, ISBN Add to Cart. Also available from:. Sep 18, ISBN Available from:. Audiobook Download. Paperback —. Also by Tom Reiss. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. The Heir Apparent. The Plantagenets. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey. The Countess of Carnarvon. Nicholas and Alexandra. Robert K. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Edmund Morris. The Tudors. All Quiet on the Western Front. Erich Maria Remarque. Operation Mincemeat. Ben Macintyre. The Life of Elizabeth I. Becoming Queen Victoria. Kate Williams. Franklin and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Winston. How the Scots Invented the Modern World. Arthur Herman. James A. Alexander Hamilton. A World Undone. Genghis Khan and The Black Count: Glory Making of the Modern World. Jack Weatherford. The Wars of the Roses. The Source. American Lion. After Long Silence. Helen Fremont. Elizabeth the Queen. Sally Bedell Smith. Last Hope Island. Eric Clapton. Behind Enemy Revolution. Wendy Holden and Marthe Cohn. Dick Van Dyke. American Rose. Karen Abbott. The Killer Angels. Michael Shaara. Katharine Hepburn. Call the Midwife. Jennifer Worth. Praise Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography! Related Articles. Looking for More Great Reads? Download Hi Revolution. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Read it Forward Read it first. Pass it on! Stay in Touch Sign up. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later. Become a Member Start earning points for buying books!