The Black Count

Author: Tom Reiss

General Alex Dumas, a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar because his novelist son, Alexandre Dumas, used his great exploits in life as inspiration for classics such as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. But behind General Dumas's reckless adventures lay a greater, incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave, who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race in his era. Born in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, Alex Dumas made his way to Paris and rose to command armies at the height of the French Revolution, until he met a formidable enemy he could not defeat. The Black Count is a thrilling adventure story, a vivid evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the first multi-ethnic society in the modern world. Time magazine described The Black Count as one of those perfect human stories of strength and courage that illuminate the historical moment, but it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between father and son.