The Black Count: Glory, revolution, betrayal and the real Count of Monte Cristo

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 course

are fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration for

the swashbuckling stories was, in fact, Dumas's own father, Alex - the son

of a marquis and a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from private

in the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider… (more)

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 course

are fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration for

the swashbuckling stories was, in fact, Dumas's own father, Alex - the son

of a marquis and a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from private

in the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider who had grown up

among slaves, he was all for Liberty and Equality. Alex Dumas was the

stuff of legend'

Daily Mail

So how did such this extraordinary man get erased by history? Why are

there no statues of 'Monsieur Humanity' as his troops called him? The

Black Count uncovers what happened and the role Napoleon played in

Dumas's downfall. By walking the same ground as Dumas - from Haiti to

the Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto - Reiss, like the novelist

before him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero.

'Entrances from first to last. Dumas the novelist would be proud'

Independent

'Brilliant' Glasgow Herald