The Black Count: Glory, revolution, betrayal and the real Count of Monte Cristo
Sep 2012 · Random House
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5 reviewsreport
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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
‘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
Ratings and reviews
4.4
5 reviews
Amanda Kitching
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April 10, 2017
One of those books that proves life really can be more amazing than fiction. I bought this book because I'm a huge fan of the book, the Count of Monte Cristo. This gives such a wonderful insight into the man who inspired not only that book, but so many others. Amazing, fascinating, tragic. Read it!
About the author
Born in 1964, Tom Reiss is an American author and journalist who lives in New York. He is the author of The Orientalist, an acclaimed biography of Lev Nussimbaum (aka Kurban Said) which was shortlisted for the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize. The Black Count is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2013.
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