Key insights from
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
By Tom Reiss
Audio available
11 minute read
Published May 14, 2013
What you'll learn
This book won author Tom Reiss a Pulitzer and floored audiences when he gained access to never-before-seen documents showing the extent to which Alexandre Dumas’ famous stories, from The Three Musketeers to The Count of Monte Cristo, are based on the life of his father: a slave who inherited the title of Count from his aristocrat father, trained to fight under the best swordsman in Europe, launched successful military campaigns across across several continents, and was unjustly imprisoned.
Key insights
- 1 Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was sold into slavery and given a title of nobility—both by his father.
- 2 Alex Dumas became a legend in his own time through daring and cunning on the battlefield.
- 3 Napoleon Bonaparte was jealous of Alex Dumas.
- 4 The novelist Dumas cherished his father General Dumas and honored his memory through his stories.
- 5 The French—not the British or the Americans—ushered in the first age of racial emancipation.
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