The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book, Pulitzer Prize winner for Biography in 2013, tells the story of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a French General, who served as the inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, both written by his son, Alexander Dumas. This is an unbelievable life story. When he was 14, his father sold him into slavery in Haiti. But being a good dad, he repurchased his son and sent him to France, where he was educated in literature, sword fighting and military arts. He becomes a hero of the French Revolution and later is named the General-in-Chief of the French Army of the Alps in 1794. He was the highest-ranking black commander ever in any white military until Colin Powell became a four-star general in 1989. He served with and under Napoleon. The research is amazing. In fact, the book begins with the author discovering a cache of materials about the General in a safe that hadn’t been opened in decades.
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