Alexandre Dumas

One September afternoon in 1751, towards half-past five, about a score of small boys, chattering, pushing, and tumbling over one another like a covey of partridges, issued from one of the religious schools of Chartres. The joy of the little troop just escaped from a long and wearisome captivity was doubly great: a slight accident to one of the teachers had caused the class to be dismissed half an hour earlier than usual, and in consequence of the...

Written in 1847, while Dumas was at the height of his powers, this play recounts the events leading up to the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre of the French Huguenots-and the subsequent death of King Charles IX. The playwright focuses on the people inadvertently caught up in the slaughter-which, once started, cannot be repressed. By following the fate of two nobles, the Catholic Count Coconnas and the Huguenot Count de la Mole, and linking their stories...

Excerpt: "It is with cities as with men-chance presides over their foundation; and the topographical situation of the first, and the social position of the latter, exercise a beneficial or an evil influence over their entire existence. There are noble cities which, in their selfish pride of place, have refused to permit the erection even of a few humble cottages on the mountain on which their foundations rested: their domination must be exclusive...

This swashbuckling yarn is the continuation of the story in "Balsamo, the Magician," "The Queen's necklace," and "Ten Years Later." It is the story of the royal family in the last days of the monarchy of France and the struggles of the people on every side, and more than their historical struggle, their personal struggles as well.

Excerpt: "It was a winter night, and the ground around Paris was covered with snow, although the flakes had ceased to fall since some hours. Spite of the cold and the darkness, a young man, wrapped in a mantle so voluminous as to hide a babe in his arms, strode over the white fields out of the town of Villers Cotterets, in the woods, eighteen leagues from the capital, which he had reached by the stagecoach, towards a hamlet called Haramont. His assured...

If our readers, tempted by the Italian proverb about seeing Naples and then dying, were to ask us what is the most favourable moment for visiting the enchanted city, we should advise them to land at the mole, or at Mergellina, on a fine summer day and at the hour when some solemn procession is moving out of the cathedral. Nothing can give an idea of the profound and simple-hearted emotion of this populace, which has enough poetry in its soul to believe...

Auf Grund der Einladung eines alten Freundes war der 27jährige Alexandre Dumas 1831 zur Jagd in einer Gegend rund um ein kleines Dorf in Frankreich als er einen Mann begegnete, der einen wahnsinnige Ausdruck im Gesicht hatte und angab, seine Frau im Weinkeller mit einem Zweihänderschwert enthauptet hat und das der abgeschlagene Kopf noch mit ihm gesprochen hat. Zur Protokollierung seiner Aussage begab sich der bekannte Schriftsteller in das Haus...

Features one of the strangest characters in literature, Joseph Balsamo, also known as Cagliostro (later a key figure in the Affair of the Necklace). An alchemist, conspirator, and Freemason, Balsamo figures prominently in the eventual downfall of the French monarchy.

CONTENTS: The d'Artagnan Romances - The Three Musketeers - Twenty Years After - The Vicomte of Bragelonne Cycle des Valois - Marguerite de Valois - Chicot the Jester - The Forty-Five Guardsmen Cycle Memoires d'un Medecin - Joseph Balsamo - The Queen's Necklace - Ange Pitou - The Countess de Charny The Novels THE FENCING MASTER THE CONSPIRATORS GEORGES AMAURY THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO THE REGENT'S DAUGHTER THE CORSICAN BROTHERS THE CHEVALIER...

To the Bastille! The third title in Dumas' "Marie Antoinette" series, which chronicles the decline of the French monarchy, Ange Pitou takes place during the weeks immediately preceding and following the fall of the Bastille in 1789. Gripping and brimming with action, this historical novel will delight fans of Dumas and French history.