The Black Count by Tom Reiss
By the author of the internationally best-selling biography The Orientalist, The Black Count brings to life one of history’s great forgotten heroes: a man almost unknown today yet with a personal story that is strikingly familiar. His swashbuckling exploits appear in The Three Musketeers, and his triumphs and ultimate tragic fate inspired The Count of Monte Cristo. His name is Alex Dumas. Father of the novelist Alexandre Dumas, Alex has become, through his son’s books, the model for a captivating modern protagonist: The wronged man in search of justice.
Born to a Black slave mother and a fugitive White French nobleman in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but then made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy.
He was only 32 when he was given command of 53,000 men, the reward for series of triumphs that many regarded as impossible, and then topped his previous feats by leading a raid up a frozen cliff face that secured the Alps for France. It was after his subsequent heroic service as Napoleon’s cavalry commander that Dumas was captured and cast into a dungeon – and a harrowing ordeal commenced that inspired one of the world’s classic works of fiction.
The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multi-racial society. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son. Drawing on hitherto unknown documents, letters, battlefield reports and Dumas’ handwritten prison diary, The Black Count is a groundbreaking masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.
This was the pick for my November book club. One of the reasons I love book clubs so much is that it encourages me to pick up books I never would on my own, challenging me to engage with new types of literary material.
In our club, whoever volunteers to host for the month gets to pick what we read. My girl Kim loves to read some nonfiction, so this was her pick.
I am not opposed to nonfiction–and I actually do like it a lot of the time–so I was ready to give this one a decent shot, even though I definitely would not have been drawn to this on my own accord.
The summary sounded pretty intriguing and I do enjoy learning real history, especially about figures that have been forgotten or ignored.
I knew ahead of time that this book would have LOOOTTTSSS of French military history….bllaaahhhhh…NOT my jam…..but I AM a team player and committed to our solitary book club rule (You must finish the book to attend our gathering!) so I tried my best to give it a fighting chance.
I should have known real quick where this one was going for me when the BORING ASS audiobook narrator got going on Chapter 1.
OMMMGGGGGG his voice was giving me flashbacks to when I listened to Ron Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton”….I NEVER IN MY LIFE want to relive THAT experience! 😖😖😖😖😖
This read like a history textbook to me…and the narrator SOUNDED like a textbook (did you even know that is possible? Trust me…it IS) ….it just dragged ON and ON and ON.
There was some interesting material, but it DEFINITELY could have been written in a waaayyyy more interesting way….and LAWD, it definitely could have been READ OUT LOUD in a more interesting way too.
That narrator, yall……UUUGGGHHH.
I do wonder how this one would have sat with me if I would have read the physical book instead of listening.
Usually, historical nonfiction is WAY easier for me to absorb and digest with the audio version…but THIS guy…man, he did NOT add to the interesting factor ONE DAMN BIT.
I kept tuning out and drifting away to other thoughts over and over and over as I listened.
I am hella embarrassed to tell you I seriously can not recall many specifics of what I read and learned.
The information on race in France during this time period was pretty fascinating…just not explained in an engaging way nor elaborated on very much. I will look it up on my own to learn more about it.
Basically, I was just trying to GET THRU this one, yall. I even had it on 2.2X speed to finish quicker 🤦♀️ (and also to have it done in time for our meeting later today!)
If it wasn’t for book club and our finishing rule, I FOR SURE would have quit this one WAY early on.
I feel like I have come across quite a few reads lately that I am just NOT feeling….. my latest in print library book I’m reading I can not get into either…you’ll hear about that one later this week, I’m sure.
This book has been RAVED about…it even won the Pulitzer prize years back! (I’m kinda astounded by these two facts)
So maybe it’s not that it’s a BAD book…it’s that it isn’t my type…I’m just not that into it.
I’m interested to see what the other people in my book club have to say about it…but WHEW…I am GLAD this one is DONE.