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A review by lory_enterenchanted
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
tense
4.0
Claire of Word by Word recommended this - I'd had it on my radar earlier but forgot about it. I was so glad to finally read it, just after finishing The Count of Monte Cristo. It was fascinating to learn about some of the real-life story behind Dumas's Count, a mysterious and almost otherworldly figure, which makes sense as his father was this kind of figure for him - having died when he was 4 years old.
The backstory adds to the adventure an important and under-represented angle on the French Revolution and its aftermath. This is the struggle to abolish slavery, which briefly happened in the wave of Revolutionary ideals, and enabled the rise of a half-black general. Then, in a truly novelistic turn of events, after accompanying Napoleon on an ill-fated voyage to Egypt, he ended up shipwrecked imprisoned for two years, while Napoleon enacted his coup and rolled back rights for black people in France. He came back, broken in health but still eager to fight for freedom, to find this new world had no place for him.
The story is as much about an era and a world in transition as about an extraordinary man. Highly worth reading, and learning from. I was struck by the parallel to recent American history, as a resurgent racist impulse tries to roll back achievements of the past. Liberty, equality, and fraternity still have a hard struggle to overcome our fears and prejudices, and we are still much too prone to subject ourselves to an Emperor who promises to 'make everything great' while really just interested in his own greatness.
The backstory adds to the adventure an important and under-represented angle on the French Revolution and its aftermath. This is the struggle to abolish slavery, which briefly happened in the wave of Revolutionary ideals, and enabled the rise of a half-black general. Then, in a truly novelistic turn of events, after accompanying Napoleon on an ill-fated voyage to Egypt, he ended up shipwrecked imprisoned for two years, while Napoleon enacted his coup and rolled back rights for black people in France. He came back, broken in health but still eager to fight for freedom, to find this new world had no place for him.
The story is as much about an era and a world in transition as about an extraordinary man. Highly worth reading, and learning from. I was struck by the parallel to recent American history, as a resurgent racist impulse tries to roll back achievements of the past. Liberty, equality, and fraternity still have a hard struggle to overcome our fears and prejudices, and we are still much too prone to subject ourselves to an Emperor who promises to 'make everything great' while really just interested in his own greatness.