A review by sherbertwells
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

adventurous informative inspiring tense fast-paced

4.0

Before reading Tom Reiss nonfiction biography The Black Count, I had no desire to read The Count of Monte Cristo. I assumed Alexandre Dumas was the French equivalent of Charles Dickens: long-winded, unnervingly-conservative and focused on the drama of love, marriage and social class. I knew his books were classics, but not the sort of classics people wanted to read

I still think that’s true but now I know his dad was pretty neat.

General Alex Dumas deserves the Legion d’Honneur, but the Pulitzer Prize won by The Black Count in 2013 is a fitting accolade. His story is full of dramatic dramatic potential: born to an enslaved mother and a French aristocrat father on present-day Haiti, he moves to France, enlists in the army and is caught up in the egalitarian fervor of the Revolution. In a Europe that refuses to acknowledge the inherent humanity of people of color, the daring exploits of “Mr. Humanity” place him in commands across the burgeoning French Empire, from the civilian horror of the Vendée to the distant terrain of Egypt. Sidelined by Napoleon Bonaparte and by the increasing power of racist, reactionary European monarchies, Dumas’ incredible story has lingered in obscure corners of history despite faithful preservation in his son’s memoirs.

Author Tom Reiss depends heavily on the testimony of Alexandre Dumas, who is famous for such classics as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, for the details of his father’s life. Reiss theorizes that the early parts of the latter novel are inspired by Dumas’ imprisonment in an Italian castle, and after reading The Black Count’s description of this traumatic event I am now very interested in reading its fictional counterpart. Excerpts from Alexandre’s biography appear throughout the narrative, and while it’s clear Reiss doesn’t trust them entirely they paint a very Romantic portrait of the titular character: Dumas the Man is lost in the greater sweep of Dumas the General, the Mythic Hero, and the Patriot of Color.

But this final epithet is explored brilliantly. The coffers of the Ancien Régime are stuffed by sugar and slavery, but when these profits dry up the French Revolution breaks out. Among a small contingent of Black and mixed-race revolutionaries, Dumas fights fiercely for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity and the only nation willing to defend these rights. He brushes shoulders with figures like Toussaint L'Ouverture and Joseph Bolgne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and Reiss takes care to examine the social predicament of people of color throughout the French Empire. These sections are among the best in The Black Count.

Maybe I’m just a sap for historical context.

The Black Count is a brilliant premise placed in the hands of a mostly-competent writer, and while Reiss does not quite live up to the magnificent persona of his book’s namesake, but he does the duty of every writer-historian: he forges through the confused fog of the past to follow an incomplete trail, and draws out the half-forgotten figure of a tall black man on a strong white horse with a cockade of red, white, and blue.

Oh shoot. I’m going to have to read The Count of Monte Cristo now, aren’t I.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Child death, Death, Sexual assault, and Violence

The relationship between General Dumas' father and his mother is probably not consensual. Reiss describes the history and dynamics of master/slave relationships on Saint Domingue, and it's pretty clear that enslaved women didn't have much of a choice when approached by white French aristocrats like Dumas' father. But not a lot of historical records exist for her, so Reiss doesn't say anything definitively.