Alexandre Dumas: Inspired by Reality

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The Greatest Sin

“Now I'd like someone to tell me there is no drama in real life!” (Dumas), exclaimed Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers and The Count Of Monte Cristo, one of the most popular writers of Europe in the 19th century. Dumas lived during an interesting time period in France and some of his family's experiences went into the making of his most popular books, The Count Of Monte Cristo.
FATHER'S LIFE
The fascinating life of Dumas' father, Alexandre Dumas, plays a critical part in the story line in The Count Of Monte Cristo. His father was a mulatto man and one of the only black commander-in-chiefs in the French army. During his time as commander-in-cheif and he led 53,000 men in war and captured the mountain range in Austria. The Austrians were not very happy about this and called him the, “Black Devil” (Reiss). The French, on the flip side praised his work and exclaimed that he was, “Mr. Humanity” (Reiss). During his time as commander-in-cheif he made both friends and enemies. During this time, Napoleon, emperor of France, became good friends with General Dumas (Reiss). In battle, Dumas was captured by Egypt and thrown into jail because they thought he was the leader of France (Reiss). Now, Napoleon when this all …show more content…

Dumas used the features of his uncles and his grandfather for making the characters of the villains (Reiss 51). Interestingly, one of his uncles actually once used an island named “Monte Cristo” to smuggle sugar and slaves (Reiss 13). In The Count of Monte Cristo, “The city of Marseille feasted the creator of Edmond Dantes” (Schopp 448). And the count, which is Edmond Dantes, “becomes a master of violence and corruption – all with the goal of helping the weakest and most victimized people of all” (Reiss 14). Throughout his stories in interwovens one of his great beliefs, not

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