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

A real-life adventure as captivating as any literary epic
Tom Reiss’s 2012 book, The Black Count, is the biography of an extraordinary, larger-than-life character in the history of France. Thomas-Alexander Davy de la Pailleterie, more commonly known by the name Alex Dumas, is best remembered today as the father of Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and dozens of other classic literary adventures. The elder Dumas’s life was a compelling adventure in itself, even rivaling the exciting novels of his illustrious son. Born the child of a French nobleman and a black slave on a plantation in what is now Haiti, Alex Dumas went on to achieve success and glory in the French military, rising to prominence during the Revolution and becoming the highest ranking black man in European military history. General Dumas accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on the 1798 French campaign to Egypt, fighting alongside the future Emperor and at times butting heads with him. Later events in Dumas’s life would prove that getting on Napoleon’s bad side was not a wise choice.

Reiss emphasizes that the French Revolution was a remarkable time in the history of race relations. Fueled by the liberal values spawned by the Enlightenment, as expressed in the Revolutionary credo of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!”, an unprecedented equality among men of all races was established in France. Seventy years before America’s Emancipation Proclamation, in a world where slavery was a common fact of life, the French not only freed their slaves but also created a society where men of color had the opportunity to reap the benefits of their abilities on an equal footing with whites. Later, when Napoleon established himself as dictator of France, he threw out many of the Revolution’s enlightened racial policies, and successful men of color like Dumas were left feeling betrayed and robbed of their due merits. It’s a bit ironic that a book which praises racial equality focuses so much on race. General Dumas’s life was incredibly interesting and exciting, regardless of his race, yet his story is so inextricably entwined with the racial policies of his lifetime that it’s all but inevitable to view him as an exemplar of triumph over prejudice and discrimination.

Dumasophiles expecting non-stop swashbuckling may be disappointed to find themselves reading chapters devoted to the sugar industry or slavery legislation. At times the biographical narrative thread seems a bit thin and overwhelmed by its historical context. But what context! Reiss is a genius at summarizing the complex events and philosophical ideas of the French Revolution. Never has this labyrinthine period of history been so pithily encapsulated. French history enthusiasts will love the book, but even those with little prior knowledge of the subject will be ably guided by Reiss through the twists and turns of the era.

Reiss repeatedly draws parallels between the life of Alex Dumas and the novels of his son Alexandre, but he doesn’t belabor the point. This is by no means a work of literary criticism. One need not have read The Count of Monte Cristo in order to understand or enjoy this book (though you should read it, because it’s a fantastic novel). This is purely a biography of a fascinating man and a history of a fascinating time. The Black Count is an immensely entertaining read for any history buff or adventure junkie. It’s only major fault is that it’s so good it leaves you wanting more.
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The Hidden Masterpiece by Honoré de Balzac

A cautionary tale of artistic obsession

Paris, 1612. A young aspiring painter nervously climbs the stairs to the studio of the master painter Porbus, in hopes that the great artist will take him on as an apprentice. When he arrives at the top of the staircase, however, he finds his idol already has company in the form of a mysterious old man. This aged personage turns out to be the master’s master, that is, the artist who taught Porbus all he knows about painting. The young novice is revealed to be Nicholas Poussin, who in Balzac’s time was one of the most celebrated painters in French history. Poussin, upon seeing the old man’s work, is amazed at the sublime talent of this aged master, who surpasses even the remarkable skill of Porbus. The old man, Maitre Frenhofer, has one great unfinished canvas secreted away in the back of his atelier. This piece of work is the great love of his life, and he refuses to share it with anyone. Poussin, filled with awe and admiration for this exceptional painter and overcome by an irresistible curiosity, decides he must see this painting at all costs.

The Hidden Masterpiece, also known as The Unknown Masterpiece, could be considered a long short story or a short novella. First published in 1831, it falls under the category of Philosophical Studies in Balzac’s body of work, the Comédie Humaine. In this tale Balzac explores the relationship between artists and their muses, the burden of genius, and the dangers of obsession. Frenhofer is an Icarus figure. He dares to rival the gods in his ability to create nature from nothing but palette and brush. He strives to materialize the ideal woman upon his canvas, just as Pygmalion sculpted Galatea from ivory. Poussin is the upstart whose ambition knows no bounds. He would sell his soul to the devil to decipher the old man’s secrets. To these men, art is the one invaluable necessity of existence; all else pales by comparison.

Balzac proves himself to be an expert writer on the subject of art, and his enthusiasm for the craft of painting is infectious. He does a beautiful job of recreating the atmosphere of the Renaissance painters’ studios and the arcane magic of creation practiced by Porbus and Frenhofer. The two masters engage in fascinating dialogues on such subjects as the proper method of modelling lifelike human flesh so as to create the mechanical illusion of three-dimensional depth while maintaining the living, breathing poetry of life itself. Given all the care and attention paid to setting up the scenario, the shocking climax of the story feels a bit rushed, and the ending too abrupt. Nevertheless, art lovers everywhere will take pleasure in this cautionary fable of the perils of creative obsession.
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The Cruise of the Dazzler by Jack London

For the sailor at heart, young or old
Young Joe Bronson just can’t seem to focus on his studies. Constantly distracted by opportunities for bicycling, ball playing, kite flying, and occasional fist fighting, he prefers the spirit of adventure and the freedom of the outdoors to being cooped up in a classroom poring over dusty old books. His apathy towards his studies inevitably brings about a clash with his father, who serves him an ultimatum to either shape up or ship out. Joe opts for the latter and runs off to join the crew of a sloop dubbed the Dazzler. In the eyes of this teenage boy, what could be more exciting, glamorous, and exotic than the carefree life of a sailor? Though his captain, French Pete, is a shady drunkard, Joe bonds with his crewmate, the ’Frisco Kid, a boy his own age whose relative wealth of experience on the water makes him worthy of idolization. Joe soon realizes, however, that neither the life of a sailor nor the boat to which he signed on are all he expected them to be.

The Cruise of the Dazzler, originally published in 1902, was Jack London’s second novel. Though pure adventure fiction, the book is loosely based on London’s own adolescent experiences as an oyster pirate in San Francisco Bay. Joe Bronson and the ’Frisco Kid—one the novice, the other the precocious veteran—could both be seen as surrogates for the author himself at different stages in his seafaring youth. This novel is one of only a few works London wrote for a young audience, and among that small group of works it stands out as the best. In this novel, London really does a great job of capturing the thoughts, impressions, and emotions of a teenage boy. Through the perspective of Joe he brings to life all of youth’s restlessness, wanderlust, and longing for independence. Although written over a century ago, this book still holds some attraction for today’s adventurous young reader. Of course, it will have the strongest appeal for kids who possess any interest in sailing or a love of boats. There are only a few brief passages in this book where the sailing jargon is thick enough to cause disorientation to the land dweller, unlike London’s other sailing book for boys, The Tales of the Fish Patrol, a collection of short stories in which every tale revolves around some fancy feat of nautical maneuvering. The Cruise of the Dazzler is less concerned with the technical craft of sailing, and more about the relationships between the characters and Joe’s coming of age. Though Joe gets into some dangerous adventures you wouldn’t want your kids to try, the overall message is a positive one, stressing that a happy and healthy life is one that strikes a balance between independence and security, you can’t run away from your problems, and the water is not always bluer on the other side of the bay.

Adult fans of London’s fiction will probably enjoy the book even more than their kids. Besides offering a semi-autobiographical glimpse into London’s oyster pirate days, it’s just simply a well-crafted and entertaining story. The fact that it was written for a young audience doesn’t make London’s depictions of San Francisco or the sea any less vivid. Though at times it may be a little predictable to the adult reader, it still manages quite a few memorable moments of surprise and suspense. Within London’s body of work, The Cruise of the Dazzler is not one of his greatest, most important books, but it’s an engaging and enjoyable read that, for a moment, just might make you feel young again.
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Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard

The best of Raylan, and much more
This collection of short stories by Elmore Leonard was first published in 2002 under the title When the Women Come Out to Dance. Due to the success of the TV series Justified, it has been re-released under the title Fire in the Hole, as it includes the story of that name on which the TV show is based. “Fire in the Hole” is the only one of the nine stories in this collection to feature Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, but it is the one of the longest stories in the book and clearly the best. Raylan was previously featured in Leonard’s novels Pronto and Riding the Rap. The former is much better than the latter, but “Fire in the Hole” tops them both. Raylan, who has served the U.S. Marshal Service in Miami for several years, is sent back to Harlan County, Kentucky, where he was born and raised, to take part in a task force aiming to take down Raylan’s former friend Boyd Crowder, a white supremacist who robs banks and blows up churches. This is an excellent ensemble piece populated with all manner of intriguing redneck, good ol’ boy, and latter-day cowboy lawman characters who exchange generous helpings of Leonard’s delightfully scripted hillbilly repartee. It is a riveting ride, alternately comical and suspenseful. The story will be familiar to those who watch Justified, as the first few episodes of season one were quite faithful to Leonard’s original narrative. Reading Leonard’s incarnation of the story is a joy and a revelation.

Miami-based Marshal Karen Cisco has also had her own TV show and movie (Out of Sight). She’s featured here in the story “Karen Makes Out,” in which she finally finds a man she thinks she can fall in love with, only to discover soon after that he’s a suspect in a series of bank robberies. I’m sure there are other recurring characters from Leonard’s works who appear in this collection, but I don’t know enough about his career to tell you which ones. He shows an incredibly wide range in these stories, covering the crime and western genres and beyond. Besides “Fire in the Hole,” the collection features another novella-length work, “Tenkiller.” When his fiancee dies, a former bull rider turned Hollywood stunt man makes a trip to his hometown of Okmulgee, Oklahoma, to check on his family’s pecan farm. Upon arrival he finds his house occupied by a family of criminal lowlife tenants who are up to no good and don’t want to leave. The book features two very strong stories in the western category. “Hurrah for Capt. Early” stars a black Spanish-American War veteran who receives a less than warm welcome from some small town racist cowhands. In “The Tonto Woman,” horse thief Ruben Vega stumbles upon a beautiful white woman living alone in the desert. When he discovers that she has Indian tattoos upon her face, he becomes greatly intrigued by her and decides to look into her mysterious past.

There are a couple of weaker entries. “Hanging Out at the Buena Vista,” chronicling the first date of two octogenarians in a retirement home, is a little too cutesy for its own good. “Sparks,” about an arson investigation, is not particularly exciting. These shorter pieces do little to drag down the collection as a whole, however, and the rest of the stories are captivatingly entertaining. Leonard really has a knack for creating fascinating, likeable characters, and his talent for penning snappy dialogue is unparalleled among contemporary crime writers. Despite the fact that my favorite Stetson-wearing U.S. Marshal is only featured in one story, I enjoyed this book more than either of the two prior volumes in the Raylan Givens series.

Stories in this collection:

Sparks

Hanging Out at the Buena Vista

Chickasaw Charlie Hoke

When the Women Come Out to Dance

Fire in the Hole

Karen Makes Out

Hurrah for Capt. Early

The Tonto Woman

Tenkiller

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The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

To make a short story long . . . 
Describe. Describe. Describe. When in doubt, heap on the adjective clauses. That’s the strategy Nathaniel Hawthorne employs in the writing of his novel The House of the Seven Gables, originally published in 1851.

The opening chapter promises a multi-generational drama with Gothic undertones, like an American Wuthering Heights. Unfortunately, the novel doesn’t deliver on that promise. Instead of penning an epic that spans centuries, Hawthorne chooses to focus on minutiae. He revels in the minute description of the titular house—every piece of its furniture, every plant in its garden, every crack in its woodwork. He is equally adept at depicting humanity, in both its exterior appearance and interior psychology. The result, however, is a book populated by vividly drawn characters that don’t do much of anything.

The house in question belongs to the Pyncheons, a once prominent, aristocratic New England family whose glory has faded and whose membership has dwindled. Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon, the family’s most notable and prosperous surviving constituent, is the absentee landlord of the place. His cousin, the elderly Hepzibah Pyncheon, inhabits the house. She is joined by Phoebe, her beautiful young niece from the country; Holgrave, a photographer who rents one of the gables; and Hepzibah’s aged and feeble brother Clifford Pyncheon, who has just been released from prison after a decades-long sentence for murder. Though the story revolves around crimes, both past and present, Hawthorne avoids talking about said crimes as much as possible, instead concentrating on the lives of the four people in the house—their habits, their eccentricities, and their relationships with one another. Hawthorne concentrates so intently on every breath and movement that it takes half a chapter just for a character to walk across a room. The atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a knife, but it leaves little room for activity. When things finally start happening in chapter 16 (out of 20!), it's too little, too late. Despite the macabre events taking place, the pace is still so slow it could put even James Fenimore Cooper to sleep.

The House of the Seven Gables is a book better quoted than read. You can pluck almost any paragraph from this novel and hold it up as an exemplar of English language prose, beautifully poetic in its descriptive elegance. But the sum total of all these perfect passages is one tedious, disappointing book. There were moments in some of the better chapters when the writing reminded me a bit of Balzac, yet Hawthorne could have learned a thing or two from his French contemporary. Balzac excelled at both atmosphere and action, and could juggle the two expertly. Perhaps that’s why his books still feel as fresh, insightful, and entertaining as the day they were written, while Hawthorne’s novel seems just as musty and cobwebbed as the house it so intricately depicts.
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John Toland: Ireland’s Forgotten Philosopher, Scholar . . . and Heretic by J.N. Duggan

A concise introduction to the Irish Voltaire
This brief book amounts to little more than an extensive article, read in about a half hour’s time, but the price of the Kindle file is appropriate for the content. It is not a complete biography of John Toland, but a concise summary of his philosophical career. The text is well written and the author gives a good sense of the personality of the man. Toland was notorious for his championing of reason over religion. He was the first person ever to be referred to as a “freethinker,” and Toland himself coined the term “pantheism” to describe the philosophy of Spinoza, of whom he was a disciple. A contemporary of such philosophical luminaries as Berkeley, Leibniz, and Locke, Toland never enjoyed the renown or respect they received, largely because his works were too controversial for his time. The picture Duggan paints here is of a man who not only welcomed such controversy but enthusiastically pursued it.

Toland was Irish, the author is Irish, and the purpose of this book is largely to bring attention to Toland’s Irishness. As such, some of the material may seem a bit unnecessary to the American reader, such as minute details about the history of Catholicism in Ireland. Overall, however, it’s an enlightening piece of writing and worth the time spent. Its value is increased by a comprehensive bibliography of Toland’s works. Anyone looking to learn more about this lesser-known figure of the Enlightenment should consider this a useful addition to their Kindle library.
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The Debacle by Emile Zola

One of the greatest war novels of all time
In The Debacle, as in all of his greatest works, Emile Zola achieves the wide-ranging scope of a sweeping, romantic epic without romanticizing the details of his settings or the emotions of his characters. As a result, we get an in-depth examination of the effects of war, on both national and personal levels. Zola thoroughly outlines the movements of troops and supplies, the political intrigue happening within the French government, and the diplomatic relations between nations, yet he never loses sight of the individual.

The narrative focuses on the friendship between Jean Macquart and Maurice Levasseur, two French soldiers from contrasting backgrounds who are brought together by the war. Jean Macquart, who previously starred in Zola’s novel The Earth (La Terre), is an experienced soldier and a sturdy, dependable, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. Maurice is a novice in the military, was raised in a privileged background, and has an emotional, introspective, and fragile nature. In addition to these two players, Zola presents myriad perspectives on the war. The multitudinous cast includes an emperor and a king; generals, grunts, and officers in between; farmers, shopkeepers, industrialists, doctors, and their wives. The combatants in this war range from highly-skilled military men to peasants with guns thrust into their hands, from the privileged elite to penniless beggars. The chaos of war ensnares them all in a series of events beyond their control or understanding, pushing them to the climactic tragedy of the Battle of Sedan.

Throughout the book, Zola condemns the futility of war in general, and the ineptitude of the French commanders in particular. The book is not totally pessimistic, however, as he does include some romantic concessions to the glory of patriotism, the strength of friendship, and the heroism that can arise when ordinary men are thrust into extraordinary circumstances. This is one of Zola’s greatest works, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially those who enjoy classic literature or historical fiction. It is both intellectually challenging and emotionally moving. I would caution the reader that it does help to have some knowledge of French geography and happenings in French history around the time of the Franco-Prussian War.
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