Novel Ideas – Yet More Ideas For Good Books

The following is the third part in a growing list of authors and books that I have found to be genuinely interesting. The list need not be read in any particular order, and it stems entirely from my own tastes and experiences. It is, as a result, entirely subjective. It is simply designed simply to aide you, the reader, in the process of choosing your own reading material.

Recommended Authors - Alexandre Dumas

Few authors have written as much - and led lives as varied in personal fortune - as Dumas. The son of one of Napoleon's generals and the grandson of a marquis, he was nevertheless born poor (Dumas' grandfather had left the country, and his father was out of favor with Napoleon). Whatever fame and fortune he achieved came to him through timing, hard work, and good fortune.

As a young man, he was introduced to several writers of the Romantic school (Victor Hugo among them), authors who emphasized the actions and passions of their characters. The influence of such writers, as well as an introduction to the French theatre, inspired him to become a dramatist.

In time, of course, Dumas would go on to write his great historical romances, though he never limited himself to one particular genre. Indeed, his writings were extraordinary - for their sheer volume (at least 250 novels alone) and for the variety of topics covered. He wrote fiction and plays, criticism and cookbooks and travelogues, as well as a great many other pieces of writing that veered across various genres. He became one of the most famous - and wealthiest - authors of his day.

Yet he died as he was born - in poverty. He was terrible with money, spending and investing unwisely and accruing large debts.

His literary legacy is, however, unblemished. The following is a compilation of several his best books.

The Count of Monte Cristo

An objective review of this book is difficult. I can only say that I pity those who have only read the abridged version. The full text - regardless of translation - is one of the few 1000+ page books to feel like a streamlined (and much shorter) work. Tolstoy? Brilliant, but face it - War and Peace occasionally felt like it took the length of the Napoleonic Wars to read.

The story of Edmond Dantes - wrongfully imprisoned for nearly two decades, only to escape, reshape himself as the Count, and become consumed by vengeance - is justly famous, though it is not always remembered accurately. The novel has been adapted countless times in a variety of media - movies, radio, comics, plays - you name it. The problem is that even the best of these works necessarily abridge the original novel. Whole subplots and entire characters are cut, and while the essence of the story may remain, the rich flavor is lost.

The presence of so many popular adaptations raises a legitimate concern: is the novel famous because the general public has actually read it, or because they have encountered it in one of its many bastardized forms? Among those who have not read the original novel, there seems to be a hazy perception of the book as ‘children's literature,' a pejorative that is as unfortunate as it is inaccurate. The book, while certainly telling a grandly exciting story, is not ‘children's literature.' It deserves to be read and remembered as one of literatures great classics.

The Three Musketeers

Fantastic. Not quite as good as The Count of Monte Cristo, but little could be. This book is still a fabulous read, and great fun. Like The Count, the story is exciting and the writing superb.

Set in seventeenth century France, the novel follows the adventures of d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis as they attempt to counter the machinations of Cardinal Richelieu and Milady. Once again, Dumas captures a spirit of adventure and transforms it into literature.

Twenty Years After

And here we have the first of the sequels to The Three Musketeers. I suspect that a lot of people forget (or never even knew) that Musketeers had a sequel, let alone more than one.

Is it as good as the original? No, but I'll be darned if this novel doesn't manage to tell an exciting story in its own right. The characters are older, and not quite as spry, and their friendships have frayed just a bit (Dumas sneaks in some sly, and rather accurate, comments about the course of friendship over time), but the fun is still there.

A final brief note about a problem that seems to thread its way through many of Dumas' novels: his treatment of women. As brilliant as many of his novels are, there is a mild strain of misogyny that seems to recur. His treatment of various female characters - Milady in The Three Musketeers, Mercedes in The Count of Monte Cristo, to name but two - is often unsympathetic. And while his novels are certainly not without their share of admirably good female characters, these characters are rarely strong women. While this tendency may be seen as sexism, it should not seriously detract from the enjoyment of the works as a whole.