André Mourois, in a book about Dumas, tells in detail the history of the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo".
As a basis, Alexandre Dumas took the plot from the archives of the French police.
In this story there is a crime of uncontrolled power, and an innocent seven-year prison term of an innocent person, and the subsequent killings - with new abductions ...
"Living Pico was too bloodthirsty in his revenge to become a popular hero." ...
Alexandre Dumas breathed his talent into a crime story ...
The success of 'The Count of Monte Cristo' was tremendous.
'Wasn't he a nabob ...? ... '- André Mourois writes about Alexandre Dumas. - 'So why not build a Monte Cristo castle?'
'Above the front door is the motto of the owner of the castle:' I love those who love me. ' "All together gave the impression of Lilliputian greatness." (André Mourois). (All citations in this article are from the book by André Maurois 'Three Dumas' ["Titans: A Three-Generation Biography of the Dumas"]).
(All quotations - translations from the Russian-language text).
The revolution of 1848 ravaged Alexandre Dumas ...
'But then the day came when Dumas finally had to leave his castle.' 'Furniture, paintings, carriages, books and even animals were taken from the 'castle'! One of the bailiffs left such a note: 'One the Gyps [vulture] was received. Estimated at fifteen francs. ' It was the famous Yugurt-Diogenes. '
The situation resembled the finishing words from the novel: 'But when young people want to thank their benefactor and ask the sailor Jacopo:' Where is the Count? Where is Haydée? 'Jacopo points to the horizon.
"They turned their eyes to where the sailor was pointing, and in the distance, on the dark blue line separating the sky from the sea, they saw a white sail no larger than the wing of a sea gull."
'So,' The Count of Monte Cristo 'ends the same way as Chaplin's films end - with a frame in which we see the silhouette of a man going into the distance.'
In Paris, Dumas planted a tree of freedom in front of the Historical Theater, saying: "The princes will disappear, but the great French people will remain."
November 21, 2019 08:44
Translation from Russian into English: November 21, 2019 09:12.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Граф Монте-Кристо. Скетч'.