Reading the Classics #21: Alexandre Dumas
Before I begin, I just wanted to say that I've now done 20 posts about Classics (21 including the update), and I'm very grateful for the support. In the past 10, I've covered Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde, John Milton, William Bradford, Isaac Asimov, Joseph Conrad, George Bernard Shaw, William Shakespeare, and Edgar Allan Poe. I hope to cover some pretty interesting people in these next 10, but if you have anyone you want me to write about, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Like I said I would, here's a post on Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870). He is the author of my favorite book, The Count of Monte Cristo. This is also the guy who wrote The Three Musketeers. Sound interesting enough? Let's get started. I've read 3 books of his.
1. The Count of Monte Cristo
2. The Three Musketeers
3. The Man in the Iron Mask
The Count of Monte Cristo is, as I said, my favorite book. A funny coincidence is that it was published in 1845, the same year that my favorite poem (The Raven) was published. Anyway, this book follows the life of Edmond Dantes, a French sailor who is doing pretty well in life until his enemies conspire against him and have him thrown in prison. After about 15 years in prison, he escapes, and using a map than an Abbe gave him, he finds a large horde of treasure. Styling himself the Count of Monte Cristo (Monte Cristo being the island where the treasure was), he becomes a part of French society, and uses his influence to try to find those who had wronged him. It's a very long book (longer than War and Peace), but it's such a good story to read. Everyone I know who's read it, says that it was a good book.
The Three Musketeers is a rather famous novel, so I don't think I need to explain it. It was about 700 pages, but also a very good story. I love the characters in it.
The last book, The Man in the Iron Mask, is the 3rd book in the trilogy of The Three Musketeers. There's a book in between the 2 I just mentioned, called Twenty Years Later. However, I couldn't find it anywhere, so I just looked up the story on Wikipedia and moved on. If I ever come across it I'll read it, though. So, Man in the Iron Mask is the last book, and it manages to keep the charm of the first book, although the story is not as good. Anyway, I would recommend all of those books to you.
There are some books by Dumas that I haven't read yet, but I do want to read eventually. Such as The Nutcracker and The Black Tulip. Hopefully I can read those soon.
Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope this was interesting.
1590-1592- The Taming of the Shrew
1592-1594- The Comedy of Errors
1593- Titus Andronicus, Richard III
1595- A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard II
1595-1596- Romeo and Juliet
1596-1599- The Merchant of Venice
1598- Love's Labor's Lost, Henry IV Part 1
1598-1599- Much Ado About Nothing
1599- Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V
Early 17th Century- Hamlet
1600- Twelfth Night
1602- Othello
1603- King Lear, Macbeth
1610-1611- The Tempest
1630-1651- Of Plymouth Plantation
1667- Paradise Lost
1671- Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes
1726- Gulliver's Travels
1729- A Modest Proposal
1811- Sense and Sensibility
1813- Pride and Prejudice
1814- Mansfield Park
1815- Emma
1817- Sanditon
1818- Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Frankenstein
1819- Rip van Winkle
1820- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
1836-1837- The Pickwick Papers
1837- Oliver Twist
1839- The Fall of the House of Usher, Nicholas Nickleby
1842- The Masque of the Red Death
1842-1843- The Pit and the Pendulum
1843- A Christmas Carol, The Tell-Tale Heart
1844- The Chimes, The Three Musketeers
1844-1845- The Purloined Letter
1845- The Raven, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Count of Monte Cristo
1847- The Man in the Iron Mask
1849-David Copperfield, Annabel Lee
1853- Bleak House
1854- Hard Times
1855- Little Dorrit
1859- A Tale of Two Cities
1864- Great Expectations
1887- A Study in Scarlet
1890- The Sign of Four
1891- Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, The Picture of Dorian Grey
1892- The Adventure of the Speckled Band
1893- Mrs. Warren's Profession
1894- Candida, Salome
1895- The Importance of Being Earnest
1896- The Devil's Disciple
1897- Dracula
1898- Youth
1899- Heart of Darkness
1900- Lord Jim
1901-1902- Man and Superman
1902- The Hound of the Baskervilles
1904- Peter Pan
1905- The Scarlet Pimpernel
1906- Sir Nigel
1907- The Secret Agent
1910- The Phantom of the Opera
1912- Pygmalion
1914- Dracula's Guest, The Burial of the Rats
1945- Animal Farm
1949- 1984
1950- I, Robot, Pebble in the Sky
1957- The Cat in the Hat
