The black count: Glory, revolution, betrayal and the real count of Monte Christo - Tom Reiss (First UK edition)

Alexandre Dumas wrote some of the world’s best loved novels – tales of adventure, intrigue and heroism. Millions of readers have been captivated by The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, but until now the very real inspiration behind these classic stories has remained a mystery. Dumas’ novels were not simply the work of an outsized imagination but of a son resurrecting, through fiction, the amazing story of his own father.

In The Black Count Tom Reiss, acclaimed author of the international bestseller The Orientalist, introduces readers to one of history’s great forgotten heroes: the original Alexandre Dumas – dashing swordsman, hero of the French Revolution, and son of a black slave who rose to challenge Napoleon – whose life was erased from the history books by his most powerful enemy.

The Black Count is simultaneously a riveting adventure story, a lushly textured evocation of eighteenth-century France, and a window into the modern world’s first multiracial society. But it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son. Drawing on hitherto unknown documents, letters, battlefield reports and Dumas’ handwritten prison diary, The Black Count is a groundbreaking work of narrative non-fiction.