I think I bought this book way back in 2012 when it first hit the shelves. I believe that I was just really getting into reading around then. I purchased mainly hardbacks or borrowed from libraries hardbacks during my venturing into reading. This book was one that appealed to my interest. It's cover and subject were neat. But honestly, I ended up not finishing it. I put it up and never returned.
But this book's person of interest is intriguing. The Black Count by Tom Reiss is upon a legendary soldier. He is a most known unknown. He served as a general in the French Revolution. So much about this man's feats and character has been told of him. The Count of Monte Cristo and the Three Musketeers were both novels that he inspired his son to write. General Alexandre— Alex —Dumas is this man's name that has been wilfully discarded.
This man's height was so legendary that his contemporary equal became his rival, Napolean Bonaparte. Alexandre was "a soldier's general, feared by the enemy and loved by his men, a hero in a world that did not use the term lightly." It is certain that history would have been a little different had he been at the helm rather than his fellow soldier, General Bonaparte. "When Napoleon launched the French invasion of Egypt, Dumas went as his cavalry commander, but it was there that the two very different soldiers came to loathe each other. The clash was ideological—Dumas saw himself as a fighter for world liberation, not world domination—but it was also personal."
Unfortunately, I did not finish reading this one, but I shall. For whatever reason, I put this book down years ago, but it's intriguing enough, where I am, to definitely return to explore the entirety of this biography. For those who enjoy history or biographies of other great men and women, check him out. This brother was born to a black slave mother and a white French nobleman in Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti). He and his father traveled back across the ocean to live in pomp and luxury in Paris. But the boy would come to reject his father's name and noble title, enlist in the French army at the lowest rank, taking the surname 'Dumas' from his mother for his enlistment papers."
The author informs that even during Alex Dumas' time, people of darker skin tones were also repugnant in other areas of the globe. So I figure, given this month, I'd post this book if one desires more knowledge of one who came to rise above prejudices even in his time unto exceptional heights.
If interested, support local bookstores and purchase yours here: https://bookshop.org/a/56410/9780307382474
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