Александр Дюма
Список книг автора Александр ДюмаThe Mad Marquis
Written in 1836, this collaborative play is based on a real-life incident, using the actual names of the principals involved. The young Marquis de Brunoy is snubbed at the French Royal Court of Versailles because his father, a financier, had been ennobled for his great wealth. After having to fight several duels to defend his honor, the Marquis strikes back by disregarding his rank and wealth, and associating with peasants and artisans as equals. The more extravagant that his behavior becomes, the more the French nobility feels ridiculed. The final straw is when the Marquis dares to ennoble some of his peasants. Then he's hauled before a court, where the noblemen seek to have him judged insane. A first-rate revenge play by a master of the form.
Bathilda: A Play in Three Acts
Adapted by Alexandre Dumas from a script by Auguste Maquet, BATHILDA tells the story of a woman who's raped by Marcel, and becomes his lover for a time. After she leaves him and moves to Paris, she meets Deworde, her deceased spouse's nephew, and plans to marry him. But Marcel pursues her, determined that if he can't have her, no one else will either. He plays a cat-and-mouse game with Bathilda, Deworde, and his friend Guilaumin, until their final confrontation. Will Marcel have his bullying way? Or will Bathilda find some resolution to her seemingly impossible moral dilemma? A great early work by this major French writer!
Sylvandire: A Play in Four Acts
In 1844-45, while Alexandre Dumas was working on his two classic novels, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, he found time to write a play called Sylvandire. A young provincial, Roger Tancred d'Anguilem, arrives in Paris to fight a legal battle for a huge inheritance. His opponent is an Indian called Afghano, who has bribed the judges. The case appears lost until Roger's approached by a sleazy lawyer who promises him success–but only if he marries a woman sight unseen. Sylvandire, his new wife, turns out to be a stunning beauty, but the marriage is intended to deliver his spouse as the unwilling mistress of a royal favorite, who can imprison Roger if he resists. The Dumasian themes of unjust imprisonment, followed by implacable revenge, which were more fully developed in Monte Cristo, here make their first appearance in this entertaining and swift-moving comedy.
The Queen's Necklace
While French writer Alexandre Dumas is best-known for The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, many critics consider his Marie-Antoinette novels to be his greatest achievement. Indeed, he was working on a dramatization of The Queen's Necklace at the time of his death in 1870. This was never published, but French playwright Pierre Decourcelle then produced his own version of this work. A successful dramatist, Decourcelle did a brilliant job of adapting Dumas's epic novel, salting the text with such larger-than-life figures as King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoninette, Cagliostro, and the Countess de la Motte. When the scandal surrounding the French court finally breaks, you have the feeling that you're actually there, watching the tragedy unfold before your eyes. First-rate historical drama!
The Gold Thieves
Dr. Ivans, unable to make a living in London, migrates with his two daughters to Australia, where he hopes to make his fortune; one of his girls, Melida, is forced to leave her suitor, Williams, behind. Arriving in Australia, Ivans finds himself unable to improve his fortune–he's too willing to help the poor, and has a good reputation for charitable works. Then a group of gold miners, a motley crew of Frenchmen, send for him to heal a young miner who's dying. This poor lad was stabbed by a young man named Max, who posed as his friend to steal his gold. Max falls madly in love with Melida, who is still pining for Williams. When Williams follows his lover to Australia, and gets a job with the government escorting gold shipments from the mines to Melbourne, Max decides to hijack the shipment and kill Williams. Eventually, Max is exposed and tries to kidnap Melida, leading to the action-filled climax of this fast-moving Australian «western.» One of Dumas's most unusual creations, this was based on a bestselling novel by the Countess de Chabrillan.
Queen Margot: A Play in Five Acts
Written in 1847, while Dumas was at the height of his powers, this play recounts the events leading up to the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre of the French Huguenots–and the subsequent death of King Charles IX. The playwright focuses on the people inadvertently caught up in the slaughter–which, once started, cannot be repressed. By following the fate of two nobles, the Catholic Count Coconnas and the Huguenot Count de la Mole, and linking their stories to Queen Marguerite (called Margot), wife in name only to the Huguenot King of Navarre (the future King Henry IV of France), Dumas reveals the terror and duplicity that the massacre incurred even at the highest levels of society–including the royal family. Despite its length, the story moves quickly and with great force. One of Dumas's best historical narratives!
The Corsican Brothers: A Play in Three Acts
This adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas tale tells the story of two brothers, born as Siamese twins, but separated not long after birth. They're raised by two different families, but are still able to «feel» the emotions of the other, even at a distance. On the island of Corsica they become entwined in the long-running feud between the Orlandi and the Colonnas–a dispute that had its beginnings in a dispute over the ownership of a chicken! Most of the two families have now been eliminated through the ongoing blood-feud, but the twins, unbeknownst to each other, are being manipulated to settle the fate of the two clans once and for all. The result is a stunning climax of swordplay and violence!
The Werewolf Megapack
"The Werewolf Megapack" collects 22 classic and modern tales of shape-shifters (and not just wolves!) – including works by Jay Lake, Jack Williamson, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, John Gregory Betancourt, Rudyard Kipling, Saki, and many more. Included are: <P> LEOPARD, by Jay Lake<BR> GABRIEL-ERNEST, by Saki<BR> SYMPATHY FOR WOLVES, by John Gregory Betancourt<BR> THE DRONE, by Abraham Merritt<BR> THE WERE-WOLF, by Clemence Housman<BR> AND BOB’S YOUR UNCLE, by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro<BR> THE MARK OF THE BEAST, by Rudyard Kipling<BR> DUMPSTER DIVING, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman<BR> THE WEREWOLF, by Eugene Field<BR> THE WOLF, by Guy de Maupassant<BR> WOLVES OF DARKNESS, by Jack Williamson<BR> THE MAN WHO WAS CHANGED INTO A CROW, by P’u Sung-ling<BR> HUGUES, THE WER-WOLF, by Sutherland Menzies<BR> THE WHITE WOLF OF THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS, by Frederick Marryat<BR> THE SHE-WOLF, by Saki<BR> MORRAHA, by Joseph Jacobs<BR> THE OTHER SIDE: A BRETON LEGEND, by Eric Stenbock<BR> THE WHITE WOLF OF KOSTOPCHIN, by Sir Gilbert Campbell<BR> THE WOLF LEADER, by Alexandre Dumas<BR> THE HUNTER’S MOON, by Michael McCarty & Terrie Leigh Relf<BR> WEREWOLF OF THE SAHARA, by G. G. Pendarves<BR> EVIL FORCES, by Gary Lovisi <P> And don't forget to search for «Megapack» or «Wildside Megapack» in your favorite ebook store for more entries in Wildside Press's Megapack series, ranging from science fiction and fantasy to westerns, mysteries, ghost stories – and much, much more!
Lorenzino
This powerful, eloquent play moves like a Greek tragedy to its inevitable conclusion. Dumas's drama is based on an actual event–the assassination of Duke Alexander of Medici in 1537 by his cousin, Lorenzo. Lorenzino lures his relative to a trap under the pretext of providing him with a woman. He gets close to the Duke by pandering to his lusts, just so that he'll have the opportunity to kill him. His plan ultimately works, but results in the suicide of the woman Lorenzino loves, and the complete discrediting of the assassin in the public eye. Freedom from tyranny comes with a terrible price! A first-rate drama penned two years before The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
The Borgias
There are many dreadful – and perhaps scurrilous – rumors about the Borgia family of renaissance Italy, and Alexandre Dumas (author of «The Three Musketeers» and many other period classics) reveals one possible truth in all its ugly glory. Dumas minces no words in describing the violent acts of a violent time.