One Bear's Opinion on: The Knight of Maison-Rouge

The Knight of Maison-Rouge
by Alexandre Dumas

Dumas has been one of my favorite authors since I tore through The Three Musketeers in college when we should have been studying for finals. (Honestly, I think I did better on the finals because of the distraction.) The Knight of Maison-Rouge is one of his lesser-known books, and I am glad I were lucky enough to find a copy when I did.

This book is set during the Reign of Terror, after King Louis XVI was beheaded but before Marie Antoinette suffered the same fate. It’s based on the real “Affair of the Carnation” in which notes were passed to the Queen in captivity through a carnation. Putting notes into the carnation was ingenious, though in the book, as in real life, the attempt failed. One of the best things about Dumas’ fiction to me is the fact that he based it on real-life events, so while it’s not an accurate history lesson, it can at least prompt readers to go find out more about the real story. And weaving real people into the narrative is always fun. Many authors before and since have used this device.

Overall the book was very good. Each time I come back to Dumas’ works, I forget what a good story-teller he was and how the reader gets caught up in the story. I guess in some ways that was necessary because of the serialized way the novels were originally published, but this reader finds it engaging and very easy to be drawn through the story.

While I missed my friends from The Three Musketeers, I was happy to make friends of the characters in this novel. Maurice and Lorin were likable, which made me want to root for them to succeed through the book. The villains were completely unlikable and the reader really does want to kick them all, if not run them through with a sword.

I am not sure this qualifies as “great literature,” and I am not sure this should be the Dumas work chosen for required reading, if in fact one is at all, but it’s well worth the read and a galloping good journey through a vicious period in France’s history.

One Bear’s Opinion: Five glasses of wine, followed by another five — just trust me

Happy Reading Everyone,
Oliver