The Black Count, Paperback Book, By: Tom Rice

Major General Alex Dumas is a man virtually unknown today, but his story is strikingly familiar because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his great life's exploits as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. But beneath Major General Dumas's reckless adventures lurks a larger, more incredible secret: the son of a black slave, he rose higher in the white world than any man of his race of his time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command of the army at the height of the French Revolution until he met a stubborn enemy he could not defeat. The Black Count is a thrilling adventure story, a lush evocation of 18th-century France, and a window into the modern world's first multiracial society. Time magazine called The Black Count one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that illuminates the historical moment that made it possible… but it is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between father and son." A wonderful book. a richly imaginative biography, almost like an investigative report in a narrative style closer to a novel.