The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “richly imagined biography” (The New York Times Book Review) of General Alex Dumas, who rose from slavery to command vast armies in the French Revolutionary Wars—and whose exploits were immortalized in his son’s novels The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers

“Fascinating [and] entertaining.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Remarkable.”—The Boston Globe
“A truly amazing story.”—NPR

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The New Republic, NPR, Salon, Essence

General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

But hidden behind General Dumas’s swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave—who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time. Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command armies of more than 50,000 men at the height of the Revolution.

No matter how high he soared, Dumas continued to live by his blade and his boldness in the face of overwhelming odds. Yet, because of his unwavering principles, he ultimately became a threat to Napoleon himself.

Time magazine called The Black Count “one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that sheds light on the historical moment that made it possible.” It is also a window into the modern world’s first multiracial society and a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD