It seems that while some writers cannot put two sentences together as they live and breathe, others can do it from their graves. For instance, perhaps you have heard of Monsieur Alexandre Dumas. You know, famous French author, penned The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and approximately 300 other novels with the assistance of “research assistants.” (Translation: ghostwriters.) But let’s focus on the most important personal trivia fact for a moment. He died in 1870. For those of you that have forgotten, it is now 2007. So how does one go about publishing from the grave? And more importantly, succeed in obscuring yet another up and coming (or lost and dying) modern author from the ranks of the over published?
According to an article by Washington Post’s Michael Dirda, you have a personal scholar, one Claude Schopp in this case, discover that you churned out a newspaper serial without an ending. Why was this newspaper serial without an ending? Because Dumas had the heartless gumption to leave his readers hanging by up and dying. That bum. (Thank the good Lord J.K. Rowling had the grace to stay with us.) Well for those that have been breathlessly waiting these past 137 years for Dumas’s final installment of Napoleaonic era adventures, I am here to bring excellent tidings.
The wait is over.
Never mind that Dumas kicked it before the newspaper serial was completed. Never mind that the novel was never completed. Never mind that Monsieur Dumas must be brought back from his grave in such lovely photos as above to proclaim his latest and greatest achievement. All of that can be swept aside with a tenacious personal scholar who “assembled all the newspaper installments and edited them” and a publisher like Pegasus. (Or as Wikipedia put it more bluntly, “[the] final two-and-a-half chapters were written by modern-day Dumas scholar Claude Schopp who based himself on Dumas’ pre-writing notes.”)
Originally released in 2005 in France as Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine, Lauren Yoder’s English translation of The Last Cavalier will be hitting shelves near you yesterday. If you want the gory details of how wonderful, intertwined, and positively Dumas it is, check out the summary in Dirda’s article. I don’t have the heart.
And to top it off, the Washington Post is effusively calling it “absolutely wonderful.” So much for those other critics.
Mr. Dumas, I tip my hat to you. You don’t even finish a compelling novel, you die, and now America is welcoming with you open arms 130 years later with palm branches and applause.
I have got to get fatter and bigger hair.
6 responses so far ↓
1 ChickyBabe // Sep 18, 2007 at 5:49 am
Fascinating. This reminds me of the book by Jules Verne,Paris in the 20th Century. It was found by his grandson and published after his death. I wonder what will become of our blogs.
2 Kelley // Sep 18, 2007 at 9:45 am
um, may I point out, well, um, he’s a he. bigger hair and weight will not be quite enough.
3 Sarah Moffett // Sep 18, 2007 at 12:06 pm
ChickyBabe-your blog may go on to be a study in modern society and self-awareness. Mine, however, will hopefully be lost. My poor family has to deal with me in life, I would not wish posthumous productions on them.
Kelley-fair point. I’m doomed.
4 Jarod // Sep 18, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Ol’ Dumas back from the grave, eh? Looks interesting. Of course, I’m still waiting for Edwin Drood to suddenly emerge on the streets, hopefully appearing out of some sort of mist.
5 Sarah Moffett // Sep 19, 2007 at 8:43 am
Fog works too. Hard to believe Dumas gets a Claude Schopp and Dickens gets…nothing. Clearly the man needed 300 assistants to be considered “serious.”
6 Mindy Withrow // Sep 21, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Sarah, you have ruined my perfectly happy notion of Dumas in a dim drawing room, furiously scribbling out the adventures stirring in his brain, occasionally running a finger along the edge of his foil for inspiration…
Lucky that my two assistants Laptop and iPod work 24/7, or it would take me 137 years to write a novel too!
Thanks for stopping by my blog this week.
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