Yes.
It's not my favorite of his novels -- the prose isn't as tight, and although I think it might have been intentional, the prose style is very high emotion. It doesn't work as well as the dry, wry tone of his other works -- for example, CHICOT THE JESTER (aka La Dame de Monsoreau) -- which was more or less a romance also, but lacked the shrill feel BLACK TULIP had for me.
I think Dumas was more comfortable writing about the French, in the end, and it shows. There's an artificiality to TULIP, almost along the lines of 'once upon a time,' a consciousness of telling the story that makes it less immediate, less compelling than his other stuff.
At some level you have to admire a guy who can construct believable intrigue and romance around a plant (without making it a campy musical and calling it "Little Shop of Horrors"). On the other hand, maybe he should have stuck to what he was obviously great at -- swords and romance and French politics past and present -- and given the Dutch a miss.
2006-07-06 05:33:10
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answer #1
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answered by lotusice 4
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If you know your literary history, you will know Alexander Dumas never wrote a book in his life. Since he owned the publishing house and his indentured scribes wrote stories along the guidelines of his (Dumas') thoughts, he got the credit.
2006-07-07 10:47:40
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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