From Birth to Manhood and Fame (1802-30)
If, like Defoe, we were about to offer fiction in the guise of biography, instead of biography in a more or less romantic form, we should be tempted to preface the story of Dumas with one of those elaborate sub-titles in which the author of "Robinson Crusoe" delighted. It would probably run somewhat in this fashion, if we allowed ourselves to prepare one, which of course we do not:—
"The life and adventures of Alexandre Dumas of the World, who was both a black and a white man; a Royalist and a Republican, an aristocrat and a sans-culotte; who took part in three revolutions, and made three different reputations; who wrote more books than any other man living or dead, who erected two "Monte Cristos," one of which made his fortune and the other of which unmade it; who enriched the world and was poor all his life; together with an account of his exploits as dramatist, romancer, traveller, politician, wit, journalist, diplomatist, soldier, lecturer, cook, historian, poet, etc."
