Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/287

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ALEXANDRE DUMAS
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"Le Père la Ruine," which dates from this period, resembles "Le Chasseur de Sauvagine," "Le Fils du Forçat," and "Parisiens et Provinciaux," so much as to suggest Dumas in collaboration with de Cherville once more. It is a pretty but sad story, in which, as in "Conscience," the love of the French peasant for the soil is powerfully shown.

A translation of Trelawney's "Adventures of a Younger Son," made under Dumas's orders, and known as "Un Cadet de Famille," and one of Gordon-Cumming's "Adventures of a Lion Hunter," known as "La Vie au Desert," were also issued in 1860, when Dumas set out on that tour which ended in the camp of Garibaldi. For some time the romancer was busy following the fortunes of the "red-shirts," editing a paper at Naples, writing the "Mémoires de Garibaldi," his own diary as amateur war correspondent, and the rest; and it was not until 1863 that he published another romance of any importance—"Madame de Chamblay." According to the circumstantial account given in the introduction, the manuscript of this story was sent to Dumas by a friend, whom he had met at Compiègne in 1836, when on a visit to the young Duc D'Orleans. The novel tells of a young wife, an unworthy husband, a lover, a potion à la Juliet, by which the lady escapes from bondage, and promises a happy life for lover and