And anyway, my brothers ignored my silly decisions and got me a whole bunch of books. Must admit this one is the most exciting. The perfect companion to Alexandre Dumas's Napoleonic epic (The Last Cavalier) must undoubtedly be The Black Count, which is a biography of Dumas's father (a celebrated general, and contemporary of Napoleon). Tom Reiss hasn't mentioned The Last Cavalier yet (it was lost until very recently), but the book does mention a few of the general's exploits (no historical text worth its salt would leave him out, apparently). So it's all very interesting and I'm reminded of why I love Alexandre Dumas oh so much. Despite the fact that he had a bit of a factory going on, and many of his longer texts are drastically inconsistent because they were written by other writers in his employ.
Nevertheless, they're all very exciting. And one of my brothers actually found an antique set of Dumas's work that was complete but for one novel. Have I mentioned that I collect antique editions of Dumas's works? No? Probably because it's the nerdiest pastime, that's why. But I've got four, and they're all beautiful.
