Awards

• Short-listed for National Book Critics Circle Biography Award 2013 (United States)
• Shortlisted for National Book Critics Circle Awards: Biography 2013.
• Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2013.
• Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography 2013 (United States)
• Winner of Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction 2013 (United States)

Overview

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize 2013. Reiss, like the novelist Dumas before him, triumphantly resurrects a lost hero - General Alexandre Dumas, the real count of Monte Cristo. WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY 2013 'Completely absorbing' Amanda Foreman 'Enthralling' Guardian 'The Three Musketeers! The Count of Monte Cristo! The stories of course are fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration for the swashbuckling stories was, in fact, Dumas's own father, Alex - the son of a marquis and a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from private in the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider who had grown up among slaves, he was all for Liberty and Equality. Alex Dumas was the stuff of legend' Daily Mail So how did such this extraordinary man get erased by history? Why are there no statues of 'Monsieur Humanity' as his troops called him? The Black Count uncovers what happened and the role Napoleon played in Dumas's downfall. By walking the same ground as Dumas - from Haiti to the Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto - Reiss, like the novelist before him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero. 'Entrances from first to last. Dumas the novelist would be proud' Independent 'Brilliant' Glasgow Herald

Full Product Details

9780099575139

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Reviews

Richly detailed, highly researched and completely absorbing... A triumph -- Amanda Foreman Totally thrilling... Brings to life one of history's great forgotten characters -- Simon Sebag Montefiore We believe we know the glories of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. We believe we understand the horror of slavery and the oppression of Africans. But what is the relationship between the grand goal of liberation and the deep tragedy of racism? As Reiss shows us, answers can be found in the extraordinary life of a forgotten French hero of the great revolutionary campaigns - a hero who was black -- Timothy Snyder Tom Reiss can do it all: gather startling research and write inspired prose; find life's great stories and then tell them with real brilliance. In The Black Count the master journalist-storyteller opens the door to the truth behind one of literature's most exciting stories, and opens it wide enough to show the delicate beauty of the lives within -- Strauss, National Book Critics Circle Award Winning Author Of Half A Life And Chang And Eng A terrific story.(Reiss) is to be congratulated for retrieving such a splendid character from the dustbin of history -- Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times

Richly detailed, highly researched and completely absorbing... A triumph -- Amanda Foreman Totally thrilling... Brings to life one of history's great forgotten characters -- Simon Sebag Montefiore We believe we know the glories of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. We believe we understand the horror of slavery and the oppression of Africans. But what is the relationship between the grand goal of liberation and the deep tragedy of racism? As Reiss shows us, answers can be found in the extraordinary life of a forgotten French hero of the great revolutionary campaigns - a hero who was black -- Timothy Snyder Tom Reiss can do it all: gather startling research and write inspired prose; find life's great stories and then tell them with real brilliance. In The Black Count the master journalist-storyteller opens the door to the truth behind one of literature's most exciting stories, and opens it wide enough to show the delicate beauty of the lives within -- Strauss, National Book Critics Circle Award Winning Author Of Half A Life And Chang And Eng A terrific story.(Reiss) is to be congratulated for retrieving such a splendid character from the dustbin of history -- Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times

Author Information

Born in 1964, Tom Reiss is an American author and journalist who lives in New York. He is the author of The Orientalist, an acclaimed biography of Lev Nussimbaum (aka Kurban Said) which was shortlisted for the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize. The Black Count is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2013.

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