My absolute favorite book by Dumas. The characters are flawlessly constructed and the story is engaging. Dumas's prose is just gorgeous. This book was so good it almost made me cry. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that I don't love the translation. However, this does seem to be one of the only English translations readily available, so I can live with it.

Lire Dumas reste toujours un intense plaisir! Quelle belle prose, et quelles belles histoires!
Ce roman-co se passe autour de la fin de l’internement de la reine Marie-Antoinette et de son procès et de sa condamnation. Il illustre l’intense activité de complots et d’espionnage pour arriver à communiquer avec la reine et tenter de la faire évader. A travers l’histoire de deux jeunes amoureux pris dans ces moments uniques, Dumas raconte toujours avec saveur les périodes troubles de l’histoire de France…

Bueno que les digo fue una sorpresa de las buenas el leer a Dumas su narración es excelente la historia fue muy interesante y bueno para terminar un final trágico definitivamente le aplaudo y quiero leer más libros de él definitivamente un libro que vale la pena leer.

Love, courage, and compassion in a time of publicly accepted sadism. Worthy reading experience and a good look at the French Revolution. Well and thoughtfully narrated.

سری 8 جلدی The Marie Antoinette Romances معادل ترجمه و اقتباس ژوزف بالسامو و غرش طوفان ذبیح الله منصوری
Joseph Balsamo روایت خود کیمیاگر و ورود ماری آنتوانت به خاک فرانسه
The Mesmerist's Victim -
The Queen's Necklace دسیسه ربودن گردنبد ماری آنتوانت پیش از انقلاب
Taking the Bastile شروع انقلاب فرانسه و حمله به زندان باستیل
The Hero of the People رویدادهای پس از گرفتن قلعه باستیل
The Royal Life Guard فرار خانواده سلطنتی
The Countess de Charny -
The Knight of Maison-Rouge محاکمه ماری آنتوانت
اون دوتا هم دقیقا مطمئن نیستم معادل کدام بخش کتابه ولی شاهد مسحور احتمالا بخشی از ژوزف بالسامو و کنتس هم یکی از درباریان و نزدیک ملکه در زمان انقلاب بود.

4.2 ☆

THAT ENDING!!

An ok read with Simon Vance in charge. What could be better than this?

I mean, I knew this wasn't going to end well, but it really didn't end well for anyone. Standout character: Lorin, who did nothing wrong ever and deserved better (and honestly was a WAY better friend than Maurice deserved).

Dumas !? Qu’est-ce donc que cette sorcellerie ?!

Première expérience avec l’auteur et c’était juste incroyable.
Etait-ce le bon mood ? Un hasard du destin ? Ou juste que Dumas est fait pour moi ? On verra à la prochaine lecture.

En attendant ….

100000 étoiles. Voilà ma note.
Un pur chef d’œuvre qui représente le talent de conteur et comique de Dumas.

Je pensais lâcher ma dernière larme à la dernière page du livre mais comme Dumas sait si bien le faire, il a réussi à me faire rire dans un dernier rebondissement tragique.

Titolo minore che inseguivo da tempo e finalmente ho letto. Non manca niente del Dumas che conosciamo: personaggi di cuore e un po ingenuotti, damigelle verginali, traditori della patria e ovviamente, divertimento, colpi di scena, trame e complotti. Il finale è inusuale per Dumas, che ama il lieto fine, ma decisamente azzeccato. N.B, se non morivano li ammazzavo io!

This is my fourth Alexandre Dumas novel and I keep expecting them to be more sophisticated than they are. This "major new" translation did not help: 18th-century characters use phrases such as "the whole shebang", "Are you determined to nab him?" and "I let myself be hoodwinked." The plot was no more inspiring than the translation. By the time the Queen and her Knight met their fate, I no longer cared what happened to the fictional characters despite having 25 pages of text remaining.

I'm beguiled by Dumas's storytelling powers. This is the third novel of his in a row for me, after Georges and The Black Tulip. I appreciate the historical footnotes but the translation is horrible. It sounds like some guys shooting pool at the corner tavern in the late 20th century. It's jarring and off-putting to read idioms that didn't appear in fiction until the 1980s. And this story takes place almost 200 years earlier in France. I'm 3/4 through the book and completely grabbed by the suspense. I'll report more later. Dumas wrote that he first designed a story that was romantic, moving and dramatic. Then he figured the scope of the emotions and the imagination. Finally, he turned to history to choose a frame in which to set his painting. I've been reading these shorter novels of his to more quickly discover that m.o. at work. More too on that later. He was a genius storyteller who wrote long hand -- of course, how else -- fourteen hours a day. He blows me away.