3.5
Georges
ByPublisher Description
A major new translation of a stunning rediscovered novel by Alexandre Dumas, Georges is a classic swashbuckling adventure. Brilliantly translated by Tina A. Kover in lively, fluid prose, this is Dumas’s most daring work, in which his themes of intrigue and romance are illuminated by the issues of racial prejudice and the profound quest for identity.
Georges Munier is a sensitive boy growing up in the nineteenth century on the island of Mauritius. The son of a wealthy mulatto, Pierre Munier, Georges regularly sees how his father’s courage is tempered by a sense of inferiority before whites–and Georges vows that he will be different.
When Georges matures into a man committed to “moral superiority mixed with physical strength,” the stage is set for a conflict with the island’s rich and powerful plantation owner, Monsieur de Malmédie, and a forbidden romance with Sara, the beautiful woman engaged to Malmédie’s son.
Swordplay, a slave rebellion, a harrowing escape, and a vow of vengeance–Georges is unmistakably the work of the master who wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Yet it stands apart as the only book Dumas ever wrote that confronts the subject of race–a potent topic, since Dumas was of African ancestry himself.
This edition also features a captivating Introduction by Jamaica Kincaid and an eloquent Afterword and Notes by Werner Sollors, who addresses key themes such as colonialism, racism, African slavery, and interracial intimacy.
Long out of print in America, Georges can now be appreciated as never before and added to the greatest works of this immortal author.
Georges Munier is a sensitive boy growing up in the nineteenth century on the island of Mauritius. The son of a wealthy mulatto, Pierre Munier, Georges regularly sees how his father’s courage is tempered by a sense of inferiority before whites–and Georges vows that he will be different.
When Georges matures into a man committed to “moral superiority mixed with physical strength,” the stage is set for a conflict with the island’s rich and powerful plantation owner, Monsieur de Malmédie, and a forbidden romance with Sara, the beautiful woman engaged to Malmédie’s son.
Swordplay, a slave rebellion, a harrowing escape, and a vow of vengeance–Georges is unmistakably the work of the master who wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Yet it stands apart as the only book Dumas ever wrote that confronts the subject of race–a potent topic, since Dumas was of African ancestry himself.
This edition also features a captivating Introduction by Jamaica Kincaid and an eloquent Afterword and Notes by Werner Sollors, who addresses key themes such as colonialism, racism, African slavery, and interracial intimacy.
Long out of print in America, Georges can now be appreciated as never before and added to the greatest works of this immortal author.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesGeorges Reviews
3.5
“I don’t even know how to give this a star rating. So let’s go through this.
A story, this is non-stop action and fun. If you enjoyed Count of Monte Cristo, this is cut from the same cloth. It has even more action, adventure, and hair-raising daring-do in one-fifth of the pages. And it has even more of that Boy Scout spirit. Georges is “trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.” So noble that he voluntarily goes to a meeting that he’s sure must be a trap (it is) but he can’t NOT go because it would somehow be dishonorable- even though his capture would mean the ruins of their plans. But - who really cares when the adventures come at such a clip: sea battles, duels, a shark attack, horse races, captures, rescues, pirates, space rebellions. You will not be bored!
Race and racism. Let’s be honest: if you’ve heard of this book, you know it is the only novel that the biracial Dumas wrote about a black (I.e. mulatto) hero. And certainly sometimes he speaks with that Boy Scout earnestness for racial equality, even racial justice. But other times he spews just as much racism as any of his white contemporaries. For example, the slaves rebellion fails for the most stomach-churningly racist “reason.” And of course there’s the fact that this mulatto family not only owns slaves but also deals in the slave trade! Ah, but they are “nice” masters. The forward in my book noted how African Americans adored Dumas as one of their own. But, it noted, it’s doubtful any of them has read this book. If they had, I doubt he Would have been so popular. It’s because of that racism that I just have to dock this book one star.
Historically- all that said, the book is still a fascinating look at how a biracial man who experienced both tremendous fame but also racism dealt with race through a novel. How much is Georges a stand-in for Dumas? How much are Dumas’s own struggles reflected in the struggles Georges faces? I don’t know. But this book is well worth the read.”
About Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (1802-70), one of the most popular writers of all time, is the author of The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and The Knight of Maison-Rouge (all available from the Modern Library), along with dozens of other works of every genre. His remains were recently removed to the Pantheon, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a French writer.
Tina A. Kover has worked as a translator in the United States and Europe for more than ten years. Her first literary translation, George Sand’s The Black City, was published in 2004.
Werner Sollors teaches African American studies, English, and comparative literature at Harvard University. He is the author of Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture and Neither Black Nor White Yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature and editor of Theories of Ethnicity: A Classical Reader; The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves and An Anthology of Interracial Literature: Black-White Contacts in the Old World and the New.
Jamaica Kincaid is the acclaimed author of many books, including Annie John, A Small Place, and Lucy. She lives in Vermont.
Tina A. Kover has worked as a translator in the United States and Europe for more than ten years. Her first literary translation, George Sand’s The Black City, was published in 2004.
Werner Sollors teaches African American studies, English, and comparative literature at Harvard University. He is the author of Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture and Neither Black Nor White Yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature and editor of Theories of Ethnicity: A Classical Reader; The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves and An Anthology of Interracial Literature: Black-White Contacts in the Old World and the New.
Jamaica Kincaid is the acclaimed author of many books, including Annie John, A Small Place, and Lucy. She lives in Vermont.
Other books by Alexandre Dumas
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