Name: Twenty Years After
SKU: 61733970
Price: 570.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Alejandro Dumas
ISBN: 9781548271039

Type

Physical Book

Author

Alejandro Dumas

Publisher

Createspace

Language

English

Pages

664

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x3.4 cm

Weight

0.88 kg.

ISBN13

9781548271039

Synopsis "Twenty Years After"

In a splendid chamber of the Palais Royal, formerly styled the Palais Cardinal, a man was sitting in deep reverie, his head supported on his hands, leaning over a gilt and inlaid table which was covered with letters and papers. Behind this figure glowed a vast fireplace alive with leaping flames; great logs of oak blazed and crackled on the polished brass andirons whose flicker shone upon the superb habiliments of the lonely tenant of the room, which was illumined grandly by twin candelabra rich with wax-lights. Any one who happened at that moment to contemplate that red simar--the gorgeous robe of office--and the rich lace, or who gazed on that pale brow, bent in anxious meditation, might, in the solitude of that apartment, combined with the silence of the ante-chambers and the measured paces of the guards upon the landing-place, have fancied that the shade of Cardinal Richelieu lingered still in his accustomed haunt. It was, alas! the ghost of former greatness. France enfeebled, the authority of her sovereign contemned, her nobles returning to their former turbulence and insolence, her enemies within her frontiers--all proved the great Richelieu no longer in existence. In truth, that the red simar which occupied the wonted place was his no longer, was still more strikingly obvious from the isolation which seemed, as we have observed, more appropriate to a phantom than a living creature--from the corridors deserted by courtiers, and courts crowded with guards--from that spirit of bitter ridicule, which, arising from the streets below, penetrated through the very casements of the room, which resounded with the murmurs of a whole city leagued against the minister; as well as from the distant and incessant sounds of guns firing--let off, happily, without other end or aim, except to show to the guards, the Swiss troops and the military who surrounded the Palais Royal, that the people were possessed of arms. The shade of Richelieu was Mazarin. Now Mazarin was alone and defenceless, as he well knew. "Foreigner!" he ejaculated, "Italian! that is their mean yet mighty byword of reproach--the watchword with which they assassinated, hanged, and made away with Concini; and if I gave them their way they would assassinate, hang, and make away with me in the same manner, although they have nothing to complain of except a tax or two now and then. Idiots! ignorant of their real enemies, they do not perceive that it is not the Italian who speaks French badly, but those who can say fine things to them in the purest Parisian accent, who are their real foes.

Alejandro Dumas

(Author)

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Alexandre Dumas is one of the most prolific and popular authors from France. He was born in 1802 in the city of Villers-Cotterets, and soon moved to Paris to work as a secretary for the Duke of Orléans. There, he completed his education on his own and began to take an interest in writing.
He started by writing plays, and then moved on to poems and long stories. However, his real success did not come until 1844, the year he released the work that would catapult him to fame: The Three Musketeers. The serial publication of this novel brought him a huge sum of money, but it also meant countless hours of work, many collaborators, and the production of up to eighty installments to meet the growing public demand.
After the publication of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, Dumas amassed a great fortune. However, his hedonistic nature led him to squander all he had earned and he soon found himself forced to exile in Belgium to escape his French creditors.
The Count of Monte Cristo, the pinnacle of the author's narrative, is considered one of the greatest adventure novels of all time.

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