The Knight of Maison-Rouge_ A Novel of Marie Antoinette - Alexandre Dumas [2]
8. GENEVIÈVE
9. SUPPER
10. SIMON THE COBBLER
11. THE NOTE
12. LOVE
13. THE THIRTY-FIRST OF MAY
14. DEVOTION
15. THE GODDESS OF REASON
16. THE PRODIGAL SON
17. THE MINERS
18. CLOUDS
19. THE REQUEST
20. THE FLOWER GIRL
21. THE RED CARNATION
22. SIMON THE CENSOR
23. THE GODDESS OF REASON
24. MOTHER AND DAUGHTER
25. THE NOTE
26. BLACK
27. THE MUSCADIN
28. THE KNIGHT OF MAISON-ROUGE
29. THE PATROL
30. CARNATION AND UNDERGROUND TUNNEL
31. THE SEARCH
32. FAITH SWORN
33. THE MORNING AFTER
34. THE CONCIERGERIE
35. THE HALL OF LOST FOOTSTEPS
36. CITIZEN THÉODORE
37. CITIZEN GRACCHUS
38. THE ROYAL CHILD
39. THE BOUQUET OF VIOLETS
40. THE PUITS-DE-NOÉ BY NIGHT
41. THE CLERK FROM THE WAR MINISTRY
42. THE TWO NOTES
43. DIXMER’S PREPARATIONS
44. THE PREPARATIONS OF THE KNIGHT OF MAISON-ROUGE
45. SEARCHING
46. THE JUDGMENT
47. PRIEST AND BUTCHER
48. THE CART
49. THE SCAFFOLD
50. THE HOME VISIT
51. LORIN
52. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
53. THE DUEL
54. THE HALL OF THE DEAD
55. WHY LORIN LEFT
56. LONG LIVE SIMON!
NOTES
GLOSSARY OF HISTORICAL PERSONS AND TERMS
About the Translator
INTRODUCTION
Lorenzo Carcaterra
Alexandre Dumas was already at the head of his class. Few writers, if any, could approach his masterful way of intertwining historical fact (layered, of course, by his own imagination) with high-octane action, adventure, and romance. He proved it again and again in his novels about revenge-seeking counts and sword-slashing musketeers. And now he does it once more, with an even more powerful voice, in his tale of a magical and heroic young knight.
The Knight of Maison-Rouge is one of those rare gifts that are all too seldom found in the book world. A work once thought lost in the dustbins of a shuttered store, with few if any editions in circulation, is rediscovered, lavished with a fresh coat of paint and polish, and brought out to the front of the shop for all to see and grasp. Once the pages are cracked open, from that very minute we enter the streets of Paris in early March 1793, we are thrust back into another time, hurtling into a distant world. It may well be a place we have never seen or even heard about. But it is one that, through the many works of Alexandre Dumas, we have come to know so very well.
—
His world was always my escape route. As I read through each page of this wonderful new novel, crammed to the brim with fights, betrayals, deceit, friendships, and the quest for honor, it became a simple feat to drift back and remember all that Dumas has given me. I was raised in a violent household, my parents always within inches of taking that final plunge toward death. When the battles became too difficult to face, the shouts and screams too wrenching to hear, I would turn to Dumas and his books, and in their company I would always find the safest refuge.
I would sit in the rear of a small, quiet library in my New York City neighborhood, in a room that faced onto a busy and bustling avenue, a wood table with four chairs all to myself, the pages of one of his novels spread out before me. There, through many a long afternoon, I allowed Dumas to take me deep into his world, miles away from the anguish of my own. I have never been to Paris, but in the back room of that cramped library, I walked and fought my way through its streets with the best possible guide by my side.
—
All great writers offer a refuge through their work, speaking to us with words and tales they have chiseled with their own particular stamp. Dumas was a man of great wealth and high-end tastes who had spent his way through a fortune by the time he lay on the thick quilts of his deathbed, breathing his last. Yet, despite the money he spent so freely, his stories and his heart rested in the soul of the working man. His heroes are all colored with the flag of honor, each bred through the ranks of abject poverty. Dumas made himself so rich by writing so well about their adventures, each of their tales wrapped in the cloak of loyalty to king and queen, giving them the veneer of the respect each central