View From The Glen

Friday, March 26, 2010

History Mystery: Adventurous Dreamer

He came to fame initially as a dramatist, but his legacy is that of a writer of swashbuckling fiction. His characters are legendary, his stories sweeping and adventurous.

His grandfather was a french nobleman and his father a general in Napoleon's army. It was these stories that captured his young imagination. He was a gourmet cook and wrote non fiction articles on politics, history, literature and travel.











Although wildly successful, he spent more than he earned and was frequently in debt, eventually having to sell his country house, with its separate work building.
He also battled racism because of his mixed race heritage (his grandfather married a African Carribean woman) and was banned from Russia by Czar Nicholas I because of one of his novels

130 years after his death, his body was exhumed and reinterred by French President Jaques Chirac who in a televised speech claimed, "with you, we dream." 

Who Am I?

Tuesday Answer: 6 guesses in total, split 50-50 between Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas. Hugo, best known for Les Miserables, was incorrect.

Fortunately the one person who posted their response got it right: Leanne, you win, um, you win....the satisfaction of knowing you're a literature whiz.

Dumas of course is remembered for his adventure stories such as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

2 comments:

Leanne Haines said...

Alexandre Dumas, of course! I knew who you were talking about from the beginning, but I learned a lot about him from your post. Keep the History Mysteries coming!

the Mindful Merchant said...

Ah, yes! I enjoy learning about these interesting historical figures - so fun.