The Knight of Maison-Rouge
Alexandre Dumas knew how to construct a fast-paced tale of adventure and romance, mixing history and fiction, and creating an atmosphere of intrigue and breath-taking reversals. But The Knight of Maison-Rouge, written only three years after The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, is far less captivating than those two other works. Published as a serial novel, The Knight of Maison-Rouge moves quickly from one scene to the next, telling the story of Maurice Lindey, a young patriot and revolutionary who has the misfortune of falling in love with Genevieve, an aristocrat married to a scheming royalist. The trouble is that this is Paris in 1793: Louis XVI has already lost his head, and Marie Antoinette and the rest of the royals are imprisoned. Aristocrats are not safe company, particularly since the radical Montagnards dominate the Convention’s government, determined to wipe out all resistance. Maurice struggles between his loyalty to the Republic and his love for Genevieve, all while trying to unmask a royalist—the knight of the title—who plots time after time to save the queen.
Although there are some irksome slips (words and phrases left in French for no discernible reason), on the whole this translation renders faithfully Dumas’ exuberant style and his forceful narrative, featuring a very welcome glossary of historical persons and terms, and chapter-by-chapter notes, both needed. The Knight of Maison-Rouge is at times terrific, with dialogue full of double-entendre and suspense, at other times tiresome and larded with melodramatic gobbledygook. There is a lot to enjoy, if you can see past bungling conspirators, incapable of keeping a secret.
