Crochet Musketeer d’Artagnan

Alexandre Dumas wrote many classics like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Did you he based his most heroic and tragic characters on his father? Alex Dumas (Thomas Alexandre Dumas) was a top general during the French Revolution, equal to Napoleon, and the son of a Haitian slave. General Alexandre Dumas lived an extraordinary life and inspired his son’s larger than life heroes and heart-pounding adventures.

Inspiring Life of General Alex Dumas

The following excerpt is from the prologue of an incredible book that I highly recommend called, “The Black Count: Napoleon’s Rival, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo – General Alexandre Dumas” by Tom Reiss, who won the Pulitzer Prize for  Biography in 2013. [click here for Amazon.com]

     

“The original Alexandre Dumas was born in 1762, the son of “Antoine Alexandre de l’Isle, in the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue [modern day Haiti]. Antoine was a nobleman in hiding from his family and from the law, and he fathered the boy with a black slave [Marie Cessette Dumas]. Later Antoine would discard his alias and reclaim his real name and title – Alexandre Antoine Davy, the Marquis de la Pailleterie – and bring his black son across the ocean to live in pomp and luxury near Paris. But the boy would reject his father’s name, along with his noble title. He would enlist in the French army at the lowest rank, taking the surname “Dumas” from his mother for his enlistment papers. Once he’d risen by his merits to higher rank he would not even sign his name “Alexandre,” preferring the blunt and simple form “Alex Dumas”.

Alex Dumas was a consummate warrior and a man of great conviction and moral courage. He was renowned for his strength, his swordsmanship, his bravery, and his knack for pulling victory out of the toughest situations…He was a soldier’s general, feared by his enemy and loved by his men, a hero in a world that did not use the term lightly.

But then, by the wiles of conspiracy, he found himself imprisoned in a fortress and poisoned by unknown enemies, without hope of appeal and forgotten by the world. It was no accident that his fate sounds like that of a young sailor named Edmond Dantès, about to embark on a promising career and marry the woman he loves, who finds himself a pawn a pawn in a plot he never imagined, locked away without witnesses or trial in the dungeon of an island fortress called the Château d’If. But unlike the hero of his son’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, Alex Dumas met no benefactor in the dungeon to lead him to escape or to a hidden treasure. He never learned the reason for his trials, for his abrupt descent from glory to suffering. I had come to Villers-Cotterêts to to find the truth of what befell this most passionate defender of “liberty, equality, and fraternity.”…

Alex Dumas first came to the army’s attention when, still a lowly corporal, he single-handedly captured twelve enemy soldiers and marched them back to his camp. Not long afterward, he led four horsemen in an attack on an enemy post manned by over fifty men – Dumas alone killed six and took sixteen prisoner. As a Parisian society journalist in the early nineteenth century summed up, “Such brilliant conduct, on top of manly physiognomy and extraordinary strength and stature, secured his quick promotion; it wasn’t long before his talents proved he deserved it… To read more about these amazing people, click here.

      

Crochet d’Artagnan

I have always been a huge fan of Alexandre Dumas’ books. I can read them over and over again an still enjoy every minute. After reading Tom Reiss’ book, I was unabashedly in awe of the life of General Alex Dumas. And thinking of Alexandre Dumas, having lost his larger than life father at the tender age for four, it became most clear why his heroes are so incredibly intoxicating.

This Crochet d’Artagnan is a small tribute to Alexandre Dumas and his father General Alex Dumas. I think he more accurately depicts how the real d’Artagnan and Edmond Danté would have looked if people were more accepting of African heroes. For more pictures, click here.

Crochet Heroes of History

I am slowly adding to my Crochet Heroes of History series, which focuses mostly on forgotten heroes of history. I would like to honor those who overcame incredible challenges and opened doors for future generations. Since I now live in France, my first great heroes reflect U.S. and French history – Josephine Baker and Alexander Dumas’ are the first inspirational characters.

More like this…

★ Crochet Three Musketeers
★ Crochet Three Musketeers Cardinal Richelieu
★ Crochet Three Musketeers Sophie
★ Crochet Petite Josephine Baker
★ Crochet Josephine Baker Keychain

 

Crochet Josephine Baker

           

Learn More…

★ Alexandre Dumas Brief life of the soldier who inspired The Count of Monte Cristo: 1762-1806
★ Tom Reiss The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
★ Alexandre Dumas Biography
★ The château de Monte-Cristo, the home and park of Alexandre Dumas 
★ Musée Alexandre Dumas
★ 153Villers-Cotterêts.Le Général Dumas, pére d’Alexandre Dumas
★ En Savoie, hommage de la France au général Alexandre Dumas, ancien esclave Claude Ribbe