Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

While it contains some interesting parts, this book ultimately fails as a biography. Frequently going off on tangents, you have to read to page 37 before you even get to the birth of the subject, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. The book is fixated on slavery and racism in the 18th century, going into an in depth study, but contains only a few moments where slavery or racism even impact Dumas. The large amount of tangents throughout the book makes one wonder if the author simply did not have enough material on Dumas' life to make a full book, and decided to fill it with related subjects as best he could. More annoyances are the historical mistakes that are scattered throughout the book. These show the author's ignorance of the time and lack of objectivity when interpreting events. For example, the author interprets General Joubert as being in awe of Dumas, and one piece of evidence is that "Joubert at one point began to refer to him as General of Division Dumas, even though he had no division." Général de Division was/is a rank in the French army, and Dumas like many generals held that rank even though he wasn't commanding a division. Napoleon's appearance in the book is treated as a pop-culture Napoleon, perhaps jealous of Dumas' height and a madman intent on taking over the world. The author interprets that in 1797 Napoleon did not give Dumas a divisional command because of a personal dislike, but then notes that it was a blessing in disguise because Dumas was given a cavalry command and freed from staff work and this is when he truly shined. The author doesn't present any other evidence that Napoleon disliked Dumas at this time, and doesn't even consider that it is more likely Napoleon recognized that the cavalry command was a better fit for Dumas. Evidence does exist later in time that Napoleon grew to dislike Dumas, but the turning point as determined by most historians is when Dumas left Egypt well before any other officers. That seems to be completely ignored by the author, in fact the structure of the writing subtly implies that Napoleon left Egypt before Dumas, which is untrue. The extensive tangents on slavery and racism, historical mistakes, and lack of objectivity combine together to give the impression that the author is more interested in selling a sensationalist book about 18th century French racism than providing a good biography of an interesting historical figure.