Chapter 1
Introduction of Celebrated Crimes, Volume 1 by Alexandre Dumas, translated by George Burnham Ives. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Introduction The contents of these volumes of Celebrated Crimes, as well as the motives which led to their inception, are unique. They are a series of stories based upon historical records from the pen of Alexandre Dumas' pair,
when he was not the elder nor yet the author of D'Artagnan or Monte Cristo but was a rising young dramatist and a lion in the literary set and world of fashion.
Dumas, in fact, wrote his Crimes Célebres just prior to launching upon his wonderful series of historical novels and they may therefore be considered as source books whence he was to draw so much
of that far-reaching and intimate knowledge of inner history which has perennially astonished his readers. The Crimes were published in Paris in 1839-40, in eight volumes comprising 18 titles, all of which now appear in the present
carefully translated text. The success of the original work was instantaneous. Dumas laughingly said that he thought he had exhausted the subject of famous crimes until the work was off the press, when he immediately became deluged with letters from every province in France, supplying him with material upon other deeds of violence. The subjects which he has chosen, however, are of both historic and dramatic importance, and they have the added value of
giving the modern reader a clear picture of the state of semi-lawlessness which existed in Europe during the Middle Ages. The Borgias, the Sensi, Urbain Grandier, the Marchioness of Brinvilliers, the Marchioness of Gange, and the rest. What subjects for the Pen of Dumas! exclaims Garnett. Space does not permit us to consider in detail the material here collected, although each title will be found to present points of special interest.
The first volume comprises the annals of the Borgias and the Sensi. The name of the noted and notorious Florentine family has become a synonym for intrigue and violence, and yet the Borgias have not been without staunch defenders in history. Another famous Italian story is that of the Sensi,
the beautiful Beatrice Sensi, celebrated in the painting of Guido, the 16th century romance of Guarazzi, and the poetic tragedy of Shelley, not to mention numerous succeeding works inspired by her hapless fate,
will always remain a shadowy figure and one of infinite pathos. The second volume chronicles the sanguinary deeds in the south of France, carried on in the name of religion, but drenching in blood the fair country round about Avignon for a long period of years. The third volume is devoted to the story of Mary Queen of Scots,
another woman who suffered a violent death, and around whose name an endless controversy has waged. Dumas goes carefully into the dubious episodes of her stormy career, but does not allow these to blind his sympathy for her fate. Mary, it should be remembered, was closely allied to France by education and marriage,
and the French never forgave Elizabeth the part she played in the tragedy. The fourth volume comprises three widely dissimilar tales. One of the strangest stories is that of Urbain Grandier, the innocent victim of a cunning and relentless religious plot. His story was dramatized by Dumas in 1850.
A famous German crime is that of Karl Ludwig Sand, whose murder of Kotzebue, councillor of the Russian legation, caused an international upheaval which was not to subside for many years.
An especially interesting volume is number six, containing, among other material, the famous Man in the Iron Mask. This unsolved puzzle of history was later incorporated by Dumas
in one of the d'Artagnan romances, a section of the Vicomte de Bragallon, to which it gave its name. But, in this later form, the true story of this singular man
doomed to wear an iron visor over his features during his entire lifetime could only be treated episodically, while as a special subject in the crimes, Dumas indulges his curiosity
and that of his reader to the full. Hugo's unfinished tragedy, Les Jumules, is on the same subject and also are others by Fournier in French and Zocca in German.
Other stories can be given only passing mention. The beautiful poisoner, Marquise de Brinvillière, must have suggested to Dumas his later portrait of Milady and the Three Musketeers, the mast celebrated of his woman characters. The incredible cruelties of Ali Pasha, the Turkish despot,
should not be charged entirely to Dumas, as he is said to have been largely aided in this by one of his ghosts, Malafie. Not a mere artist, writes M. de Villemassant, founder of the Figaro. He has nevertheless been able to seize on those dramatic effects which have so much distinguished his theatrical career
and to give those sharp and distinct reproductions of characters which alone can present to the reader the mind and spirit of an age. Not a mere historian, he has nevertheless carefully consulted the original sources of information, has weighed testimonies, elicited theories, and has interpolated the poetry of history with its most thorough prose. End of Introduction Recording by John Van Stan, Savannah, Georgia
