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Alexandre DUMAS (b.1802) the author of The Three Musketeers(essential book), see also DVD's) was the son of a French General and the grandson of a slave. He is the only person of mixed race in the French Hall of Fame (the Panthéon of Paris). Dumas was himself an incredible person. He was quite a modern writer: paying assistants, historians, documentalists, archivists to assemble the material of his stories and even write first drafts for him. He was extravagant and a lot of fun. He was a good cook and used to eat an omelet of 30 eggs for breakfast. I used to stop for a meal at Villers-Coteret, the place where Dumas was born, in hope to have a stylish meal. It never happened. It might happen to you between Macon and Lyon when visiting France, but the North is less generous with food, if more with friendship.
Dumas was paid by the line, so his novels are rather long. Dumas however took pride in being able to tell a whole story in one sentence ("I have a dog, and I had chicken"). He once said that lacing his shoes himself did cost him a lot of money: he could have written more lines instead! As a kid, I enjoyed the long version of his books, but you do not miss much by buying an abridged version, except for The Count of Monte Cristo (see further). The novel Ange Pitou tells about a childhood close ot his and the time of the French Revolution; Ange climbs trees, gets always in trouble and appears to be very similar to Tom Sawyer in character. It is quite a delightful read for an independent child with wild dreams. I also liked The Black Tulip a love story situated in Holland at a time where a new species of tulip could be the price of a big diamond. Dumas also wrote many books using the theme of hypnotism, where "masters" succeed at murder and rape and use the so-called visionary power of virgins. These books are brilliant, but they left me ill at ease and I would not recommend them to teens or to unachieved personalities. But much better known is the series of The Three musketeers. These books comprise The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise De La Valliere and The Man in the Iron Mask see also (DVD). The first and the last book are the best. D'Artagnan, you got to know, really existed. A house plate on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, just facing the Louvre on the other side of the river, shows where he lived. In the book, he is in love with a married woman married to a monster: Mrs Bonacieux. In American movies, she is not married, it goes against the conventions of the genre: I have seen her with a bad brother or alternately with a bad father-in-law. Well, D'Artagnan did not have sex with that woman, but he sinned with worse. Find out!
I have a weakness for Louise De La Valliere, but it is not a book for the timid. It is the story of the desperate and degrading love of a woman for the king of France. Dumas described her fairly well, because you can meet with no surprise the real Louise, who went later into religion and wrote very revealing self-loathing prayers. The Man in the Iron Mask is the fascinating story of a hidden twin brother of the king of France, so well written that most French still think it is a true story.
My preferred book is the story of a vengeance after the fall of Napoleon: The Count of Monte Cristo (DVD). One of the most interesting characters in our literature is worth the long version: an old man appears as a conspirator who had a stroke and communicates only by winking, each wink representing a letter of the alphabet. How the reader wishes that the old man will not be killed too soon and will tell the truth! In the end, the Count defeats his enemies, but it gives him no peace.
I had once promised myself that I would read all of Dumas' books, and I succeeded in reading quite a lot of them, but not all. Recently, a forgotten book has been rediscovered: Dumas' last novel: The Last Cavalier, Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon. How exciting is that!

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Jules VERNE (b. 1828). Buy his books abridged: they are full of scientific explanations that are of course outdated and long. Jules Verne is the father of science fiction with H.G. Wells. His books do not have strange creatures and foreign universes; they try to predict the advancement of science. I am not sure that books on travels to the moon and invention of large submarines are as exciting now for children as they were before it happened, but it still makes great movies such as 20,000 leagues under the sea (do you remember a version with James Mason?); Around the world in 80 days, both as a lavish production by Mike Todd and a hilarious movie with Jackie Chan (it is specially funny if you have seen the Todd's production first). Verne's heroes are always interesting though, complex, aloof, not at all the Tarzan or Indiana Jones type. My preferred books are first: Michael Strogoff Michael Strogoff is an envoy/spy for the Czar and has to go through terrible ordeals to perform his mission. At one time, he denies knowing his own mother. He also fells in love and denies himself happiness. All is well at the end, though, but you got to hold your breath. Great book. Great description of the old Russian territory. The tribulations of a Chinaman in China. This is a story of a man who wants to die, asks somebody to kill him and then changes his mind. The theme has been used in hundreds of novels since then.

H.G. WELLS (b. 1866) I did not like Wells as a child; his books were too dark for me. I wanted The Invisible Man to be the good guy, and The War of the Worlds to bring us peace and a great future. I am a born optimist. That is not Wells at all. In the end, and if you buy only one book, the most interesting is still The Time Machine (DVD)

R.L. STEVENSON(b. 1850) There is an enthralling biography of Stevenson on Wikipedia that you got to read. Good! Now you can buy any edition of Treasure Island (essential book)(DVD) with double respect. It is full of traitors, pirates, and wooden legs. We have a bar here in Savannah, Georgia, which claims to be "the one" of the book. All kids who read the book have been dreaming of being young Jim Hawkins (some want it for real, some would rather stay well hidden in bed). But all love it.

Rudyard KIPLING was the son of a British gentleman, born in India (b. 1865). My heart goes to him because he was abused as a child. He once said that children tell as little as animals. If you remember your childhood well, you know that too, even if you were not abused; how many time you did not say anything because you did not have the words, because you did not have the concept, because you could not face the consequences of talking. Kipling came to know India very well, and his books abound in exciting details. He is very representative of the British Imperialism of his time; I do not hold it against him: when India wanted its independence, Kipling was a very very old man. This is to say that in his most wonderful book Kim (see also DVD) the hero is a British kid working as a spy for the British. There is a lot of danger around, and some very bad people, such as some Russians who want, if I remember correctly, to conquer Afghanistan and attack India from that border (history repeats itself). Now if you look at a map, you will see that a new country, Pakistan, now separates Afghanistan from India (Pakistan was created in 1947). So Kim comes with everything: excitement, betrayal, exotic and mysterious people, adventure and even politics: it is a perfect book. The book was made into movies; of course, the best one remains the one with Errol Flynn.

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