| "THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK"
Author: Alexander Dumas
Interest Level: Upper Grades (9-12)
ATOS Reading Level: 10.2
AR Points: 34.0
Publisher Recommended Age: 18+
Publisher: Penguin/Penguin Classic
Book Type: Paperback
Pages: 496
Book Description:
Alexandre Dumas was already a best-selling novelist when he wrote this historical romance, combining (as he claimed) the two essentials of life--"l'action et l'amour." The Man in the Iron Mask concludes the epic adventures of the three Musketeers, as Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and their friend D'Artagnan, once invincible, meet their destinies..
In the Musketeers’ final adventure, D’Artagnan remains in the service of the corrupt King Louis XIV after the Three Musketeers have retired and gone their separate ways. Meanwhile, a mysterious prisoner in an iron mask wastes away deep inside the Bastille. When the destinies of king and prisoner converge, the Three Musketeers and D’Artagnan find themselves caught between conflicting loyalties.
About the Author:
Alexandre Dumas, père (French for "father", akin to 'Senior' in English), born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802—December 5, 1870) was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world.
Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After,
and The Vicomte de Bragelonne were serialized. He also wrote plays and magazine articles and was a prolific correspondent.
Alexandre Dumas was born on July 24, 1802, in the village of Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne, northeast of Paris, France. Alexandre Dumas' paternal grandparents were Marquis Alexandre-Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman and Général commissaire in the Artillery in the colony of Saint Domingue (now Haiti), and Marie-Cesette Dumas, an Afro-Caribbean former slave.
Their son, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, married Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret, the daughter of an innkeeper. Thomas-Alexandre was a general in Napoleon's army who fell into disfavor, rendering his family impoverished.
By the time young Dumas was born his family had lost all pretensions to wealth, and his widowed mother struggled to give him a decent education. General Dumas died in 1806 when Alexandre was three and half years old.
Although Marie-Louise was unable to provide her son with much in the way of education, it did not hinder young Alexandre's love of books, and he read everything he could get his hands on. While he was growing up, his mother's stories of his father's brave military acts during the glory years of Napoleon I of France spawned Alexandre's vivid imagination for adventure and heroes.
Despite Alexandre Dumas' success and aristocratic connections, his being of mixed-race would affect
him all his life. In 1843, he wrote a short novel, Georges, that addressed some of the issues of race and the effects of colonialism.
Nevertheless, racist attitudes affected his rightful position in France's history long after his death at Puys on December 5, 1870, at the age of 68.
Other Interesting Information:
The first film adaptation was released in 1929 as a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks.
The most recent film adaptation was released in 1998, and starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Gabriel Byrne, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, and Gerard Depardieu. |
