Black booktok is reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, I’ll probably start tomorrow, and they’re very excited. Like seeing them getting into the book is amazing. However, I got a bone to pick with the so called readers of the “classics”. Black booktokers are bringing up the very valid point that Alexandre Dumas was Black, and even that his works should be considered to also be Black classics. Y’all know how certain ones love to scream about how an authors race doesn’t matter though.
However, that’s not really what I’m seeing in the comment sections this time. At least not a lot of it. This time, I’m seeing people arguing against proven fact. The proven fact that Alexandre Dumas’ father, General Alex Dumas, inspired both The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. That does not mean Dumas did not have other inspirations. Artists often have many inspirations when working on their art. It’s a known fact. The Black Count by Tom Reiss explains everything one could possibly want to know about Alex Dumas including the clear parallels between his life and the lives of certain characters from The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. This is why Black booktokers are suggesting that you read it alongside The Count of Monte Cristo.
Now, these people who claim to love the classics already barely like to acknowledge the fact that Dumas was Black, just like they struggle to acknowledge any of the Black authors in classic literature, so maybe them trying to argue that he didn’t take inspiration from his father should be expected. It doesn’t make it any less annoying though, because whatever happened to investigative research??? Like yes, Dumas took inspiration from a case of the time. Proven fact. However, his father’s life unmistakably resembles the lives of Dumas’ characters. Also proven fact. The man was imprisoned because of Napoleon’s racist behind! Like come on now. What always makes things like this annoying though is the fact that the work is already done for you. All you have to do is read The Black Count. Literally, and if for some reason you don’t feel like reading it open up freaking google. Google will point you in the right direction if you bother to actually look. That’s what it’s there for.
I’d also like to mention that Dumas definitely wrote Black characters in his novels as well, but due to the fact that people are racist these characters are obviously whitewashed to hell and back in movie/tv show adaptations and art. They’re even whitewashed by readers who apparently don’t understand that having dark skin is in fact a descriptor that means something and that the n slur does not in fact have to be used in works created during the Industrial Revolution. Just look at how they treat Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The man is clearly of Roma descent and still he’s white in almost every adaptation, and no. Brown face or covering the actor’s face in dirt because apparently “Heathcliff was actually just dirty from doing work” does not count.
