KING OF PARIS

by Guy Endore ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

That Endore has identified himself with the mass of material,- biographical, historical, legendary- relating to the Dumas'- Pere et Fils- is evident in this colorful, dramatic, haphazard rendering of the maelstrom of that period that made a character like Alexandre Dumas conceivable. If he hadn't existed he would have to be invented. And if he had chosen the form in which his story might be told today, this, I think, would have been the form. For Dumas would rather be talked about than ignored- no matter what was said about him. And plenty was said. He was accused repeatedly of plagiarism; he was charged with cowardice in side stepping the duels of which he boasted; he created jealousy and spite; he lived in reckless extravagance- and borrowed up to the hilt- but conversely when in funds, was generous to the point of disaster. He used women as part of his extravagant paraphernalia, and discarded them at will. He had bastards far and wide- but only two he acknowledged:- a daughter and Alexandre Dumas, fils- who became a playwright on his own. The two stories are told in counterpoint:- Alexandre Dumas always with the magnificent gesture, his son, underplaying his part, embittered at times by the price he had paid for his father's infamy, but exhilirated whenever that father chose to notice him. Endore has thrown his material before us in reckless disregard of order, pattern, relative values; he records the legends- and disputes them, the while he accepts and rejects what contributes to his portrait. It makes for often confused reporting, but there is something of the immense vitality of Dumas, his magnetism, his grossness. Labelled ""A Novel""- one wonders whether perhaps it might better be presented as fictionized biography than as biographical fiction.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION