Dumas, Alexander. THE BLACK TULIP. (1865). ***.
This is a truly sappy novel by Dumas. It is set in Holland in 1672 and chronicles the Dutch search for a true black tulip. The hero is a young horticulturist who has developed the black variety but is almost immediately thrown into prison because he is related to two suspected traitors – both of whom are violently killed in the first two chapters by angry townspeople. While he is in prison, his ex-neighbor – also a tulip fancier who is now jealous of his neighbor’s success – plots how to steal the discovery from him and claim it as his own. He plans to steal the bulbs (offsets?) from him while he is in prison. While incarcerated, our hero encounters a cruel jailer and his beautifuil daughter. It’s love at first sight and the love drivel flows freely from Dumas’s pen. this is a period piece that tends to gag today’s reader.