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Aventures de Lyderic

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Aventures de Lyderic

50 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1842

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About the author

Alexandre Dumas

5,759 books12.6k followers
This note regards Alexandre Dumas, père, the father of Alexandre Dumas, fils (son). For the son, see Alexandre Dumas fils.

Alexandre Dumas père, born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was a towering figure of 19th-century French literature whose historical novels and adventure tales earned global renown. Best known for The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and other swashbuckling epics, Dumas crafted stories filled with daring heroes, dramatic twists, and vivid historical backdrops. His works, often serialized and immensely popular with the public, helped shape the modern adventure genre and remain enduring staples of world literature.
Dumas was the son of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a celebrated general in Revolutionary France and the highest-ranking man of African descent in a European army at the time. His father’s early death left the family in poverty, but Dumas’s upbringing was nonetheless marked by strong personal ambition and a deep admiration for his father’s achievements. He moved to Paris as a young man and began his literary career writing for the theatre, quickly rising to prominence in the Romantic movement with successful plays like Henri III et sa cour and Antony.
In the 1840s, Dumas turned increasingly toward prose fiction, particularly serialized novels, which reached vast audiences through French newspapers. His collaboration with Auguste Maquet, a skilled plotter and historian, proved fruitful. While Maquet drafted outlines and conducted research, Dumas infused the narratives with flair, dialogue, and color. The result was a string of literary triumphs, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, both published in 1844. These novels exemplified Dumas’s flair for suspenseful pacing, memorable characters, and grand themes of justice, loyalty, and revenge.
The D’Artagnan Romances—The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne—cemented his fame. They follow the adventures of the titular Gascon hero and his comrades Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, blending historical fact and fiction into richly imagined narratives. The Count of Monte Cristo offered a darker, more introspective tale of betrayal and retribution, with intricate plotting and a deeply philosophical core.
Dumas was also active in journalism and theater. He founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris, which staged dramatizations of his own novels. A prolific and energetic writer, he is estimated to have written or co-written over 100,000 pages of fiction, plays, memoirs, travel books, and essays. He also had a strong interest in food and published a massive culinary encyclopedia, Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, filled with recipes, anecdotes, and reflections on gastronomy.
Despite his enormous success, Dumas was frequently plagued by financial troubles. He led a lavish lifestyle, building the ornate Château de Monte-Cristo near Paris, employing large staffs, and supporting many friends and relatives. His generosity and appetite for life often outpaced his income, leading to mounting debts. Still, his creative drive rarely waned.
Dumas’s mixed-race background was a source of both pride and tension in his life. He was outspoken about his heritage and used his platform to address race and injustice. In his novel Georges, he explored issues of colonialism and identity through a Creole protagonist. Though he encountered racism, he refused to be silenced, famously replying to a racial insult by pointing to his ancestry and achievements with dignity and wit.
Later in life, Dumas continued writing and traveling, spending time in Belgium, Italy, and Russia. He supported nationalist causes, particularly Italian unification, and even founded a newspaper to advocate for Giuseppe Garibaldi. Though his popularity waned somewhat in his final years, his literary legacy grew steadily. He wrote in a style that was accessible, entertaining, and emotionally reso

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Profile Image for Socrate.
6,745 reviews276 followers
November 2, 2021
Despre conţii de Flandra s-a pomenit prima oară, dacă este să credem cronica, în jurul anului 640.

Apariţia acestei puternice familii nobiliare este învăluită în mister şi legendă, lucru firesc când este vorba de tradiţia populară, ce a păstrat vii chiar şi amintirile reginei Semiramida, fiica porumbeilor, sau ale lui Remus şi Romulus, întemeietorii Romei, cei doi băieţi alăptaţi de o lupoaică.

Dar iată, cât mai pe scurt, în ce constă legenda conţilor de Flandra:

― Către sfârşitul anului 628, pe când Bonifaciu al V-lea era papă la Roma şi Clotar rege al francilor, Salwart, prinţ de Dijon, se întorcea împreună cu soţia sa Ermengarde de la botezul primului lor copil, Lyderic.

Ceremonia avusese loc într-o biserică renumită şi foarte veche, iar acum ei traversau pădurea Fără Milă, denumită astfel din pricina tâlharilor lui Phinard, prinţ de Buck. Salwart nu avea alături de el decât o suită formată din patru slujitori.

Pe înserat, au ajuns într-un loc foarte întunecat, unde au fost atacaţi de douăzeci de oameni conduşi de o căpetenie cu o statură uriaşă. Aceasta nu putea fi decât prinţul de Buck.

În ciuda disproporţiei de număr, Salwart a pornit lupta cu tâlharii. N-o făcea ca să scape cu viaţă, ci pentru ca soţia şi fiul lui să poată fugi de acolo…

Ajutată de întunericul nopţii ce se lăsa cu repeziciune, Ermengarde a coborât de pe cal şi a pornit prin pădure. Încrezătoare în soarta dată de Dumnezeu şi făcând totul pentru a-şi îndeplini datoria de mamă şi de soţie, ea a ascuns copilul într-un tufiş de lângă fântâna denumită a Salciei, datorită arborilor de acest fel din jurul ei.

Apoi, s-a rugat Domnului cu lacrimi în ochi şi s-a întors unde lupta soţul ei. Moartă sau vie, liberă ori prizonieră, trebuia să împartă cu el soarta ce le era hărăzită.

Acolo se aflau opt cadavre ce zăceau pe iarbă. Deoarece luna se ridicase pe cer, le-a putut vedea chipurile. Printre morţi i-a recunoscut pe cei patru servitori ai lor. Ceilalţi erau duşmani.

Soţul ei nu se găsea printre victime. În mod cert fusese luat ostatic. Originea lui nobilă îl împiedicase să fugă ca un oarecare de la locul înfruntării sângeroase.

Chiar atunci zări un convoi care, judecând după luminiţele torţelor, se îndrepta spre un castel întărit ce fusese construit pe ruinele unei cetăţi romane. După statură, îl recunoscu pe şeful cetei care îi atacase. Fără îndoială că soţul ei trebuia să facă parte din acel convoi.

Deoarece datoria ei era să se afle alături de conte, Ermengarde porni în grabă după convoi. Aşa văzu că nu se înşelase. Contele, rănit de moarte, era purtat de soldaţi.

Ei se dădură la o parte pentru a-i face loc femeii lovită de soartă, pe jumătate văduvă. Prinţul de Buck nu mai putea de bucurie, căci acum avea doi ostatici în loc de unul. De aceea, îşi continuă vesel drumul spre castel. Ajunseră acolo după o jumătate de ceas.

În aceeaşi noapte, prinţul de Dijon muri rugându-se pentru fiul său, iar soţia lui rămase prizonieră.
Profile Image for Gigi Popia.
9 reviews1 follower
May 27, 2019
Fun read for a kid.
I believe it was the first book I ever read, if I remember correctly. Hardly understood it at the time, because I was only 8 years old, but the parts I did understand I enjoyed a lot.
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