Montevideo o la Nueva Troya: La guerra privada de Dumas contra Rosas (Pasado Imperfecto)

by Alexandre Dumas

Alejandro Dumas, escritor al servicio de Montevideo y adversario de Rosas. Así firmó el escritor francés, en 1850, Montevideo o la nueva Troya. Un encendido alegato a favor de los montevideanos, sitiados entre 1843 y 1851 por las fuerzas de Buenos Aires que respondían a Juan Manuel de Rosas. El autor de Los tres mosqueteros y El conde de Montecristo relata con aliento de capa y espada la guerra que enfrentó a argentinos con uruguayos durante ocho años, cuando el país era la "Santa Federación" y Uruguay, la Banda Oriental. Dumas, que nunca pisó este lado del Atlántico, se apasionó con la resistencia de Montevideo. En el pico de su popularidad, puso su pluma al servicio de los orientales que, apoyados por los unitarios exiliados del rosismo, se enfrentaron a las tropas de la Confederación.
En este libro, célebre y polémico en el momento de su publicación y olvidado con el tiempo, Dumas transforma una parte de nuestra historia en un clásico literario. Así, Rosas, Quiroga, Artigas, Rivadavia o Garibaldi se convierten en personajes novelescos, inspirados, entregados al heroísmo, la maldad o la cobardía según convenga al drama épico.

Marea presenta la primera edición completa en español de este pequeño clásico. Daniel Balmaceda prologa el relato y describe el marco histórico que disparó la febril imaginación de Alejandro Dumas.

Genres: French Literature

159 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1850

About the author

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

Reviews

[Roberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a very interesting one. Most everything Dumas wrote is famous. This book is not. Free ebooks of almost everything he wrote is easy to find. Not this book.

It's a very interesting read, specially if you know something about south american history of the period, because of just *how* misguided Dumas was about almost everything.

You can read it in a ghastly spanish translation here: http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/3...

[Agente Pack · Rating 2 out of 5]

160 páginas de semen unitario

[pame · Rating 3 out of 5]

+ El asesinato del Dr. Sr. D. Florencio Varela

[bau · Rating 5 out of 5]

escribe bien el tío dumas
me da igual si rosas haya hecho o no estás atrocidades

[María Barrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creo que tendría que leerlo otra vez, con los hechos históricos más aprendidos para saber distinguir cómo fueron las cosas y que otro tanto es un exceso panfletario de Dumas, que lo escribe mirando un lado del conflicto.
Igual es una joyita, y un orgullo ver que Don Alejandro dedicará su pluma sucesos de estas latitudes.

La edición que leí termina con un lector que se entera por casualidad de la existencia de este libro y su peregrinación por librerías de viejo en Buenos Aires por encontrarlo. Maravilloso relato también.