مذكرات هراسيوس

by Alexandre Dumas, الكساندر دوما, بطرس الحلاق (Translator)

أمّا أعزّ النزهات على قلبي فكانت إلى تلك العين الجميلة بَندوزيا، التي أهديتُها أبيات شعر تنوّه بالسعادة التي غمرتني حين عدت إليها بعد غياب طويل. ولعلّ سبب انشدادي القويّ إليها هو أنّي حظيت على ضفّتيها، لأوّل مرّة، بما جعلني أتفاءل بحظوتي لدى ربّة الشعر. فذات يوم - وهذا جلّ ما أستطيع تذكّره، إذ كنت لا أزال صبيّاً يافعاً- غفوت على سفوح ال?ُلتور المنحدرة باتّجاه لُكانيا، بعد أن أرهقني اللّعب. وأثناء نومي جاءت حمائم تغطّيني بأوراق الشجر، بحيث أنّ الفلاحين المارّين دهشوا لرؤيتي نائماً في مكانٍ تغشاه الدببة ويعجّ بأفاعٍ سوداء، لا يحميني من شراسة تلك وسمّ هاته إلّا بعض أغصان من الآس والغار.

في غمرة تلك النزهات الصبيانية والعبث الطفولّي، بلغت الثامنة من عمري، ففكّر والدي بالرغم من فقر حاله بتربيتي. إذ أنّ ذلك الأب الطيّب، حين رُزق صبيّاً، لم يفكّر إلّا بأمر واحد: أن يجعل من ابنه رجلاً.

583 pages

First published March 1, 2006

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

[حوريه · Rating 2 out of 5]

لم أجد الكتاب مشوقا ولا مسليا ولا حتى يسيرا البتة، عزائي الوحيد أثناء قراءتي له هو حادثة وقعت بين هراسيوس وشاعر آخر أحسست وقتها بأن أهم سطور الكتاب كتبت في تلك الصفحات. لم أفهم سير الأحداث فـ "دوما" تارة يكتب: "وسنرى هذا في الأيام المقبلة، أو هذا عاقبة من فعل كذا وسوف يلقى عقابا كذا." فيدمج الحدث الآني مع الحدث الأخير، أما الحدث الأخير فيحدث في وسط معمعة حرب مذيلا بكلمات قِلال. ولا أنكر اني فهمت السياق التاريخي لألد أعداء قيصر ومناصريه في تلك الفترة، ومن تلاه من حكام روما ذوي السلطة المطلقة الإصلاحية.