What do you think?
Rate this book
Antony
"Elle me résistait, je l'ai assassinée!"
En mai 1831, au Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, la salle sanglote, crie, applaudit à tout rompre quand elle entend les derniers mots d'Antony. Le drame d'Antony est celui d'un bâtard que sa naissance a empêché d'épouser la femme qu'il aime.
A la société qui fait obstacle à son bonheur, il oppose la force d'une passion qui emporte tout sur son passage. La sage Adèle ne peut y résister.
La puissance d'imagination de Dumas, séduisait encore, dix ou vingt ans plus tard, des esprits aussi exigeants que Flaubert ou Baudelaire. La postérité a définitivement imposé le romancier. Jusque dans ses outrances, c'est le génie dramatique de l'auteur d'Antony qu'il faut aujourd'hui redécouvrir.
En mai 1831, au Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, la salle sanglote, crie, applaudit à tout rompre quand elle entend les derniers mots d'Antony. Le drame d'Antony est celui d'un bâtard que sa naissance a empêché d'épouser la femme qu'il aime.
A la société qui fait obstacle à son bonheur, il oppose la force d'une passion qui emporte tout sur son passage. La sage Adèle ne peut y résister.
La puissance d'imagination de Dumas, séduisait encore, dix ou vingt ans plus tard, des esprits aussi exigeants que Flaubert ou Baudelaire. La postérité a définitivement imposé le romancier. Jusque dans ses outrances, c'est le génie dramatique de l'auteur d'Antony qu'il faut aujourd'hui redécouvrir.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1831
3 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Alexandre Dumas
6,173 books12.6k followersThis 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
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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 1, 2016
There was a period described in Troyat's biography about Dumas where he and Balzac were competing for audiences in my neighbourhood in Paris. One would present a piece at the Varieties and the other would quickly present on at the Theatre de Porte-Saint-Martin and they would rival for reviews and accolades. Anthony was quite a success at Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin for Dumas in 1831 and is considered the first non-historical Romantic drama. It is a tale of adultery and murder and was quite the delicious scandal at the time which of course did wonders for the sales of Dumas' other novels! It is his most famous play and quite a pleasure to read. As a side-note, it is actually based on an affair that Dumas carried on with Mélanie Waldor in 1827! Enjoy!
February 14, 2023
Ganska intressant ändå. Och slutet!!
April 22, 2024
"Elle me résistait, je l'ai assassinée"🙀
November 15, 2025
The ending was shocking! I liked the fact that Adèle was represented correctly and acted in a more realistic way. She didn’t jump directly into the main characters arms and instead thought of her family. Which doesn’t happen in most stories. The tragic ending was a good choice to end it off. His obession for her is insane thought out the story! But I wasn’t really a fan Antony.
November 12, 2024
C’était vraiment difficile à lire, le vocabulaire et toutes les métaphores. Mais, j’aime bien la passion et les émotions que le livre était écrit par. Antony est trop dramatique, j’ai roulé mes yeux plusieurs fois.
February 20, 2022
Personajes planos, diálogos aburridos y un final WTF
April 2, 2024
“You love me the way a stockbroker would”
June 12, 2024
le gadjo assassine la meuf juste parce qu’elle veut pas quitter sa vie entière pour lui?????
enfin jsp achète toi un chien, fais de la boxe, va crier dans la forêt mais chill
enfin jsp achète toi un chien, fais de la boxe, va crier dans la forêt mais chill
February 17, 2025
J’ai du mal à voir le romantisme dans tout ça, moi je vois juste un mec toxique mais bon peut-être que j’en fais une lecture beaucoup trop 2025
June 8, 2024
« N’ayant point un monde à moi, j’ai été obligé de m’en créer un ; il me faut, à moi, d’autres douleurs, d’autres plaisirs, et peut-être d’autres crimes ! »
February 28, 2016
Apparently a lot of contemporary peeps thought the fourth act was dull, I honestly found it the best part. Antony was pretty insufferable, as was Adele, but I've come to expect that from Romantic fiction. I was a fan of the vicomtesse, and even though there wasn't too much action, I never found any of the parts slow... perhaps a little heavy on exposition but overall entertaining, and if you are not a native french speaker, a fairly accessible reading level. Just don't read the preface of the folio edition, it was incredibly dull and spoilery and just really not enjoyable, or even particularly additive to my reading experience.
March 27, 2016
Pièce qui ravira tous les esprits romantiques. Ecrite en prose, elle n'en possède pas moins quelques phrases poétiques superbement troussées. La dernière réplique est simplement et purement fascinante.
March 3, 2015
Good play, well written, but easy and expected plot. The characters are also a little shallow.
Nice to read though.
Nice to read though.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews