The Black Tulip

3.5 rounded up.

Nothing makes me feel like a youngster again quite like reading Dumas. He is a consummate storyteller and when you are reading the story is everything, you are immersed in it, you are suffering the confinement and the injustice and the suspense. The romance is necessary, but not terribly realistic, but then Dumas’ strength is action and it is his male characters who seize and keep your interest. Nobody watched Errol Flynn movies to see the fainting heroine...she was his prop.

This degree of fervor over a tulip might seem extreme, but it is, in fact, based on the history of the time. Holland had tulip fever that amounted to a mania. Dumas certainly put this to good use in his plot development and the creation of the show more fanatic, Boxtel.

A fun read for me and just right for reading between tasks at this time of year. show less

Who would have thought that a book about growing tulips could be so exciting? And yet Alexandre Dumas managed to write a compelling page turner based on that very subject. Dumas became one of my favourite authors a few years ago when I read The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers but I had not read any of his lesser-known works until now. I regret not reading The Black Tulip sooner because I enjoyed it almost as much as the two books I've just mentioned.

The book is set in seventeenth century Holland and begins with the violent murders of John and Cornelius De Witt, suspected of conspiring against the young Stadtholder, William of Orange. Our hero is the fictional godson of Cornelius De Witt, who is also called Cornelius. show more Cornelius Van Baerle is a keen tulip-fancier whose biggest goal in life is to produce the world's first black tulip. However, Van Baerle is not the only tulip-grower in the race for the Grand Black Tulip – and his rival Isaac Boxtel will stop at nothing to get there first!

The first few chapters put the novel in historical context and will be slightly challenging to anyone like myself, who doesn't have much knowledge of Dutch history, but if you read carefully and refer to the notes it's easy enough to follow. As soon as Dumas finishes setting the scene, the story explodes into action and never stops until the final page, taking us on a journey through the full range of human emotions – love, hatred, greed, loyalty, jealousy and obsession.

Rosa, the only female character in the book, is a jailer's daughter who falls in love with Cornelius and finds herself having to compete with the tulip for his affections. Despite making a few remarks of the "I am but a woman" variety she is otherwise a strong and quick-thinking character who does what she knows is right, even if it means going against the wishes of Cornelius or her father. The starring role in the story, though, goes to the elusive black tulip itself.

As you might have guessed, I really loved this book. If you enjoyed The Count of Monte Cristo there's a good chance that you'll like this one too, as it's very similar in writing style, pace and even several plot elements. It could almost be described as a shorter, less epic, less complex version of The Count. Highly recommended. show less

Very entertaining and rather more accessible than many of Dumas's other works, though showing some of the same degree of obsession.
Set in seventeenth century Holland it details the travails of Cornelius de Baerle, an innocent horticulturist from Dordrecht who dreams of breeding the first pure black tulip. Inadvertently caught up in the political rivalries of the time he finds himself imprisoned while a neighbour seeks to steal his black tulip and claim it as his own. His only source of hope and assistance is Rosa, daughter of his prison guard (and far too good for him).

I will confess to buying this book purely for the artwork on the limited edition hardback produced by Waterstones in Amsterdam last year! Only 2000 copies of the gorgeous cover design by Coralie Bickford-Smith were produced, which is possibly why I can't find the right edition on Librarything.

And thanks to the title, and a synopsis of a film with the same name starring Alain Delon from 1964, I thought the story would be something like The Scarlet Pimpernel. Nope, it's literally about a black tulip. That said, I did enjoy the decidedly Orczy-ish characters and plot, and was found myself cheering Cornelius and Rosa on, even though I knew that justice would triumph in the end. Dumas got a lot wrong with his research, according to the show more notes, but I also found the history of Holland and the cultivation of tulips very interesting too!

The first chapter can be overwhelming - I had to start over a couple of times before finally getting into the story - but this was a short and sweet detour into seventeenth century history. show less

Who would have thought that a book, with a simple plot about two rivals trying racing to be the first to grow a black tulip, could be so unputdownable? There are no lords and ladies, no swashbuckling heros, no evil cardinals or Miladys -- nothing but a darn good yarn, and a very sweet love story.

Dumas is just brilliant (as always) and his dialogue (as always) is among the finest I've ever come across. A very quick, albeit enjoyable, read. Highly recommended.

This is an enjoyable little book, with a lively female main character. I thought at first that the tulip grower Cornelius was going to be the main focus of hte book but in fact Rosa the jailers daughter completely steels the limelight. It is Rosa who is the active force for most of hte book, Cornelius merely instructs and languishes. he is not however a pitiable character, rather his fine temperament is shown through how he bears his misfortunes, with dignity.

Dumas has a slightly florid writing style and is certainly guilty of romanticising the past, even if he spares few details of the murder of the de Witt brothers at the hands of the mob. He makes William of Orange out to be a cold (probably correct) but gracious and slightly show more sentimental figure. Towards the end of the book William is shown to feel remorse for falsly imprisoning one man and failing to protect his old friends; this does not read true to me, William was politically pragmatic but determined, he would never have regretted an action taken to secure the state or his own position. show less

Y'all I am an Alexandre Dumas fan girl. If I could resurrect him and make him be my writer boyfriend, I totally would (sorry boo!). Last summer I read the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo translated by Robin Buss* over a period of two weeks. I am a generally fast reader, especially when I have few work hours, however, I really wanted to savor the experience. Dumas is a high calibre writer, his stories are swashbuckling, exciting, and often tinged with romance. Basically it has everything I could ask for out of a book.The Black Tulip begins with political strife. Two brothers in Holland are murdered by the people because of their correspondance with this French guy. How nutty. The crazy definitely hooked me. We then go on to meet show more Cornelius who is the godson of one of the brothers. He's in his 20s, he's rich and obsessed with tulips. Yes, that's right, flowers. I guess in the 1670s flowers were all the rage, kind of like yachts for rich people. People were just mad about tulips in Holland. Jealousy leads to some CoMC-esque actions, oh hai Albert nice to see you here. However, this book departs from the CoMC formula. Friends, I was enraptured. Although this book did not have the girth of CoMC, it has that compulsive readability where I absolutely needed to know what would happen. Often, Dumas would make asides to the reader, which I love, love love because it really felt as though there was someone sitting there telling a story to me.There is a female lead, Rosa, who exhibits courage and a cool head. She's the one who tells her father and Cornelius exactly what they need to do to be safe. However, she's also given the attribute of purity, which I feel must have been a pre-requisite of her time. Seeing as how she is smart and hot and her milkshake brings the boys to the yard, she needs to be pure too.One thing I picked up on was socioeconomic status -- it seems like the poor were portrayed as ignorant, bloodthirsty nuts. I feel the message I come across in Dumas's books is that only through money are people happy. Now, I've only read two Dumas books, so this is definitely a leap to conclusions, but I think Dumas tends to portray the wealthy as having more virtue than the poor. Granted, yes he inserts some rude wealthy people. The poor virtous person is often rewarded for their virtue with vast amounts of money. Perhaps this was normal for literature of the time, but I'm no expert on classics, so I can't say that for certain.The Black Tulip made me want to abandon my reading commitments and kick back with the rest of Dumas's catalouge. Alas, that is not in my stars for awhile. show less