The Memoirs of a Physician [Part 2 of Mémoires d'un médecin: Joseph Balsamo]

Even though I read Balsamo the Magician and the Mesmerist's Victim as separate volumes, they really are one story and so I’ll put the reviews together. If you don’t read these back-to-back, don’t worry too much since there’s some recapping in the second that will help. I think they should be read quickly though since there’s a lot to remember and keep straight.

The man of the titles - Joseph Balsamo, also known as Count Felix isn’t as charming or as appealing as the leading men in other Dumas novels. He’s more of a villain than a hero and he’s as slippery and selfish as they come. He uses hypnotism to enthrall, trap and eslave two women - Lorenza Feliciani and Andrea Taverney - both because they have psychic powers that show more he uses to “see” secrets, plots and relationships of the aristocracy. He uses these bits of information for his own ends, but swears it’s really part of a larger plot to bring down the reigning French family, the Bourbons.

Balsamo is a creepy man, but he has a creepier mentor who travels and lives with him and claims to be even older than Balsamo claims to be and that’s 3700 years! This supernatural element is also new - Dumas’s novels are always pretty down to earth. This adds a frisson of dread and unease that mere politics and plotting can’t bring. It also brings about the tragic and foreseeable end to one unfortunate character.

I won’t go into more of the plot since it is intricate and convoluted and there are a lot of players. In this way it’s just like any other Dumas novel. Unlike some of those, however, it doesn’t have a strong female lead. All the women in this novel are either schemers or victims, but it’s the oppressed state of women in general that forces them to these two extremes. The nunnery plays a big part - women retreating to it or being forced to it because they have no other recourse. They can’t work and support themselves, they can’t live alone or direct the course of their own lives. Property and baby-machines, although one of them seems to stick up for herself in the end. I only wish the other could have. The way the women are treated is a sad testament to the “inconvenient woman”. She has to be shut up or shut away and it doesn’t really matter which or how.

Women aren’t the only ones who get the short end of the stick - there’s a black servant who is made the butt of a royal joke when he’s made “Governor” of Luciennes, one of the royal estates where Louis XV houses his mistress Countess Dubarry. It’s all hilarious to the courtiers and poor Zamore just rolls his eyes and shovels candy into his mouth. Even the poorest, most debased of the old guard think they’re so much better than him. I wonder how much of Dumas’s own experience went into these vignettes.

Many of the prominent characters are taken from real life and when Dumas wrote the book it was a true historical fiction novel; the events he uses took place decades before he was born. King Louis XV is on his way out and Louis XVI has just married Marie Antoinette of Austria. We all know how that ends, but it is interesting to see how the court shifts and maneuvers and manipulates to its advantage; which will continue in The Queen’s Necklace. show less

Extraordinary narrative. Admirably paced. Dumas takes the symbol of a roccoco style silver saltshaker to describe again the end of a reign, that of Louis XV and the apprenticeship of future Louis XVI.
The secret undercurrents of the French Revolution are described in depth and can apply to any revolution. It was strange to read how the price of grain was manipulated in France at the end of the XVIIIth century while at the same time hearing over the radio the latest news about the Egyptian revolution and the food shortages and lack of grain suffered by its people.

Only Dumas could pull out mixing free-masonry, alchemy and philosophy in one wide sweep to put the reader in the intimacy of the kings and the angst of the common people.

I read this story in two volumes: the Collier editions of _Joseph Balsamo_ and _Memoirs of a Physician_ (which are great translations). I will admit first of all that the first time I attempted to read these I didn't get very far into the book before abandoning it. I think this was due mostly to my expectations, since this story is not really a swashbuckling adventure tale (though it has its share of intrigue) and I was expecting something more like _The Three Musketeers_. I'm glad that I gave the story a second chance though because, for all its differences from his better known tales, it's still classic Dumas.

We start with a suitably moody scene as a mysterious figure enters a secret chamber hidden in the mountains near the Rhine in show more the midst of a night time storm only to be confronted by the representatives of the secret order of the Illuminati who wish to overthrow the corrupt political regimes of the day. From here things move apace and we discover that the figure we have met is the elusive Joseph Balsamo (later know more famously as the adventurer and supposed immortal Count Cagliostro). Balsamo is entrusted with the leadership of his sect and given the commission to further the fall of the French monarchy.

The story then shifts to another locale: the estate of the impoverished aristoractic Tavernay family. The father, the Baron de Tavernay, is a crusty old man, barely living at a subsistence level despite his title and estate and when not railing at the circumstances of the present, he is living on his memories of the glorious past. Here we also meet one of Dumas' most interesting, and frustrating, characters: Gilbert, a servant boy raised by the Tavernays. Gilbert is a model figure of his times: a boy born to low estate, but with a quick mind and who has read just enough Rousseau and Voltaire to have a rather large chip on his shoulder. Gilbert constantly rails at the injustice of fate that has set foolish aristocrats above himself simply through the chance of birth, and hungers for the fall of this unjust regime. Warring with this inborn dislike of the people who raised him (albeit with little enough care for his welfare) is his nearly all-consuming passion for the apple of the Baron de Tavernay's eye, his daughter Andree.

Of course Andree barely knows that Gilbert exists and so his days are spent in a constant froth, sometimes railing against the injustice of his station, and at others at the injustice of his unrequited love. Into the midst of this little domestic purgatory comes Balsamo, a dashing figure to all who not only promptly informs the horrified Baron that he will soon be visited by the dauphin's fiance who is on her way to Paris (the ill-starred Marie Antoinette), but then mysteriously produces all that the impoverished family needs to impress this great personage apparently out of thin air.

From here a third major thread joins the tale as we begin to be told of the political intrigues of court and see the characters of Marie Antoinette, her somewhat feckless fiance (the future Louis XVI) who lives constantly under the thumb of his domineering grandfather, Louis XV. Added to this power family are the courtiers, most notably Louis XV's mistress Madame du Barry and the old and wily Duke de Richelieu, who are constantly manoeuvering for position at court and who draw into their schemes the hapless Gilbert and innocent Andree, and who in turn are drawn into the wider schemes of Balsamo.

This description barely scratches the surface of what is going on in the tale and doesn't even touch on other interesting elements such as Andree's heroic brother Philippe, the Tavernay's servant girl Nicole (the former lover of Gilbert who also happens to be the spitting image of Marie Antoinette), and a very amusing portrait of the hen-pecked philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who befriends Gilbert as the latter journeys to Paris. Dumas uses his consummate skill to bring together the varied strands of his plot and show us how all of these characters will be brought together in order to further the plans of the master manipulator (and mesmeric magician) Balsamo.

The only real stumbling block I had, and the thing that put me off the most during my first attempt at the story, were the scenes involving Louis XV and his court. While some elements of this were interesting (namely the intrigues of Madame du Barry as she attempts to get an official presentation at court) others left me somewhat cold as we seemed to follow the foppish king and his meaningless diversions a bit too much. I see what Dumas was doing here: presenting us with a detailed picture of the inherent moral bankruptcy of the French monarchy at the time and priming us with the roots of its ultimate downfall, but one scene of kingly decadence is often much like another and began to get a bit tedious in the end. That said it's still a great story and I recommend it to any hard core fan of Dumas. The character of Gilbert is worth the price of admission and even though he is at times, as I mentioned, a very frustrating, even infuriating, character I think in many ways he is a fascinating one as well. show less

Joseph Balsamo begins with a meeting in the dead of night high in the mountains as a group of robed and hooded freemasons from around the world meet to plot the fall of the French Monarchy (it's actually more complicated than that, but I'm not going to try to put it into words). The leader of this group, Joseph Balsamo, then takes shelter in a storm at the impoverished household of the Baron de Taverney and his daughter Andrée and things then become very mysterious indeed. How is it the younger Balsamo can recall incidents from Taverney's younger days as if he had been there himself? What mysterious hold does Balsamo have over the beauteous Andrée that he can command her actions with a wave of his hand? How is it that when the party show more of Marie Antoinette stops at Taverney Balsamo provides a sumptuous repast replete with gold plate out of thin air?

After this, the story switches to Paris and Versailles with the intrigues and shenanigans of Louis XV's mistress Madame DuBarry as she connives to have an elderly Baroness agree to present her at court, Balsamo's wife begging sanctuary at a nunnery (very creepy), the wedding procession of Marie Antoinette, Balsamo's mentor's efforts to find the secret to eternal life (the final ingredient needed being the most costly of all) and ending in one heck of a cliff hanger as a fireworks display goes awry and puts Andrée in harm's way with only one person to save her.

Suffice it to say that Dumas' tale of the lives and loves of the Court of Louis XV and the growing tension amongst the lower classes of Paris and beyond was quite entertaining, especially with the mysterious appearances and disappearances of Balsamo in and out of the story. I also very much enjoyed the way Dumas used the character of Gilbert and his rationales about his lack of bread and the methods he would use to obtain the bread an excellent way to support the early beginnings of socialism and resentment against the monarchy. Be advised, you won't find the swashbuckling page turning excitement of the Musketeer series. This is the first of a five volume series and Dumas is setting up much of the background for the later books in this one, so some readers might find this slow paced at times and I only recommend this for Dumas fans (I'm one) or for those looking for well written fictional tales of the times leading up to the French Revolution. Next book in the series, Memoirs of a Physician.

Note, I see some other reviewers complaining about a poorly published edition of this book. I obtained a nice aging copy from the library and was quite satisfied with that, and my review is for that book and not any currently published edition. show less

Memoirs of a Physician begins where Joseph Balsamo left off as all Paris panics after a fireworks display goes awry and Andrée is almost crushed to death beneath the mob. Andrée's brother Phillip desperately searches for her and is feared dead - until she is returned unharmed to her family by the mysterious Balsamo. Lower born Gilbert is still madly in love with Andrée and he follows her (working as a gardener) when she is taken into service by Marie Antoinette. Madame DuBarry continues her schemes, as does the mysterious Balsamo working with the Freemasons to stir unrest against the monarchy and lustful Louis XV takes one look at the beauteous Andrée and he plots with her father to make her his latest conquest.

Actually, there's a show more whole lot more to the story than that but this is Dumas and it would take another novel to try to outline the story better. Suffice it to say that as in the first book in this series, the opulence and shenanigans of the French Court, the manipulations of the politicians, Balsamo's hypnotic control over his wife Lorenza and Andrée, secret rooms and hidden staircases, a mad desire by Balsamo's master to obtain the one horrific ingredient needed to complete his elixir of eternal life culminates in a thoroughly unputdownable tale that had me reading well into the wee hours of the morning. I especially loved Gilbert's antics (ROFL, Hollywood would have a field day with this) as he spied on Andrée and the way Dumas used her contempt of his lower status as a way to emphasize the growing disparity between the classes. Next up in the series, The Queen's Necklace (1902).

Side note on the first two books in this series - as I understand it they were originally published in one volume called Memoirs of a Physician and are now published separately as Joseph Balsamo and Memoirs of a Physician. I've noticed some complaints from other reviewers on the quality of editing and translation of some of these newly published editions and went searching for an older used copy and was quite happy with that. show less

1373 The Memoirs of a Physician, by Alexandre Dumas (read 9 Dec 1975) This novel takes up right where Joseph Balsamo leaves off--the accident from the fireworks on May 31, 1770, in honor of Marie Antoinette, and slowly winds thru the intrigues of Madame DuBarry and of the Duc de Richelieu. It is usually very boring. At the end the murder of Lorenzo by Althotas--who is seeking the last three drops of blood of an unmarried female to complete his elixir of life--and the self-immolation of Althotas and the condemnation of Balsamo are described with the usual Dumas flair. But then "the Editor" skips a bunch of chapters describing Andree's entry into a convent and Philip & Gilbert going to America. This I felt a gross deception, since I never show more knowingly read abridged books. show less

These newly reproduced volumes, Memoirs of a Physician and Joseph Balsamo, were digitized from an English translation of the multi-volume Memoirs of a Physician By Dumas dating to the late 19th Century - a translation which omits a substantial part of the story - extending the relationship between Gilbert and Andree (or non-relationship to be exact). Details are left out of the second volume, and then - some 240 pages at the end are omitted. Ironically, Dumas writes about sex in a most delicately suggestive fashion - which is to say that he utterly avoids being explicit. I know the whole story (or soon will) because I interloaned through my library the single complete English translation, in 3 volumes, dated 1893, published by Little, show more Brown and Company, after a translation published by Dent in England. This set of volumes is becoming rare - and needs to be reprinted [write to Dover Publications about it!], so that the wonderful, unabridged composition of Alexandre Dumas is not lost. The Boomer/Bibliobazaar volumes are inadequate. What happens is that, under a spell by Balsamo for the third time - and escaping ravishment by Louis XV because he believes she is dead (though the king leaves her partially nude, as she was barely clothed to begin with, Andree is finally ravished (this is rape; she is unconscious) by Gilbert, who has seen the spells induced by Balsamo before. This, nor the full extent of the king's attempt - from which Gilbert is actually prepared to defend Andree - is included. This facet of the novel is nearly omitted. Then, in the material left out at the end - there is a note which gives the reader no idea that some 240 pages are missing!! - Andree is pregnant as a result. I realized something was missing, when I got to Ange Pitou, in the Marie Antionette series - there, Gilbert has a son in his young teens! It is not explained how that son came to be. The explanation is in the original Memoirs, but entirely omitted from the 2006 or so reprints - as it was from most translations into English. I will not attempt to go continue as to what was left out - arrangements have to be made for Andree's unexplained disappearance to give birth, and as is typical with Dumas, there are numerous twists and interactions among many of the characters, from Rousseau and Balsamo, to the king and the duke, to the Taverney family. I have not finished the 240 pages. I began reading them in French (which I studied in high school) - the whole Memoirs can be found online in French. I got over half way through, but now that I have the unabridged novel from a distant library, I am reading the end (and picking up some intermediate parts - like the scene where Balsamo left Andree in a trance, after which the king tried to seduce her, and then the crime took place. Without this part of the novel, the whole essence of Gilbert's character is lost; the whole theme of criminality; the deeper counterbalance between Andree and Gilbert, and by extension, between the three Taverney family members, and other characters is lost. Please militate for the reprinting of the original Dumas novel; do not be satisfied with these expurgated volumes! There are hints elsewhere that something is missing, if you read these volumes. For instance, in the Queen's Necklace, Balsamo and Nicole (Gilbert's old girl friend) talk about Gilbert, and Balsamo says that he has been killed. Elsewhere, it comes out that Phillip may have killed Gilbert. Is he dead? No, because he appears in Ange Pitou as a principal character. There clearly is friction between Andree and Gilbert in this novel. And of course, there is the last (or second to last if you count the Knight of Maison Rouge) volume of the MA romances - the Countess of Charny - who is Andree Taverney. show less