Alexandre Dumas Mythographe Et Mythologue: L'aventure Extérieure by Maxime Prévost (review)

Dumas's best-known works not only captivated readers of his time, but were destined to live on, Prévost asserts, assuming myth-like stature in the collective imagination of future generations. His notion of a mythical work is rather general, to be sure—"œuvre dans laquelle se rencontrent pour la première fois des personnages, des intrigues ou des topoï qui sont aujourd'hui connus de tout un chacun sans nécessairement être reconnus" (12)—and, as examples of mythical characters, he cites at various points the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Pinocchio, Superman, Astérix, Obélix, Quasimodo, and Dracula. Following an approach that he characterizes as both "sociocritique" and "mythocritique" (12), Prévost devotes the first half of the book to the relatively brief period when the back-to-back serial publication of Les trois mousquetaires and Le comte de Monte-Cristo established Dumas as the undisputed "roi du roman-feuilleton français" (38). In a lengthy chapter with the intriguing title "L'économie alcoolique des Mousquetaires," he suggests that the "idéal de la dépense insouciante" of his heroes and their "absence de toute forme de calcul" (150) must have been seen as a welcome alternative to the tired institutions and petty policies of the waning July Monarchy. Given the enduring legacy of those two early novels, the notion of Dumas as "mythographe" (writer of myths) seems self-evident, but what Prévost means by "mythologue"—the other term of the book's title—is less clear. In the second half of his study, he deals in effect with the balance of Dumas's career, and the publication of works—Le vicomte de Bragelonne, Les mille et un fantômes, La comtesse de Charny, or Causeries familières, to cite a few examples—that were less well received at the time and are certainly less widely read today. For Prévost, it was in the course of writing Issac Laquedem, which would never be completed, that "la prétention du mythographe cède le terrain à la lucidité du mythologue" (207). There are excursions as well into topics such as Dumas's fascination with "expériences magnétiques" (172), his unsuccessful efforts to be elected to public office in 1848, or his adventurous interactions with Garibaldi in 1860. Prévost also introduces on occasion personal anecdotes, such as his first encounter with the Mousquetaires through movies in Montreal or an eventual visit to the château d'If. Clearly familiar with the existing body of criticism on Dumas (although the occasional profusion of footnotes can be a distraction) Prévost naturally draws as well on the pioneering work on myths by Mircea Eliade and Gilbert Durand. This is not the sort of study that really invites (or necessarily rewards) a linear reading—there is certainly some repetitiousness and more than a few unexpected detours—but it is one that offers the promise of interesting material at any juncture.