Un mousquetaire du journalisme: Alexandre Dumas dir. by Sarah Mombert and Corinne Saminadayar-Perrin (review)

It can be something of a challenge, even for those researchers working on the writings of Alexandre Dumas père, to keep abreast of the scale and scope of his output. The reader is confronted by a bewildering array of texts (often of exceptional length), ranging from theatre to prose fiction. Critics continue to draw attention to lesser-known works and collaborations, with this excellent new volume on Dumas's journalistic writings an invaluable addition to scholarship on the author of Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. As Sandrine Carvalhosa writes in the Conclusion to this volume: 'La production journalistique d'Alexandre Dumas surprend par sa diversité et sa richesse' (p. 179). And the point is borne out in the range of topics and texts explored over the course of the book. Contributors draw on (and have often made vital contributions to) a rich vein of francophone scholarship focused on the intersection of literature and journalism over the course of the nineteenth century, and associated with researchers such as Marie-Ève Thérenty, Alain Vaillant, and Guillaume Pinson. Throughout the collection, Dumas is placed in the context of nineteenth-century press history, as Corinne Saminadayar-Perrin explains in her engaging Introduction: 'Sa trajectoire d'écrivain est connectée à la première ère médiatique de masse qu'ait connu la France, à l'émergence des proto-industries culturelles, aux reconfigurations successives du champ littéraire au XIX^e siècle' (p. 7). Dumas's career as novelist and dramatist is understood in the context of the numerous roles he adopted across a range of newspapers and periodicals: 'La trajectoire de Dumas, indissociablement écrivain et journaliste, est celle d'un engagé volontaire dans le monde de la presse, où il occupa presque tous les postes: critique dramatique, chroniqueur, romancier, historien du contemporain, correspondant de guerre, mais aussi ciseleur de "nouvelles à la main" et intarissable causeur' (p. 8). With such points in mind, the contributors range widely. One illuminating strand of discussion considers Dumas's interest in the figure of Garibaldi, and in Italian politics and culture more broadly (with essays by Isabelle Safa and Alvio Patierno); yet there is space too for reflection on Dumas and 'la littérature d'anticipation' (Matthias Hausmann), and analysis of Le Moustiquaire, a parody of Dumas's popular periodical Le Mousquetaire (Sarah Mombert). This is one of a number of compelling essays to evoke Le Mousquetaire, sitting alongside contributions from Maria Lúcia Dias Mendes and Julie Anselmini. A focus on French politics animates much of the volume, coming to the fore in the section devoted to Dumas and 1848. Much ink has been spilled on the significance of this moment in the cultural history of nineteenth-century France, and the essays collected here play a critical role in revealing the nature of Dumas's movements and positions at this time. Vincent Robert, for example, offers a comparative analysis of Dumas's journalistic production in 1848, linking the author of Les Trois Mousquetaires with Honoré de Balzac, Eugène Sue, and George Sand. His essay, and the others published in this volume, will be of great interest to Dumas scholars, as well as to historians of the press and popular culture in France.