When someone thinks of romance they think of the basic Hollywood romance… girl and boy meet, fall in love, get married and live happily ever after. Although Alexandre Dumas is best known for historical fiction, his writing has an undertone of romance with chivalry and gentlemanly ways that never went out of style. In “The Man in the Iron Mask”, the third book in “The Three Musketeer Trilogy”, Dumas wrote about bonds that were indestructible.
During Dumas’ youth, he battled poverty, lack of education, and racism. “A gentleman once began to make racist remarks within earshot, and when he finally said, “Mr. Dumas probably knows a thing or two about Negroes, since so much black blood runs in his veins,” Dumas coolly responded, “Yes, of course. My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro and my great-grandfather was an ape. You see, sir, my family began where yours left off.”(Foote-Greenwell p. 2).
“In 1823 Dumas moved to Paris with nothing but his wits, memory and elegant writing. He got a job as a …show more content…
He was a man that found love at every corner because of his fame, much like the character King Louis XIV in “The Man in the Iron Mask.” King Louis XIV has a Spanish wife who is often times ignored, Maria Theresa. His mistress throughout the book is Louise la Valliere whom he casts aside and moves on from years later to a new mistress. But unlike Dumas, King Louis XIV was never really serious about any of the relationships that he had, he took these relationships for granted. When Louis XIV was placed in the Bastille – the prison that housed his twin brother, “the man in the iron mask,” for most of his life – it was Fouquet who went to Louis’ rescue although Louis thought it was Fouquet that had placed him in the Bastille and it was known that Louis wanted Fouquet imprisoned because of