Evening star., 1928-11-14
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEVELL.

One of the sketchiest Of the new
| biographies is The Fourth MuSketeer, =
! the life of Alexandra Dumas by J.
Lucas -Dubreton. just published by Cow
ard-McCann. Inc. New York.
| This is an interesting and disquiet-
! ing book at one and the same reading
i the former because 1t gives the average
! reader some facts about the great ro-
mencer he might have difficulty secur-
| ing elsewhere. disquieting because it
/ fails to enter into the life of the subject
as writer to the extent which most
readers will think desirable.
The author seems to have been OBJ
sessed with his conception of Dumas
as gay fellow. when the reader will
be more interested in him as a great
writer. Here we have the interesting
| if disheartening spectacle of an author
neglecting his subjects chief charm for
the readers of both.
This is no new thing in modern biog-
| raphy. Emil Ludwig treated the world
to history of Napoleon with Napoleon S
battles left out and yet managed to
make very fine book out of his
! ema sculated subject.
| That Lucas-Dubreton is as success
full with Dumas the present reviewer
questions Here Is a subject endeared
to the modern world by his evDr-popu-
| lar romances-"The Three MuSketeers. .
The Count of Monte Cristo" and a
score of others popular all over the
world.
Yet our author spends most of his
! time telling the reader about what the
peerless Alexandra did when off duty,
as it were. We pine for details of his
collaboration with Maquet, but get
precious few of them.
! A book of 272 pages. of large type
and spacing. is not big enough We sub
nit, to tell the half of what the
Dumas enthusiast wants to know about
Dumas.
The Eth .Musketeer." therefore,
| must remain an interesting introduc-
ton to the sub;rct. AS such it is
good His short "Noreword" could not
be excelled:
"Michelet wrote to the elder Dumas,
Monsieur, I love YOU and 1 admire
you because you are ore of the forces
of nature
He used the right phrase. The
theology, the social themes and the
ethical problems dear to the younger
Dumas play no part in his fathers
life. That life expresses itself solely
on the plane of action and of instinct
hence its characteristic violence of tone,
| boldneSs of gesture, serene assurance
and innocent gaiety"
There the reader has, in a very few
words, complete description of the
novels of Alexandra Dumas. with their
effect upon the average fan" With
this introduction. he innocently thinks,
he shall soon learn all about how Alex
andre Dumas wrote those immortal
works still selling like hot cakes to the
discriminating.
He takes up the task hopefully, pa
tiently reading page after page for
searching for, but he never reaches
it, for his guide is more interested
in Dumas, the man, than in Dumas,
the writer.
1t is at this point that we differ
absolutely with the so-called modern
school of biography, which insists so
hard on trying to make a subject
human as they say, that he almost
turns into freak.
The "blurb" on the jacket of this
particular book gives the thing away:
Dumas life is so mad, so grotesque in
Itself, that the biographer has no diff
ficulty in finding theatrical. humorous
anecdotes. and brilliantly colored ad-
ventures to adorn his tale"
The biographer was so intent on
these very things that he overlooked
the solemn fact that Dumas, as viewed
| by most moderns, was a writer, above
all and before all. We will not be sat-
| isf1ed with the information that he used