The Conspirators (novel)
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{{short description|1843 novel by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet}}
The Conspirators (original French title: Le chevalier d'Harmental) is a novel written by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet, published in 1843. Dumas reworked a preliminary version by Maquet; this was the beginning of their collaboration which was to produce eighteen novels and many plays.{{cite book|last1=Hemmings|first1=F. W. J.|title=Alexandre Dumas: The King of Romance|date=2011|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=9781448204830|pages=115|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0j2MOu_ERwC&pg=PT115|language=en}} The dramatisation of the novel – in five acts, a prologue and ten tableaux – was first performed on 16 July 1849 at the Théâtre-Historique in Paris.{{cite book|last1=Dumas|first1=Alexandre|last2=Maquet|first2=Auguste|title=Le chevalier d'Harmental: Drame en cinq actes et dix tableaux, avec prologue|date=1858|publisher=N. Tresse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HoU_AAAAcAAJ|language=fr}}Stoullig E. Les Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique, 22eme edition, 1896. G Charpentier et Cie, Paris, 1897. It was adapted into an opera, Le chevalier d'Harmental, by André Messager with a libretto by Paul Ferrier, which was first performed on 5 May 1896.
Plot
The novel is set in 1718, and its subject is a conspiracy against the regency of Philippe d'Orléans, who led France during the infancy of Louis XV. Dumas and Maquet's later novel Une fille du régent features some of the same characters.
Reception
George Saintsbury described the novel as "usually ranked among [Dumas's] masterpieces"; Dumas himself felt it had both strengths and weaknesses.{{cite book|last1=Saintsbury|first1=George|title=Essays on French Novelists|date=1891|publisher=C. Scribner's Sons|pages=209-212|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGdGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA209|language=en}} Richard Stowe, Dumas's biographer, called it the best of his novels set during the reign of Louis XV.{{cite book|last1=Stowe|first1=Richard S.|title=Alexandre Dumas (père)|date=1976|publisher=Twayne Publishers|isbn=9780805762303|pages=[https://archive.org/details/alexandredumaspe0000stow/page/111 111]|url=https://archive.org/details/alexandredumaspe0000stow|url-access=registration|language=en}}
Impact
A section of the novel involving a street named "rue du Temps-Perdu" (street of wasted time) may have inspired the title of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.{{cite book|author=Benjamin Taylor|title=Proust: The Search|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6nGhCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|date=27 October 2015|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-16596-8|page=88}}
References
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External links
- [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18028 Original French text] on Project Gutenberg
- [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27385 1893 translation] on Project Gutenberg
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{{Alexandre Dumas}}
Category:Novels by Alexandre Dumas
Category:Novels set in the 18th century
Category:Cultural depictions of Louis XV
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