Set in Corsica and Paris, 1841. Dumas visits one twin brother in Corsica, then the second in Paris. When the Parisian twin is killed in a duel, the Corsican twin comes to Paris to avenge his death. Wonderful description of the Corsican landscape and travel there. A play by the same title, Les Frères corses, was drawn from this.
From Notes on the Works of Dumas by C. Conrad Cady: Munro mentions seven English translations before 1880. The first are in 1845. One of those is The Corsican Brothers Philadelphia, G.B. Zieber & Co., 1845, large 8vo, pp. 63. Reprinted 1985, Buccaneer Books, Cutchogue, N.Y. ISBN 0-89966-317-6.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: A contemporary story, in which Dumas appears personally as one of the characters. It deals with the intimate sympathy between twin brothers, even when separated. The scene lies in Corsica, and Paris, the period being 1841. Dumas rarely used the method here adopted.
This romance was never dramatised by Dumas himself, but Grangé and Montepin did so (refer to 1850), and a number of different versions have appeared on the English stage.
Original edition: Brussels, Méline Cans et Cie., 1844, 18mo., pp. 242 (including "Histoire d'un Mort").
First French edition : Paris, Souverain, 2 vols., 8vo., 1845. (The second volume concluded with "Mes Infortunes de Garde National," and was dedicated to Prosper Mérimée.) An illustrated edition in 4to. was issued by Marescq in 1853.
It is now included (with "Orthon l'Archer") as one volume in the standard Calmann-Lévy edition. The two works also form a single volume in the same firm's "Musée Littéraire."
In Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré" it is in Vol. XX.
English Editions :—
"The Corsican Brothers;" translated by Henry Frith, pp. 128, 1880. There were probably earlier printings.
Same title ; London, Provost, illustrated, 1880.
"The Corsican Brothers, a Romance founded on the sensational drama (?) by Alexandre Dumas;" London, Ashman (1880), translated, etc., by H. L. Williams.
"The Corsican Brothers; or, the Fatal Duel," by T. Frost; London, Purkess, issued in parts.
"The Corsican Brothers" (with "The She Wolves of Machecoul"); London, Dent, 2 vols., 1895. Reprinted, same firm, 1906, 1927.
"The Corsican Brothers" (with "Otho the Archer"); London, Methuen, 1903, sewed. Same firm, an edition with coloured plates by A. M. McLellan, 1904.
Reprinted, same firm, 18mo., 1920,
