From Reviews (ADR) by Arthur D. Rypinski: Georges is a romance set on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, mostly
in 1824. This novel of of particular interest for two reasons: first,
because Dumas reused many of the ideas and plot devices that he deployed in
Georges later in
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, and secondly because race
and racism are at the center of this novel, and this a topic on which
Dumas, despite his part-African ancestry, rarely wrote.
Mauritius also known as "L'Ile de France," was colonized by France and
captured, and subsequently ruled by the British in 1812. Like Haiti and
several French Caribbean islands, most of the land in Mauritius was owned
by French planters, and worked by negro slaves imported for this purpose.
However, many other races and ethnic groups were (and are) present in
varying numbers and roles, including Muslim and Hindu Indians, Arabs,
Chinese, Malagache, and Malays. There were was also a substantial mulatto
(mixed race) population, including slave-owning mulatto planters.
Dumas begins his novel in 1810, when a British expeditionary force has
descended on Mauritius and landed troops. The outnumbered French garrison
has been supplemented by volunteers drawn from the European community. A
wealthy mulatto planter, Pierre Munier, accompanied by his two young sons,
attempts to join the volunteers, but is refused on account of his race.
Humiliated, Munier raises a levy of African and mulatto volunteers, and,
operating independently, falls on the British flank, and inflicts a
tactical defeat on a British column, just as it is about to overrun the
European volunteers. Afterwards, Pierre, and his two sons, Jacques (then
16) and Georges (then 12) come in conflict with the leading white planter,
Monsieur de Malmedie, and his son Henri.
Meanwhile, a second British column defeats the French regulars, and the
colony falls to the British. Since the conflict with M. de Malmedie seems
prone to a catastrophic dénouement. Pierre deems it prudent to send his
sons off to France to be educated. Fourteen years pass. In the meantime,
Georges has become, fabulously wealthy, well educated, and has moved in the
highest circles of French and English society. He returns to Mauritius in
1824 as a close friend of Sir William Murray, the new British Governor.
Georges naturally falls in love with Sara de Malmedie, Henri's sister.
Georges asks for her hand in marriage, and is summarily refused. He
challenges Henri to a duel, and Henri refuses, on the grounds that fighting
with a mulatto is beneath his dignity. During a horse race, Georges
strikes Henri across the face with a whip, and even then Henri refuses to
fight, choosing instead to collect a group of fellow whites with the intent
of ambushing Georges and horsewhipping him.
Totally alienated from planter society, Georges leads a slave rebellion
against the white elite. Sir William foils the rebellion by deploying open
barrels of whiskey in the path of the approaching rebels, who promptly
drink themselves into a stupor. Georges is wounded, captured, and
condemned to death. Sara marries the condemned man just prior to the
execution, which is indefinitely delayed when Georges' older brother,
Jacques, who has become a slave trader, storms the church with his
semi-piratical followers and carries off Georges, Sara, and his father on
his ship.
Sir William gives chase in the H.M. frigate Leicester, and overhauls
Jacques' ship, but in the ensuing sea battle, the Leicester catches fire
and sinks. Georges, Sara, Jacques, and Pierre sail off into the sunset.
In Georges, Dumas clearly feels the unfairness of prejudice against free
mulattos. With respect to slavery, though, he is much more ambivalent.
Pierre Munier is a slave owner, but treats his slaves well, unlike the de
Malmedie family. Dumas is careful to point out that Jacques, though a
slave trader, has his professional ethics: he doesn't personally hunt for
slaves, dealing only in the prisoners of African rulers, and refuses to
overcrowd his victims on the ship.
Thus, Georges is not exactly an abolitionist tract. However, Dumas draws
a sympathetic portrait of the African slave leader Laiza, a man of
exemplary courage, loyalty, and honor (key Dumasian virtues), who dies
trying to protect Georges. By example, if not by polemic, Dumas makes the
point that Laiza is as much and as honorable a man as Georges, his position
as a slave being the result of mere misfortune. Dumas was, perhaps, trying
to remain a popular novelist while sneaking into his reader's mind a notion
that was at variance with the conventional wisdom of the day: that the
brotherhood of man might extend across races
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: Here we have a much better story, indeed in its way an excellent one, in which the contemptuous behaviour of whites to men with a dash of colour in them is forcibly handled. The period is 1810 to 1824; the place the Isle of Mauritius.
One of Dumas' friends at this period was Félicien Mallefille, who is usually credited with supplying the local colour, with which he was familiar. It may be mentioned that Dumas here shows his surprising ability to catch the atmosphere of places unknown to him, just as he had in "Quinze Jours à Sinaï."
The opening sea-fight off Port Saint Louis (then Port Napoleon) was at first considered to be incorrectly described by Dumas, in that it differed from the official account of the "Moniteur" of the day. Later investigations however (by Dr. Richard Garnett) proved that the romancer's description is the correct one ; the official narrative had been purposely distorted for political reasons.
Original edition : Paris, Dumont, 1843, 3 vols., 8vo.
It now forms one volume in the standard Calmann-Lévy series, and one in their "Musée Littéraire."
It forms part of Vol. XX. in Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré."
References :— Quérard: "Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées," Vol. I., Columns 1103,1148 and 1152. Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alex. Dumas," page 33. De Mirecourt: "Les Contemporains."—"Alexandre Dumas," page 60 of the edition of 1857.
English Translations :—
"George;" London, Orr, 8mo., 1846. Translated with an introduction by G. J. Knox, pp. 384.
"George;" London, C. H. Clarke, 12mo., 1847.
" The Planter of the Isle of France ; " London, G. Pierce, 1847, pp. 259. (Somewhat condensed.)
"George; or, the Planter of the Isle of France;" translated by S. Spring; New York, Stringer and Townsend, 1849, pp. 171.
"George; or, the Planter of the Isle of France;" London, Simms and Macintyre, 1853, pp. 256.
"George; or, the Planter of the Isle of France;" Philadelphia, Peterson Bros.
"George; or, the Isle of France;" London, Methuen, translated by A. Allinson, 1903, sewed. Same firm, an edition in cloth, with coloured plates by M. S. Orr, 1904. Reprinted, same firm, 18mo., 1921. This reprint has the introduction wrongly signed "R.S.G."
