From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: An historical romance in which memoirs, gossip and the more picturesque records generally of the period in question are drawn upon and woven into a form of fiction.
La Comtesse Dash (or D 'Ash, as it was sometimes spelt at first) is usually credited with a very large hand in this romance, though probably Dumas did some revising and "editing." He evidently did not consider that this was sufficient to warrant classing it among his own writings (though his publishers took good care to do so—for obvious reasons), since he quite clearly states: "It goes without saying that I am purely and simply the editor . . .," and this statement was repeated in his preface when this work appeared in volumes. Further, it is not really classable with any of his recognised styles.
It first ran serially through "Le Mousquetaire" between January and September, 1854.
Original edition : Paris, Cadot, 6 vols., 8vo., 1854.
It now occupies two volumes in the standard edition of Calmann-Lévy.
In Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré" it forms part of Vol. XI.
References :—
Dumas: "Le Mousquetaire." Causeries for August 22nd and September 1st, 1854. Glinel: "Alexandre Dumas et Son Œuvre," page 435. Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alexandre Dumas," page 63.
