This book is part of a trilogy (called the "Valois Romances") which consists
of the three novels: La Reine Margot, La dame de Monsoreau (The Lady of Monsoreau) Les Quarante-Cinq (The Forty Five or The Forty-Five Guardsmen)
It is one of the novels in which he collaborated with
Auguste Maquet.
Oeuvres/Related Works Dumas père, Alexandre: Forty-Five - Available from amazon.com The Forty-Five Guardsmen - New York, A. L. Burt, n.d., The Home Library, bef. 1911 The Forty-Five Guardsmen - New York, P. F. Collier & Son, n.d., The Works of Alexandre Dumas in Thirty Volumes (vol. 5), blue cloth, gilt spine
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: A true sequel to "La Dame de Monsoreau." It concerns the revenge of Diane de Méridor upon the Duc d'Anjou for his base betrayal of Bussy d'Amboise. Historically it commences with the execution of Salcède and the arrival of the Forty-Five at Paris, and deals with the Guise intrigues, the campaign of Anjou in Flanders and his death. Period 1584-85. Maquet was again the collaborator. During the fête held at Villers-Cotterets in 1902 the original MS. of this romance was exhibited, half being in the hand of Dumas père, and the remainder, the latter moiety, in that of his son, with a note signed by this latter to the effect that his father, being confined to his bed by sickness, had dictated it to the younger man. Yet in face of this it has been repeatedly affirmed that Maquet finished it alone.
It first appeared as a serial in "Le Constitutionnel," from May 13 to October 20, 1847.
Original edition : Bruxelles, Méline Cans et Cie., 6 vols., 16mo., 1847.
Original French edition : Paris, Cadot, 10 vols, 8vo., 1848. (Curiously it may be noted that in the standard Calmann-Lévy edition both this work and "La Dame de Monsoreau" contain practically the same number of pages (904 : 906) in the same size of type, yet Cadot made two more volumes of this than satisfied Pétion for its predecessor.)
First illustrated edition : Paris, Marescq, 1857.
Illustrated edition : Paris, Lecrivain et Toulon, illustrated by J. A. Beaucé and Coppin, 3 vols., large 8vo., 1861.
It now fills three volumes in the standard Calmann-Lévy edition, the same in their illustrated series, and one in the "Musée Littéraire."
In Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré" it forms part of Vol. III. (which requires 27 more large pages of two columns for the type of "La Dame de Monsoreau" than for "Les Quarante-Cinq.")
References :— Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alex. Dumas," page 56.
Simon (Gustave): "Histoire d'une Collaboration : Dumas et Maquet."
Parigot: "Alexandre Dumas," 131-39.
Parigot : "Alexandre Dumas et l'Histoire," in the "Revue de Paris," No. for July 15th, 1902.
Vaissière (Pierre de): "De Quelques Assassins," pp. 196-322. Glinel: "Alex. Dumas et Son Œuvre," page 418.
Château-Chalons, Mouton, Freer: Works cited under "La Dame de Monsoreau," page 206
Vitet: "Les Barricades."
Vitet: "Les Etats de Blois."
Vitet: "La Mort de Henri III."
L'Estoile: "Journal."
Brantome: "Œuvres."
Dumas himself on more than one occasion promised a sequel to this romance, but it was never written.
Principal English Translations :—
"The Forty-Five Guardsmen;" London, "Parlour Library," Simms and Macintyre (later Hodgson), 1858.
"The Forty-Five Guardsmen;" London, Appleyard, royal 8vo., full-page illustrations, 1848.
"The Forty-Five Guardsmen;" London, Clarke, 1861.
"The Forty-Five Guardsmen;" London, Routledge, 186—. This is probably a reprint of Simms and Macintyre's edition. It has been frequently reprinted, and is at present in the "Aramis Edition."
" The Forty-Five;" London, Dent, 2 vols., cr. 8vo., illustrated, 1894. Reprinted, same firm, 2 vols. in one, 1907 and 1926.
"The Forty-Five Guardsmen;" London, Walter Scott, illustrated by F. T. Merrill, cr. 8vo., pp. ix., 697, 1901. (The best and most complete translation in print.)
London, Methuen, in three parts, sewed, titled successively : "The Porte Saint Antoine," "Chicot Bedevivus," and "The Duc d'Anjou," 1911.
London, Collins, "The Forty-Five Guardsmen," 12mo., illustrated, pp. 712, 1912. (A reprint of Appleyard's edition.)
An interesting comparison may be made by reading George Chapman's two early seventeenth century plays: "Bussy d'Ambois" and "The Revenge of Bussy."
