Marguerite de Valois; Margaret of Navarre; The massacre of St. Bartholomew's eve
roman/novel, pub:1845, action:1572-1575
Alexandre Dumas' novel Queen Margot, centers on the beautiful, proud, and willful Marguerite Valois, whose mother Catherine de Medici arranged Marguerite's marriage to the Huguenot leader Henry of Navarre in 1572. It is a marriage that pleases no one except the Queen Mother. Marguerite's brothers, who nicknamed her Margot and prize her with a love that borders on incest, are outraged. Just six days after the wedding French Catholics slaughter over 30,000 Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day. Both pawn and participant in this epic struggle, Margot is torn between family honor, her Huguenot lover, and her apostate husband she can no longer respect.
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.
Dumas wrote a corresponding play.
Oeuvres/Related Works Margaret de Valois - New York, P. F. Collier & Son, n.d., The Works of Alexandre Dumas in Thirty Volumes (vol. 3), blue cloth, gilt spine
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: The first of Dumas' three great Valois Romances. The succeeding ones are not truly sequels in the commonly accepted understanding of the word, though usually so described. They follow closely in historical sequence, and as a consequence many of the historical figures reappear.
Based upon the memoirs and other records of the period, it gives a magnificent description, pulsating with life, of the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew and the events of the succeeding years, closing with the death of Charles IX. Period 1572-1575.
Some of Dumas' finest historical portraits are to be found here, indeed it is probable that it would be no exaggeration to say that they have even left their indelible stamp upon the historians' thoughts concerning these persons: Charles IX., Catherine de Medici, Henri de Navarre, Marguerite de Valois, Henri de Guise, and others. La Mole and Coconnas are only surpassed by the Musketeers themselves as types of the truest of friends and brothers-in-arms. Maquet was again the collaborator in this work.
It first ran as a serial through the columns of "La Presse." Original edition : Paris, Gamier Frères. 6 vols., 8vo., 1845.
Second edition: Paris, Michel Lévy Frères, 2 vols., 18mo., English format, 1846.
There was also an edition in large 4to. of two columns, offered as a bonus for new subscribers by "Le Siècle."
First illustrated edition: Paris, Marescq et Cie., illustrated by E. Lampsonius and Lancelot, 2 vols., large 8vo., 1853.
Paris, Louis Conard, 2 vols., large 18mo., with woodcuts by Victor Dutertre from designs drawn by Fred-Money, 1929—.
It fills two volumes in the standard Calmann-Lévy edition, two in their illustrated series, and one in this firm's "Musée Littéraire."
In Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré" it forms part of Vol. III.
References :— Quérard: "Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées," Vol. I., Columns 1079-1082 and 1109-1110. Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alexandre Dumas," p. 53.
Simon (Gustave): "Histoire d'une Collaboration : Dumas et Maquet." Blaze de Bury: "Alexandre Dumas," pp. 182-194.
Parigot: "Alexandre Dumas," especially pp. 137-40. Marguerite de Valois : "Mémoires."
Vaissière (Pierre de): "De Quelques Assassins;" Paris, Émile-Paul, 1912.
"Blackwood's Magazine" for September, 1845. [vol 58 page 312-327]
Brantome may also be referred to freely for local colour and details.
Principal English Translations :—
"Margaret de Navarre ; or, the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Eve;" London, G. Pierce, with engraved frontispiece of "The Massacre of the Huguenots" and a large number of woodcuts, pp. 479, 1845. This edition was also issued in weekly and monthly parts.
"Marguerite de Valois;" London. Bogue ("European Library"), with fine portrait of Dumas as frontispiece, and an extract from "Blackwood's Magazine" as introduction, fcap. 8vo., pp. vii., 472, 1846. Routledge took over this edition and has issued, and still does, numerous reprints. It is an excellent translation.
"Marguerite de Valois;" Glasgow, R. Griffin & Co., 1850, or earlier. "Queen Margot;" London, Dicks, sewed, 1885.
"Marguerite de Valois;" London, Dent, 2 vols., cr. 8vo., illustrated, 1894. Beprinted, same firm, two vols. in one, 1907 and 1926.
"Marguerite de Valois;" London, Walter Scott, cr. 8vo., illustrated by F. T. Merrill, pp. xii., 427, 1901. (A full and excellent translation.)
London, Methuen, in two parts, sewed, 1906. These are respectively entitled: "The Great Massacre" and "Henri de Navarre." Reprinted, same firm, 18mo., 1921
"Marguerite de Valois;" London, Collins, 12mo., pp. 582, 1911.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: CHANT DE L'ECOLIER. (CXXX.)
Chapter II. Four six-line stanzas, rhyming a, a, b, c, c, b. Two only of these verses are reprinted in the drama drawn from this romance : Act I., Tab. II., Scene vi.
(CXXXI.) Chapter XVI. Three six-line stanzas, rhyming a, a, b, c, c. b.
