From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: This work appeared under the name of General Dermoncourt, former aide-de-camp to General Alexandre Dumas. Dermoncourt was the military commandant at Nantes at the time of the arrest of the Duchesse de Berri, and he saw a good deal of her at that time. In this work he gives the account of her attempted raising of an insurrection in La Vendée, but being unaccustomed to literary efforts, he asked his friend Dumas to do the actual composition from his narrative.
It is to be noted that Dumas is only responsible for the first edition. Dermoncourt was by no means satisfied with the treatment of the illustrious lady by the government of Louis Philippe, and in issuing a second edition he considerably modified his political views, and Dumas, not having changed his own staunch Republican ones, disavows responsibility for any but the original publication,
Original edition : Paris, Canyon et Canel, 1833. Pp. 362 and 1 of errata.
Second edition (Dumas not responsible): "Revised, corrected and augmented to double the size by authentic notes communicated to the author since the issue of the first " ; Paris, Hivert, 1834, 8vo., with two lithographs, pp. 460. Quérard says there was a second imprint of the original edition, also issued in 1833. This is substantiated by an autograph letter of Dumas' in the Reed Dumas Collection, written to a friend in Grenoble (October 5th, 1833).
References :—
Dumas: "Mes Mémoires," Chapters CCXXXIX-CCXLL, CCLIV.-CCLVI. and CCLXIV., but particularly the first.
Dumas: "Vie de Louis Philippe," Vol. II., Ch. IV. Quérard: "Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées," Vol. I., Columns 902-903.
An English Translation: "The Duchess of Berri in La Vendée ; comprising a narrative of her adventures, with her private papers and secret correspondence"; London, Bull and Churton, 1833. By its date this must of necessity be from the original French edition ; moreover, it is much shorter than the second French one. It went into several editions. Seemingly it is the first of Dumas' works to appear in English.
