From Reviews (ADR) by Arthur D. Rypinski:
A short novel, best characterized as a horror story with supernatural
elements, set in the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium), Paris, and
Vienna in the 1750's. Despite the brevity of the book, it packs enough
plot to supply a work of four or five times the length.
L'Horloger
is perhaps Dumas' goriest novel, filled with innocent people being murdered by
poison, burning, or explosion.
The grave-digger Jacob Behaegel and his new wife have their wedding night
interrupted by the sight of two men exhuming a corpse. Jacob chases the
men away and is astonished to discover that the exhumed corpse has returned
to life. The ex-corpse turns out to be one Margarita, who tells her story
to a historical figure, the Hapsburg crown prince Joseph II (1741-1790)
traveling incognito. Margarita traveled to Lapland (!) and made a pact
with the devil, receiving a magic ring as a sign of her betrothal to
Satan. By means of the ring, Margarita is able to revenge the murder of
her daughter, and form a successful band of robbers in Hungary. Repenting
her sins, Margarita seeks forgiveness, but is unable to remove the satanic
ring from her finger. Margarita returns to Belgium, dies, and is buried,
until awakened by her excavation. Margarita has been exhumed by Petrus,
member of the robber band and murderer of her husband, who cuts off her
finger to gain the ring.
Petrus' band is living in a cave in a Belgian forest. They despoil yet
another family, leaving two Flemish children, Fritz and Nettchen, orphans.
The orphan children are taken in by the magistrate of the Belgian village
of Onoz. Young Fritz recognizes one of his father's murderers and shoots
him dead. The dead robber is found to have a large quantity of gold in his
possession. Part of the band of robbers descend on Onoz and murder the
magistrate before being gunned down by the villagers. Meanwhile, Margarita
and Joseph II blow up the remainder of the band in their hideout. There
are only two survivors: an orphan child and Petrus, who escapes.
Fritz grows up and decides to go to Paris to apprentice himself to the
celebrated French clockmaker Ferdinand Berthoud (1727-1807) [Berthoud
developed the first marine chronometer rugged enough for routine shipboard
use]. En route, he meets two other young men, both orphans like himself,
Nicholas (a chef) and Bernard. Nicholas, we learn, is the orphan survivor
of the destruction of the robber band, saved by Margarita.
Bernard and Fritz work for Berthoud, and Nicholas becomes head chef at the
best restaurant in Paris. The owner of the restaurant is Petrus. Petrus
seizes the three young men and Berthoud at breakfast and imprisons them in
an underground catacomb. Margarita arrives just in time to save them, and
Petrus flees.
Fritz, now a skilled clockmaker, gains imperial favor by repairing the
shattered glockenspiel of the Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) and by
successful espionage leading to the capture of Dresden by Austrian forces
(1760). Margarita finally catches up with Petrus, kills him, and retires
to a convent. Fritz marries Petrus' innocent daughter.
The late
F. W. Reed
argues that this book was only "touched up...lightly" by
Dumas. I must respectfully disagree. Many of the themes in this book
reflect Dumasian concerns. Margarita's temporary immortality reflects that
of the Wandering Jew in
Isaac Laquedem
which Dumas was writing at about
the same time. The notion of a pact with Satan was one that Dumas would
explore in the far superior
Le Meneur de Loups
a few years later. The
three young men of humble station traveling to Paris to make their way
reflect a bit of Dumasian autobiography that is common to many of Dumas'
books.
However, this is still a curious and badly constructed work. The first
five chapters, covering the exhumation of Margarita, are awkwardly written
and plotted. One can identify the hand of Dumas in certain individual
paragraphs, as he tries to bail the author out of some expositional jam.
However, the middle of the book is pure Dumas. The last few chapters
sound like Dumas, but read more like a plot summary, with one event
crowding on another, than a novel.
A reasonable hypothesis, in the absence of other evidence, is that Dumas
started with somebody else' work, tried to fix it, gave up at about chapter
six, and started writing or rewriting it himself. Towards the end, he
tired of the story, and crammed the ending into a couple of chapters.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: This is another story almost certainly having its origin in a German source. It shows some signs of having been touched up by Dumas, but not a great deal. Strangely, it is not known in a French form, though in several English editions.
English Translations :—
"The Watchmaker;" London, H. Lea, pp. 206.
"The Watchmaker;" London, C. H. Clarke, 12mo., 1862.
"The Watchmaker;" London, Routledge, 12mo., 187—. Probably a reprint of Clarke's, and frequently re-issued.
