From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: The earliest of Dumas' really fine historical romances. It gives excellent promise of the work to come, and no lover of this author can afford to neglect it. Unfortunately, his mother dying during its production, the latter part is too much inclined to approximate to the picturesque chronicle, but the commencement, and particularly the picture of Nero at Corinth, is brilliant.
This work bore the dedication: "À la mémoire de ma mere, morte pendant que j'achevais cet ouvrage." ("To the memory of my mother, who died while I was completing this work.")
Thirty-six years later Sienkiewicz produced his "Quo Vadis," acknowledged by him to have been inspired and greatly influenced by "Acté."
The period is that of the reign of Nero, from A.D. 57 to 68.
The original edition must be accredited to Brussels, where the firm of Adolphe Wahlen et Cie. produced a pirated issue bearing the date 1838.
First French edition: Paris, Dumont, 1839, 2 vols., 8vo. Vol. I., pp. 242; Vol. II., pp. 302. "Acté" itself ended with page 123 of the second volume, the remainder being occupied by "Monseigneur Gaston Phoebus."
Second edition : same firm, 1840.
Mr. R. S. Garnett states that some copies of the first edition bear the date 1839 and others 1840. (1)
(1) A variation of the dates on different copies of the original edition was common, as will be seen in subsequent pages.
"Acté" to-day occupies one volume in the standard Calmann-Lévy edition, and one in their "Musée Littéraire." In Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré" it is part of Vol. VIII.
References :— Parran: "Bibliographie d'A. Dumas," pp. 42-43. Quérard: "Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées," Vol. I., Column 1096.
Parigot: "Alexandre Dumas," pp. 124-25.
English Translations :—
"Acté," London, Methuen, 1904, sewed; same firm, an edition in cloth, with coloured plates by G. Browne, 1905. Reprinted, same firm, fcap. 8vo., 1920.
