The Black Count

Tom Reiss's biography recovers General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, father of the novelist Alexandre Dumas and the man whose life fed The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Born in Saint-Domingue to a French nobleman and an enslaved woman, Dumas was sold into slavery by his father, then brought to France, educated as an aristocrat and later enlisted as a dragoon. Reiss follows his rise during the Revolution to General-in-Chief of the Army of the Alps, his confrontation with Napoleon in Egypt and over two years held in a dungeon. He also examines slavery and mixed-race life in the French colonial empire. Published in 2012, it won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013, in the biography and autobiography category.

Ryan Holiday put it among his best books of 2013, saying it showed him a side of French history he would never otherwise have known.