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A review by alexiacambaling
Les Mille et Un Fantômes précédé de La Femme au collier de velours by Alexandre Dumas
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
4.0
This is the first work by Dumas that I read and I feel this allowed me to gain a perspective of his work different from his popular ones. Les Mille et un Fantômes and La femme au collier de velours are both not realistic, and more in the vein of subtly supernatural stories. La femme au collier de velours is the more realistic of the two and doesn't get overtly fantastic until the last chapter.
I originally decided to read Les Mille et un Fantômes because I read the last story as a novella, La dame pâle, which is the last four stories of the book. I do think that La dame pâle feels tonally different from the rest of the stories, partly because of the setting, and partly because it has vampires. Still, Les Mille et un Fantômes was a pretty good read because it does philosophize a bit about death and tackles the history of the French Revolution. The stories are a little sad and tragic, however. I'd say my favorite was the story about Solange, but thinking about it makes me feel sad.
La femme au collier de velours is a bit more realistic at the beginning, except that the protagonist is named after the German author, E.T.A Hoffmann. The first chapter was wordy and a little bit difficult, but explores French culture and literature. Charles Nodier and his works were referenced which made me interested in reading him. The first few chapters were a bit difficult for me to get through because it wasn't as interesting as Les Mille et un Fantômes but I pushed through it and it got more interesting. There's several ways to read this story, like is it a ghost story or is the character just losing his sanity? I feel like the legend of a girl who's head is attached to her body with a ribbon/collar is a staple of ghost fiction and I'd really like to know where it originated. I think I was about seven when I first heard a story along those lines. It's a love triangle of sorts without a happy ending which I think serves the main character right.
I did really enjoy both works and I'm looking forward to reading more of Dumas' works, including his most famous ones.
I originally decided to read Les Mille et un Fantômes because I read the last story as a novella, La dame pâle, which is the last four stories of the book. I do think that La dame pâle feels tonally different from the rest of the stories, partly because of the setting, and partly because it has vampires. Still, Les Mille et un Fantômes was a pretty good read because it does philosophize a bit about death and tackles the history of the French Revolution. The stories are a little sad and tragic, however. I'd say my favorite was the story about Solange, but thinking about it makes me feel sad.
La femme au collier de velours is a bit more realistic at the beginning, except that the protagonist is named after the German author, E.T.A Hoffmann. The first chapter was wordy and a little bit difficult, but explores French culture and literature. Charles Nodier and his works were referenced which made me interested in reading him. The first few chapters were a bit difficult for me to get through because it wasn't as interesting as Les Mille et un Fantômes but I pushed through it and it got more interesting. There's several ways to read this story, like is it a ghost story or is the character just losing his sanity? I feel like the legend of a girl who's head is attached to her body with a ribbon/collar is a staple of ghost fiction and I'd really like to know where it originated. I think I was about seven when I first heard a story along those lines. It's a love triangle of sorts without a happy ending which I think serves the main character right.
I did really enjoy both works and I'm looking forward to reading more of Dumas' works, including his most famous ones.