Skip to main content

The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: book review

 



The Black Tulip (1850) is set in Holland in 1672. It is the last and shortest major historical novel of the celebrated French author Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), better known for his ‘high adventure’ stories The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Count of Monte Christo(1844-1846). This is a fictional story, but with real historical figures and real political events. 

 

The novel’s hero is Cornelius van Baerle, a tulip grower. The period in history is about the rise of the popularity of the beautiful, exotic flower, the tulip – and the phenomenon of tulipomania.

 

He has one aim in life – to cultivate a perfect specimen of the rare black tulip to win a prestigious prize of a hundred thousand florins and the ‘supreme honour’ of calling the new flower by his own name. His rival Isaac Boxtel wants Cornelius out of the way – preferably in prison. Cornelius is falsely accused of high treason and sentenced to death. 

 

Cornelius is saved from death, partly by accident, partly by the efforts of a determined woman, and partly through the intervention of the country’s ruler. Instead of death, he is imprisoned for life.

 

The story is about his life in prison, his relationship with Rosa the jailer’s daughter, and their plan to grow the black tulip in secret. Rosa readily acknowledges the flower as her rival for Cornelius’s love. 

 

It is about the cold, puritanical North of Europe versus the warm, attractive Mediterranean region in the race for the perfect black tulip. It takes a long time, six or seven years, to grow tulip from seed, but once it has flowered, it produces outgrowths from its bulb known as ‘offsets’ which can be removed and planted to produce separate tulips that will flower in a year or two. These ‘offsets’ play a central role in the novel. 

 

Tulip cross-pollination produces hybrids, which in turn can be cross-pollinated to produce complex varieties. Occasionally, the tulip bulb ‘breaks’ and so a tulip of a single colour produces ‘quite unpredictably’ a flower with a new colour – worthy of considerable value, up to the price of the ‘finest town houses in the centre of Amsterdam.’ 

 

It is about Cornelius being resigned to his fate, to make the most of it, and to stoically and steadfastly work towards his passionate and obsessive goal. 

 

It is about ‘third-party’ love and rivalry – the tulip is the third-party in the cultivation competition between Isaac and Cornelius, and the third-party in the relationship between Rosa and Cornelius. 

 

The black tulip becomes a symbol for tolerance and justice amid love, jealousy, obsession, and survival. It’s a wonderful novel and little known among the great novels of Alexandre Dumas. 











 

 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite

 

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

Flower Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 


MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...
2 comments
Read more