My Memoirs, Vol. I, 1802 to 1821

Here is the origin story of the man who would write The Three Musketeers. Alexandre Dumas was barely nineteen in 1821, but already his life had been extraordinary. This memoir traces his path from birth in the provincial town of Villers-Cotterets in 1802 through the Napoleonic era, guided by the towering figure of his father: Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a general who rose from slavery to command armies across Revolutionary Europe. Young Alexandre witnessed his father's glory and its aftermath, absorbed the tales of adventure that would later fill his novels, and grappled with the prejudices that surrounded his mixed-race heritage. The memoir is also a defense: Dumas includes the legal certificates proving his lineage, asserting his right to his name against those who questioned his legitimacy. What emerges is not merely a biographical sketch but the portrait of a young man becoming himself, observing the turbulent transformation of France while gathering the material and the temperament that would later produce some of the most beloved adventure novels ever written. For anyone who has ever lost themselves in d'Artagnan and the musketeers, this is where the magic began.