After my
little disappointment with
Ivanhoe, I must thank Alexandre Dumas, père,
for once again brought me into the excitement of elaborate plot and romances,
through
The Black Tulip. Dumas’
novels always make me wonder whether this and that are historical
events/characters, or just fiction; as he mixed both in such a genius way you
won’t find the boundary.
At first I thought it would be the story of de
Witts: Johan the Great Pensionary of Dutch (Prime Minister) and his brother
Cornelis, who were lynched by the citizen because they opposed William of
Orange. The attack was quite terrible; and it was more so because then I was
not yet familiar with the dark history. But after that painful part, came the
story of the tulip fancier and his envious neighbor. It was really entertaining,
but at that time I didn’t get the connection with the political side, except
that Cornelius van Baerle, the tulip fancier, was the godson of Cornelis de
Witt. But, as usual with Dumas, the plot slowly intertwined beautifully and
closed satisfyingly at the ending.
The Black
Tulip combined the history of Dutch political environment and Tulip Mania
during the Golden Age. The hero was a bourgeois Doctor with a passion on
agricultural, but particularly in growing Tulip. As he was rich, Cornelius equipped
his mansion with all possible resources to grow the finest tulips in town. His
neighbor, Isaac Boxtel, was also a Tulip fancier but much poorer, who grew
envious to Cornelius’ unlimited resources. Then came a grand competition held
by the Tulip Society of Harleem, who offered a hundred thousand guilders prize
for anyone who succeed in growing a black tulip without a spot of color, which has
then never yet been found. But as Cornelius was in the final step of growing
his black tulip—spied maliciously by Isaac Boxtel—came instruction from William
of Orange to capture and put Cornelius in jail for helping the ‘traitors’ de
Witt.
Did
Cornelius put his ambition down, then, to grow the black tulip, as he was a
convict? How could he manage to continue the labor? And don’t forget the
envious Isaac Boxtel who planned to steal the black tulip and claim it as his
own, to snatch the prize! Well, just trust Père Dumas; he would spice up the
politics and flower fancying with high adventures and romances, that it would
be difficult for you to not believing it as a true history. And as usual, everything
would be put in its place satisfyingly for all, and mostly for us, readers.
Again,
Monsieur Dumas has satisfied me beyond my expectation in this novel.
Romanticism—with its unreasonable heroism—usually does not impress me much, but
with Dumas, well… it’s just different. Four and a half stars for The Black Tulip!
~~~~~~~~~
I read e-book from Project Gutenberg
This book is counted
for:
