Dumas' ghostwriter

Two articles out of British papers in the past few months tell the wonderful tale of a redeemed swashbuckler of a story from the hand of Alexandre Dumas.

Tim Martin in the Daily Telegraph tells the story of the discovery, recovery and completion of a lost Dumas novel.

Gerald Warner celebrates the The Last Cavalier and other swashbucklers of its ilk in the The Spectator.

Great quote from his final paragraph:

Novels of the swashbuckling school provided an effortless education in manners and morals, ornamented with plumed hats, cup-hilted rapiers and heaving bosoms. Boys who had, in spirit, scaled ivy-clad walls with a sword clenched between their teeth, swum the moat of the castle of Zenda, stormed aboard a pirate galleon, or galloped to safety with a rescued heroine perched precariously on their saddle needed no further schooling in honour, courage and respect for women.