Frankly, I wouldn't have picked up a Dumas twenty years ago. But when I casually began reading Les freres corses (1844) I was instantly engrossed. What fluidity of narration, what excitement! The signs of a masterpiece are all over. Of course the story is silly, if you want to look at it that way. But it touches upon our secret desire for a well-wrought narrative in which one thing leads to another, with occasional breezy moments. A very nice, exciting story. What's behind it all is the twin brothers' telepathy.
Eh bien, il a fallu un coup de scalpel pour nous séparer; ce qui fait que, tout éloignés que nous sommes maintenant, nous avons toujours un même corps, de sorte que l'impression, soit physique, soit morale, que l'un de nous deux éprouve a son contre-coup sur l'autre. Eh bien, ces jours-ci, sans motif aucun, j'ai été triste, morose, sombre. J'ai ressenti des serrements de cœur cruels: il est évident que mon frère éprouve quelque profond chagrin. (42)
Full of silly exoticism, it is true, when it comes to depict the island Corsica, but it's so attractive, too. Dumas, the great. I'll probably read all of his masterpieces that I have overlooked in my youth in the years to come.
