Frail Pale Philosophers & Their Dead Women

Castle Eppstein

by Alexandre Dumas

Reviewed by Aaron DeWeese

In the beginning I felt that this novel of this black french fellow Dumas was a bit too much romance; not at the very beginning, for I adored Count Elim and his adventure. Wheels within wheels here. Everard and his woods intrigued me. It was bizarre, his "mother religion" mixed with Christianity—a parallel to Catholicism. I have nothing really bad to say about the novel. I enjoyed it very much—so much so, that I stayed up to finish it at 4 AM. I can perfectly see the demesnial forest , the castle wall, the Red Chamber and the secret entrance to the tombs...

There is one thing I do not like however: that is that poor Everard didn't get Rosamund in the end. She chose to continue in her saintly mother role, leaving Everard to once again make powerful the name Eppstein. I would bet, 10 to one, that — irony of ironies! — he ended up with that Lucile dame.

Ms. Goodrich (who translated Dumas from the french and wrote the afterword) piqued my curiosity much by writing of Dumas' hired ghost writers. It quelled my anger a bit that Ms. Goodrich didn't write some horrible introduction, but at least had the good sense to make it an afterword. My anger rose, as Count Maximilian's, when I came to begin digesting that afterword. It was horrible, in my opinion. And yet, there were some intriguing things within it. I came up with her obituary, which is also interesting and horrible (in that it's an obit):

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06275/...

I plan to read many more of Alexandre Dumas' works.