Taking the Bastile: Restored Classics to Go Edition

Alexandre Dumas

Sep 2026 · Otbebookpublishing

Ebook

308

Pages

Eligible

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About this ebook

In the wintry lanes outside Paris, a young man named Gilbert carries a child in his arms and a terrible secret in his heart. He entrusts the infant to the peasant household of Madeline Pitou, paying them to raise the boy as a hardy country child while hinting at a noble origin shadowed by death, duty, and sacrifice. Years later, Gilbert returns to find the boy, Ange Pitou, strong and well, yet still haunted by the memory of his lost mother, Andrea. After Madame Pitou's death and a final letter that may reconnect the child to his hidden past, Dr. Gilbert becomes Ange's guardian and exposes the greed beneath Aunt Angelique's pious façade. Angelique agrees to keep the orphan only for money, then neglects her promise to teach him a trade. Left to fend for himself, Ange traps birds and rabbits with sharp wit, outsmarting both the gamekeeper and his aunt's appetite for profit. She next sends him to school, dreaming of priestly advancement, but bullying, discipline, and expulsion follow. Her fury over Ange's affection for Catherine Billet turns absurdly jealous, and the novel's private struggles soon give way to public upheaval as the storming of the Bastille erupts around them. In the violence and triumph of revolution, Pitou and Billet think first of the prisoners, while Paris surges into a fever of rage, freedom, and irreversible change. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

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About the author

Alexandre Dumas was one of the great storytellers of the nineteenth century, born in 1802 in France to a family marked by both military distinction and social upheaval, and he went on to become a towering figure in popular literature. Rising from a difficult childhood after the death of his father, he made his way to Paris, where his talent for drama and fiction quickly won attention. Over the course of a remarkably productive career, he became famous for sweeping historical narratives, vivid adventure tales, and fast-moving serialized fiction that captured readers across Europe and beyond. His work often blends romance, politics, loyalty, betrayal, and the drama of individuals caught in moments of national crisis, and he had a special gift for making history feel immediate, human, and alive. That is part of why his writing still matters today: beneath the excitement and pageantry, he explores ambition, injustice, courage, and the struggle for freedom in ways that remain deeply resonant. His legacy endures in the modern adventure novel and in the idea that history can be both entertaining and morally serious. Readers who enjoy energetic storytelling, rich historical settings, and characters driven by passion and principle will find Dumas especially rewarding.

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