Beautiful Gabrielle

The French novelist and playwright Auguste Maquet (1813-1888) was a longtime collaborator with Dumas's father, helping him with many of his famous novels. Maquet was the author of his own works as well. His novel "Beautiful Gabrielle" is a continuation of the famous trilogy of Dumas about the Huguenot wars, which ended with the novel "Forty-Five". Bright adventure novel Macke, in which the main character is the mistress of Henry IV Gabrielle d'Estre, became the logical finale of the trilogy of Dumas. In it, readers are waiting for a meeting with already known to them heroes. The pre-revolutionary translation edited by the NWCEO in this edition is adorned with illustrations by French artists, allowing you to imagine the color of that era.
In the famous Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, a bust of a man with a high forehead and a piece of paper in his hands is depicted in a round medallion on one of the tall tombstones. The names of famous novels are carved in the stone on the left: "The Musketeers", "Twenty Years Later", "Monte Cristo", "Queen Margot". However, this is not a monument to Alexandre Dumas. At the bottom are quite different dates of life and death: 1813-1888. Here rests the ashes of his faithful assistant and talented novelist Auguste Maquet. The future writer was born in Paris and was educated at the famous Lycée Charlemagne. Maquet early showed his talents. At the age of 18, he became a professor of history and was retained as a teacher at the Lycée, which had just graduated. However, the dry enumeration of names and dates from the pulpit was not too keen on the able young man. His buddies at the Lycée were poets Theophile Gautier and Gerard de Nerval, and they lived in completely different spheres, living exclusively in literature. When Mac was 25 years old, he tried his hand at fiction and wrote a play. It was clearly weak for staging, and then Nerval showed it to Dumas, with whom he was acquainted. That hand master went over the text, the play played with completely new colors, and in 1839 at the theater "Renaissance" held its premiere. So began the literary cooperation between the great Dumas and the professor of history Maquet. Auguste dug through the archives, looking for dates, names, facts and brought Dumas whole pieces of chapters written by him. The elder Dumas much rewritten in his own way, bringing the breath of life into the texts of Macke. On the covers of the released novels were only the name of Dumas. Macke remained in the shadows. He participated in the creation of such novels as "The Three Musketeers", "The Countess de Monsoro", "Viscount de Bragelonne" and some others. Details of financial relations between the two writers are not known exactly, but after the death of Dumas-father Macke wrote to his son that "... between your father and I have never been monetary misunderstandings". However, in 1851, Macke sued Dumas, demanding full co-authorship, but the court ruled in favor of Dumas. Communication with the great writer went to Auguste Maquet in favor. Working alongside him, he passed a great literary school and became the author of several fascinating novels and plays. His novel "Beautiful Gabrielle", in which the main character is the mistress of Henry IV, is a continuation of the famous trilogy of Dumas on the Huguenot wars. Macke as if to pick up the baton of the maestro and carried it further. After reading the fascinating novel "Beautiful Gabrielle", you can try on the role of a literary critic and compare the texts of Maquet with any chapter of the famous novels of Dumas.