Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/11

 INTRODUCTION

UR readers are aware that Dumas was a mighty traveller—not only in the flesh, but still more in the spirit. Under his guidance they have already found themselves at Fontenay-aux-Roses and in the Sierra Morena ; and having received his assurance that the ' Thousand and One Phantoms ' is a collection of tales of all countries in which his personal souvenirs are interwoven, they will feel no surprise at now being taken to Madagascar, Ceylon, Negombo, Goa, Calicut, Manilla, and Bidondo,—by way of Brussels, Amsterdam and Monnikendam. We can promise them that on their travels they will be well amused.

A contemporary of Dumas, being asked for his opinion of the works of the author of ' Monte Cristo,' said of them that, not being amusing—not containing le mot pour rire,—they were destined never to be reprinted, and to be religiously preserved near the complete works of d'Urfé and de Scudery! And he went on to say that such writers as Clairville and Lambert Thiboust were much superior to Dumas. Had they written 'Angèle' for instance, observed this critic (the Count D'l***,), they would have made the public laugh; whereas Dumas, in a world already thrice too sad, made it weep.

We must confess that Angèle, when we read it, extracted no tears from us. On the other hand, we have been vastly amused by The Marriages of Pere Olifus. Too serious, as it would appear, for some people (surely persons of exacting humour) and too amusing perhaps for some others, this story has yet had some hundreds of thousands of readers. Like most of the best tales of The Thousand and one Nights, it is a story of amorous adventure in the East. It contains no Genii, Caliphs, Viziers, Eunuchs, Princes or Princesses, the author contenting himself with a " Buchold " or sea lady for a character extraordinary. Dumas, like most men of sense, was a great admirer of The Thousand and one Nights, and when he found at Monnikendam a sailor who had married a Buchold and four other wives, and had lived in the East, he naturally looked upon him much as Haroun Alraschid looked upon Scheherazade. He disposed himself to listen.

There are a great many people who, when one has been at the pains of relating a story, exclaim: * Where did you hear that? ' and, when they have been told, say ' Then it can't be true! ' It is usually best to withhold the source of information, leaving them to look doubtful and to say to their friends, ' So-and-so told me an amusing story; I don't know if it is true or not.' Fortunately, there