Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/389



As we have said, it was Dumas's ambition to write the history of his country in romance. As even he quailed before the task of telling the story from the days of Cæsar, or of Charlemagne downward, he contented himself with biographies of those heroes, and began his task in the fourteenth century, when literature had so far developed as to afford the novelist some material for his background. It was Barante's work dealing with this era which fired the author to attempt "Isabel de Bavière," and he saw no reason for going backwards down history for his subjects. Henceforth, although there are gaps, there is scarcely a reign which he does not touch. We have thought it best to add the histories and historical plays to the romances, to show that Dumas fulfilled his intentions in one form or another. The task was practically completed with the Napoleonic romances, although one or two intermittent attempts to bring the record up to his own time were made by Dumas. The reign of Louis XI. was probably abandoned by the author because of "Quentin Durward," and the episode of the death of Charles the Bold, Louis's enemy, because of "Anne of Geierstein."