70 h 1 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when power, money, love and fear become motives for murder?
In Celebrated Crimes (Complete), Alexandre Dumas turns real cases from European history into vivid stories of poison, betrayal and abused power. From Renaissance Italy to the courts and streets of France, each case brings its own setting, cast and growing sense of dread.
Meet the Borgias, the Cenci family of Rome, and the poisoner Marchioness of Brinvilliers. Other cases follow the Marchioness of Ganges, the priest Urbain Grandier, the impostor Martin Guerre and the student Karl Ludwig Sand. These tales ask how power, money, love and fear can push people toward terrible acts.
What you’ll discover
- Power without limits Enter the world of the Borgias, where family ambition meets the power of the Church.
- A household under threat Encounter the Cenci family in Rome, under Count Francesco Cenci’s cruel hold.
- Poison behind noble doors Follow the Brinvilliers case into a France where poison becomes a source of fear.
- Faith and false identity Explore belief and belonging through the cases of Urbain Grandier and Martin Guerre.
- History with a storyteller’s pace Feel Dumas’s eye for scene turn historical cases into tales of mounting dread.
Who will love it
Readers who love true crime, court intrigue and dark history will find a crowd of schemers, poisoners and rulers here. It also suits anyone who enjoys vivid storytelling about Renaissance Italy, Reformation Scotland and old France.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A gallery of crimes told by a storyteller
- Bought cardinals made Alexander VI pope
- Caesar Borgia pursues power through violence
- The Cenci family plots against Francesco
- Religious hatred poisons Nimes and Avignon
- Mary Stuart faces rivals in Scotland
- Smaller cases show how crime grows from character
- Joan of Naples faces a divided court
- Poisoners and a masked prisoner
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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I delitti celebri
by Alexandre Dumas · 1839
A family reaches for power in a Rome where cardinals are bought.
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In short
What happens when a family treats the papacy as a prize, or a queen faces rivals at her own court? Celebrated Crimes, written by Alexandre Dumas before his best-loved novels, gathers true stories of murder, poison, betrayal and royal intrigue from Italy, France, Scotland and beyond.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A gallery of crimes told by a storyteller
Dumas wrote Celebrated Crimes before the novels that made his name. Each title takes one notorious case and tells it as a drama, with scenes, speeches and sharp portraits.
The stories range from the Borgias and the Cenci to religious violence around Nimes and Avignon. They also follow Mary, Queen of Scots, the priest Urbain Grandier, the German student Karl-Ludwig Sand and the Man in the Iron Mask.
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What is Celebrated Crimes about?
It is a collection of true crime and historical narratives by Alexandre Dumas, covering the Borgias, the Cenci, Mary Stuart, Joan of Naples, Martin Guerre, Ali Pacha, the Marquise de Brinvilliers and other notorious cases.
Who are the Borgias in Celebrated Crimes?
They are the family of Pope Alexander VI, born Roderigo Borgia, and his children Francesco, Caesar, Lucrezia and Goffredo.
Is Celebrated Crimes a true story?
Dumas builds each narrative on real people and events, from Borgia Rome to the court of Mary Stuart. He tells them with a novelist's flair, using scenes and dialogue.
The author
Alexandre Dumas
1802–1870 · French novelist and playwright
Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) was a French novelist and playwright. He was born in Villers-Cotterêts, lived in Paris, and died in Puys, near Dieppe. He wrote The Three Musketeers (1844), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–1846), Twenty Years After (1845), and The Black Tulip (1850).
More by Alexandre Dumas
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