The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas

"To have discovered the black tulip, to have seen it for a moment... then to lose it, to lose it forever!"

Cornelius von Baerle, a respectable tulip-grower, lives only to cultivate the elusive black tulip and win a magnificent prize for its creation. But after his powerful godfather is assassinated, the unwitting Cornelius becomes caught up in deadly political intrigue and is falsely accused of high treason by a bitter rival. Condemned to life imprisonment, his only comfort is Rosa, the jailer's beautiful daughter, and together they concoct a plan to grow the black tulip in secret.

Dumas' last major historical novel is a tale of romantic love, jealousy and obsession, interweaving historical events surrounding the brutal murders of two Dutch statesman in 1672 with the phenomenon of tulipomania that gripped seventeenth-century Holland.

About the author:
Alexandre Dumas, père (French for "father", akin to "Senior" in English), was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world.
Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask were serialized. Dumas also wrote plays and magazine articles, and was a prolific correspondent.

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