Few things delight me like discovering a jewel of a book in a thrift shop — made even sweeter when the price is peanuts and the find is rare. A couple of years ago, I hit the jackpot. Alexandre Dumas’s A GIL BLAS IN CALIFORNIA. Yes, the same Dumas of THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.
Not long after I acquired this gem, sister Sue and I were making a road trip from SoCal to our Las Vegas office. I’d showed Sue the book, and got the ultimate audio experience, as she read the book to me during the drive (it took a round trip to complete it). We had so much fun, commenting as we went, and had a lot of questions — like what IS a Gil Blas?
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) was one of France’s most acclaimed novelists of the nineteenth century. A Gil Blas in California (1933) is an English translation of a work first published in Brussels in 1852, with Dumas presenting it as his rendering of a young Frenchman’s firsthand account of his adventures in the California Gold Rush. The tale covers a voyage round the Horn from Le Havre, life at French Camp, San Francisco fires, California farming and wildlife, hunting trips near Sonoma and in the Mariposa Valley, and a visit to San José.
It seems Dumas was something of the James Patterson of his day. He was was very prolific and wrote with amazing speed. He claimed his Gil Blas was written in less than a week. Which is curious because he alternately claimed to be the author — and not to be author — but experts seem sure he wrote it. He purported it is the story of a young Frenchman, never named, and he simply presented the story for him. Some think the mysterious Frenchman is fiction. But Dumas had not been to California so he had to have considerable input to depict the Gold Rush and early California as he did.
There’s a money angle, too. Dumas had fled to Brussels, where he wrote the book, to escape his creditors in France. He made boatloads of money, but spent it all and then some. Publishers were taxed rather exorbitantly for fiction titles, but non-fiction books were not taxed. Thus it served both the author and the publisher to claim the book was non-fiction. Again, the experts are sure the book is fiction.
So back to what IS a Gil Blas? Back in 1715, Alain-Rene LeSage was known for writing “picaresque” novels, including The Adventures of Gil Blas. Gil Blas was the primary character in the novel and Dumas borrowed the name in a more generic manner. The picaresque novel depicted, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits. The genre was very popular.
Although the book provides a picturesque look at an important period in California history, it was not translated to English until 1933. My copy is one of a 500 copies limited run of the 1933 edition from Primavera Press. The translation was also published again in 1947.
The book is a beauty, with woodcut ENGRAVINGS by famed artist Paul Landacre. Each chapter opens with an illustration that would be contemporary by today’s standards. There’s a fold-out engraved map, too. The original proofs of some of the chapter openers are pictured to the left.
The discovery of my $5 treasure (worth considerably more) and the search for answers led to some interesting publishing history.
What do you collect?
I’d forgotten about that trip and reading this book! That was fun and this was an interesting book. I don’t remember the the engravings, this one is beautiful! So modern. Did I tell you about the book of poetry I bought for $5? A signed first edition, one of only 50 on handmade paper, by an English poet whose name escapes me at the moment. It was published in the 1800s too. Yes book shopping in used bookstores can be fun! But what will we do when they are all electronic?