Tag: Alexandre Dumas
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The locked-in syndrome in fiction
JMS PearceHull, England The soul is trapped in a body that no longer obeys its commands.—A. Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo, 1844 The pediatric neurologist Richard E. Nordgren and colleagues in 1971 described seven cases of what they called “The Locked In Syndrome.”1 Plum and Posner’s classic monograph comprehensively reviewed the condition and distinguished…
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The real Monte Cristo
The father of Alexandre Dumas (Père), famous author of The Count of Monte Cristo and of The Three Musketeers, was the son of a French nobleman and a black Caribbean slave. During the turmoil of the French Revolution, Alex Dumas, for that was the name he adopted, rose through the ranks and became the first…
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A corpse with living eyes
Monsieur Noirtier was sitting in a wheelchair, in front of a large mirror, so that without attempting to move, which would have been impossible, he could see the whole apartment. Motionless as a corpse, he greeted his children with bright intelligent eyes . . . Sight and hearing were the only senses remaining; and it…