Dumas' fictionalized account of a 1647 popular revolt in Spanish-ruled
Naples. In Dumas' story, the city is impoverished by the exessive
taxation of its Spanish ruler, the Duke of Arcos. Led by the fisherman
Masaniello, the population revolts. The rebellion succeeds, and the
Duke is beseiged in his castle. The Duke offers various concessions to
the enraged populace while plotting Masaniello's assassination.
The historical Masaniello called for the murder of the nobility, and was
himself assassinated within ten days of his rebellion, which led to a
short-lived Neapolitan republic, ultimately crushed by the Spanish.
In Dumas' fiction, however, Masaniello struggles to control the violence
of the revolution, the assassination attempts go awry, he marries the
Duke of Arcos' daughter, rules wisely, and lives happily ever after.
It seems likely that Dumas began writing a longer (and more tragic)
work, but that he decided to truncate the novel and close out his story
in a couple of pages.
