There is a delightful story associated
with this play.
Harel
was very insistent that Dumas write the play.
Mlle. Georges
who
was Harel's wife or concubine, and herself a former mistress of Napoleon (she
even volunteered to go into exile with him) told Dumas he could stay in her
bedroom until the play was finished. Dumas replied, gallantly "The play
will be finished in a week." Whereupon, Mlle. Georges pouted and said, "Why
so fast?" (See France's Greatest Adventure Writer Dramatizes the Life of Napoleon—The Long Hot Summer of 1830 for more details.)
