In 1861, Alexandre Dumas, having helped
Giuseppe Garibaldi
conquer the
Kingdom of Naples (recounted in
Les Garibaldiens,)
found himself
ensconced in a comfortable Neapolitan villa, and given access to the secret
archives of the late Bourbon regime. From his historical research came a
work of history,
Les Bourbons des Naples,
and a work of historical
fiction,
La San Felice.
La San Felice is more history than fiction. According to translator
R. S. Garnett,
La San Felice was Dumas' personal favorite among his many works,
and it is easy to see why. If the book lacks the witty dialogue of his
earlier works, it also lacks the padding and digressions. Dumas breathes
life into even his most unsympathetic characters, The mature Dumas, with
recent personal experience of the savagery and personal betrayals
inevitable in civil war, wrote an acutely perceptive psychological study
within the framework of a historical romance.
The book opens with the arrival of the British commander of the
Mediterranean fleet, Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), in Naples.
Nelson has just crushed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile,
stranding Napoleon and his army in Egypt. Nelson is met by the Bourbon
King and Queen of Naples, Ferdinand (1759-1825) and Maria Carolina
(1752-1814). Ferdinand was a grandson of Louis XIV, and Maria Carolina, an
Austrian, was the sister of Marie Antoinette, recently executed by the
French Republic. With the King and Queen were Sir William Hamilton
(1730-1803), for thirty years a resident of Italy and British ambassador to
Naples, and his wife Emma, Nelson's mistress. In Dumas' fiction, the
Hamiltons were under the influence of the Queen, and through Emma, Nelson
and the British fleet were yoked to the Queen's dynastic objectives.
France and Naples were nominally at peace, but the Queen and her expatriate
British prime minister, Lord Acton (1736-1811) loathed the Republic on
personal, religious, political, and ideological grounds, particularly since
a small French army in Rome, commanded by the energetic General
Jean-Etienne Championnet was conspiring with Neapolitan republicans to
overthrow the Bourbon regime. General Championnet sends his aide-de-camp,
(the fictional) Salvato Palmieri, to the Republicans with word to postpone
their uprising, since the French army is too small and too ill equipped to
support them Palmieri is attacked by a gang of thugs under the employ of
Lord Acton, his message stolen, and left for dead on the street in front of
the house of the elderly Chevalier de San Felice, royal librarian, and his
young wife, Luisa San Felice. Luisa takes in the desperately wounded
Salvato, hides him, and nurses him back to health, and, of course, they
fall in love.
Acton and the Queen dupe the King into declaring war on France and invading
the Roman republic. Outnumbered 6-to-1, General Championnet turns and
routs the Neapolitan army at Civita Castellana, north of Rome, and marches
on Naples.
His army shattered, Ferdinand is counseled to mobilize the people in a
national resistance by the Commander of the Navy, Francesco Cariccolo
(1752-1799), and by Fabrizio, Cardinal Ruffo (1744-1827). However, the
Queen and Acton dissuade the King, and Ferdinand and his court flee to
Palermo aboard Admiral Nelson's flagship. The court conveniently includes
the Chevalier San Felice, while Luisa is left behind.
With the royalists out of way, General Championnet and his army enter
Naples and the Neapolitan Republicans establish a "Parthenopean Republic."
Salvato and Luisa are reunited. Admiral Caricciolo, disgusted by the
behavior of the King, tenders his resignation, and returns to Naples as a
private citizen. General Championnet, having won a brilliant victory, is
recalled to Paris to be court-martialed for protecting Naples against
arbitrary exactions by the French Government.
Cardinal Ruffo, however, is appointed Viceroy, and returns to Cortone, on
the toe of the Italian boot, and raises a rag-tag royalist army composed of
feudal retainers, brigands, and wannabe looters. The army marches North,
defeating the Republican army in a series of engagements punctuated by
appalling atrocities and looting, which the Cardinal struggles to control.
By June 1799, Cardinal Ruffo is at the gates of Naples, and is joined by
military contingents from Russia, Austria, and Turkey, allied against
France.
Meanwhile, Luisa is falsely credited with betraying a Royalist conspiracy
in Naples led by Andrew and Simon Baker, expatriate British bankers to the
King. The Bakers are arrested and sentenced to death, and Luisa becomes an
unwilling Republican hero. Caricciolo is persuaded to command the
Republican Navy.
Ruffo gains control of much of Naples through popular uprisings, but the
fortifications remain in Republican hands. Cardinal Ruffo makes a deal:
the forts will surrender, but their occupants can leave Naples safely and
embark ship for France. However, Admiral Nelson arrives from Palermo to
advice that the King wants the rebels apprehended. As soon as the
Republicans have embarked, Influenced by Lady Hamilton, Nelson seizes the
ship, and turns the occupants over to the King, who promptly has them all
hung, including Admiral Caricciolo. Dishonored and disgusted, Cardinal
Ruffo, who has just replaced the crown on Ferdinand's unworthy head,
resigns.
Salvato and Luisa escape, but are betrayed. Luisa is captured, and
sentenced to death, but her sentence is suspended when it is learned she is
pregnant. Salvato launches a rescue attempt, but is killed in the attempt,
Luisa gives birth to a still-born infant, and is hung the next day. In
all, the King executes more than 4,000 people, and his dynasty reigns,
punctuated by foreign invasion, civil unrest, and repression, for another
sixty years.
Dumas' story is largely historical. Dumas' principal improvements were to
create the fictional Italian-French Salvato Palmieri as a romantic hero,
and to improve the character of the historical Luisa San Felice, informer
and adulteress, who, through Dumas' pen, becomes a martyr for love. Dumas
gives an unblinking and decidedly unromantic account of the brigandage and
atrocities of Fra Diavolo and others, and the numerous treasons and acts of
betrayal on both sides. In Dumas' account, the courageous, competent, and
honorable men on both sides, such as General Championnet, Cardinal Ruffo,
and Admiral Caricciolo, fighting either for their country envisaged in the
person of the King, or for their country envisioned as "the people" wind up
persecuted or dead, while the inept, corrupt, and criminal survive and
prosper.
The principal English translation of this work was prepared by
R. S. Garnett
in 1916-1918, and published by Stanley Paul in London and David McKay in
Philadelphia, in two volumes, under the titles The Neapolitan Lovers and
Love and Liberty. The English title Love and Liberty has also been
applied to two other works by Dumas, the unfinished novel
Le Volontaire de '92,
and also to a translation of
La Comtesse de Charny.
