Explorations Read-Aloud: “The Black Tulip” by Alexandre Dumas

Every Friday, at 11:00 am, on the library’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page, the library will stream a brand new recording of local thespian, Joseph Coté reading aloud selections from a wide variety of fascinating and entertaining books of fiction and non-fiction.

For March 3, Coté will read aloud from Alexandre Dumas’ The Black Tulip.

“Sometimes one has suffered so much that he has the right never to be able to say, ‘I am too happy.’”

The story begins in 1672, with a historic event: the lynching of the Dutch Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis, considered rebels against the upcoming stadtholder and the Prince of Orange, William III.

The plot takes place while tulip mania grips the Netherlands. The main fictional character, Cornelius Van Baerle, belongs to the natural school whose motto was: “To despise flowers is to offend God”, and thus followed the syllogism:

“To despise flowers is to offend God,
The more beautiful the flower is, the more does one offend God in despising it,
The tulip is the most beautiful of all flowers,
Therefore, he who despises the tulip offends God beyond measure”. 

The city of Haarlem has offered a prize of 100,000 francs to whoever can grow a black tulip. At stake was not only the prize, but fame and honor; the winner would also have his name included in that given to the tulip itself.

The prosperous Cornelius Van Baerle, godson of Cornelius de Witt, is known in his locale for the growing of tulips and he takes up the challenge to grow a black tulip. His neighbor, Isaac Boxtel who is also a gardener, watches his every move and fearing Cornelius’ success, starts plotting. Boxtel, motivated by envy, denounces Van Baerle because of his relation to the brothers De Witt who are both now considered traitors.

Van Baerle is arrested and condemned to a life sentence in prison. Religious beliefs are used in the narrative for dramatic effect and also words such as “Fate”, “Providence” and “Misfortune”. Misfortune plays a major influence throughout the events of Van Baerle’s life, but at the end turns out to be a major act of Providence, showing that God is always in control, both in sadness as in happiness.

In prison, Van Baerle meets the beautiful daughter of the jailer, Rosa Gryphus. Cornelius loses everything but had kept the bulbs of the tulips, which were expected to have black flowers. Amid loss and sorrow, Rosa helps him to grow the flower in the jail. His affection for Rosa (who is depicted as brave and virtuous) gives him courage to stay with his dreams.

Click the links to find the library’s YouTube Channel and Facebook Page.

Thoughts to share? Book ideas to suggest?
Contact Joseph at friday-explorations@usa.net