The conspirators

The Conspirators, originally titled Le Chevalier d'Harmental, was Alexandre Dumas's first major foray into the historical novel, serialized in the Parisian journal Le Siècle in 1842. Dumas collaborated on the project with Auguste Maquet, a partnership that would define the most productive period of his literary career. Set during the Regency of Philippe d'Orléans, the narrative blends real historical intrigue with fictional embellishment, establishing the fast-paced, episodic style that would become a hallmark of Dumas's later masterpieces, including The Three Musketeers.

The design of this specific edition, held by the Harvard Library, reflects the mid-19th-century move toward widely distributed serial literature. Created during a period when Dumas was cementing his reputation as a master of the feuilleton, the volume serves as a representative example of how these stories were bound for library and personal collections after their initial newspaper runs. It remains an essential artifact for studying the transition of French romanticism from serialized spectacle to canonical literature.