He loves Rosa, but maybe not as much as his bulbs. Rosa complains that he loves his flowers more than her. I don’t think he even left his house before his arrest. In modern romance speak, he’s a Beta hero. He’s not a swashbuckler like Monte Cristo, the Musketeers, or Georges. He collects them, grows them, breeds them. Rosa is an angel because she is blonde, wide eyed, and pretty, though a bit coquettish because she’s A Girl! She’s instinctively good, even though her only role model is Gryphus.Ĭornelius is a Tulip Geek. Gryphus is ridiculously backward Isaac is obsessed. The good guys are so Good and the bad guys just evil. I wanted to shout at Cornelius and Rosa to PAY MORE ATTENTION! Stuff is going down! The whole time Cornelius and Rosa have the key to his freedom, but he’s too preoccupied by his flowers and she doesn’t have the ability.Ĭharacter development isn’t Dumas’s strong suit.
There were moments when, even though I knew there’d be a happy ending, my heart was thudding in anxiety. You would think a novel about tulips would be as boring as all get-out, but nope.
Together, Cornelius and Rosa grow the tulips, and their love (aw), while outside forces threaten to separate them. Cornelius is tried, convicted as a co-conspirator, and thrown into prison.īut it’s not all bad news, Cornelius has two things to live for: the love of the beautiful Rosa, daughter of the jailer Gyrphus, and the three tulip bulbs he smuggled into the prison. He’s forgotten all about the package his godfather asked him to keep. Isaac spies on Cornelius 24/7 and when he sees him receive a package from his godfather, he rats on Cornelius to the authorities.Ĭornelius is so wrapped up in breeding a perfect black tulip, the first of its kind and worth 100000 florins, that he has no idea he is in danger. He is so good at it, in fact, his neighbour and tulip fancier, Isaac seethes in jealousy. The second Cornelius has nothing going on in his life except growing tulips and he is good at it. That hapless innocent is Cornelius’s godson, tulip grower Dr Cornelius van Baerle. Of course there is a very important correspondence between the King of France and Cornelius DeWitt that could destroy the life of whoever happens to have it in their possession. It all starts in the Netherlands with a harrowing scene where brothers Cornelius and Johan DeWitt are torn apart (literally) by an angry mob for consorting with the French in 1672. However, instead of plotting a complicated revenge to visit upon his unknown enemy, he grows a very expensive flower.
We have a hero who has been falsely accused of treason and imprisoned for life. The Black Tulip has all the hallmarks of an Alexandre Dumas novel. What do you like in a fast paced historical romance? Political intrigue? False imprisonment? Tulip breeding? Err…sure. Topics: Love, tulips, false imprisonment, political shenanigans, obsession, jealousy, bad neighbours.
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