The Black Tulip
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title page
- Copyright
- Contents
- I. A grateful people
- II. The two brothers
- III. The pupil of John de Witt
- IV. The murderers
- V. The amateur tulip-grower and his neighbour
- VI. A tulip-fancier’s hatred
- VII. The happy man becomes acquainted with misfortune
- VIII. An incursion
- IX. The family cell
- X. The jailer’s daughter
- XI. The will of Cornelius van Baerle
- XII. The execution
- XIII. The thoughts of one of the spectators during the last scene
- XIV. The pigeons of Dort
- XV. The wicket in the cell door
- XVI. Master and scholar
- XVII. The first bulb
- XVIII. Rosa’s lover
- XIX. A woman and a flower
- XX. What had happened during the eight days
- XXI. The second bulb
- XXII. The opening of the flower
- XXIII. The jealous man
- XXIV. In which the black tulip changes its master
- XXV. President Van Systens
- XXVI. A member of the Horticultural Society
- XXVII. The third bulb
- XXVIII. The song of the flowers
- XXIX. In which Van Baerle, before quitting Loevestein, settles his accounts with Gryphus
- XXX. In which one begins to suspect what kind of punishment was reserved for Cornelius van Baerle
- XXXI. Haarlem
- XXXII. A last prayer
- Conclusion
A prize of 100,000 guilders awaits the gardener who can produce a black tulip, a rich reward that incites a bitter competition in 17th-century Holland. Cornelius von Baerle, a gifted and passionate florist, has dedicated himself to cultivating the elusive flower. But a ruthless rival, capitalizing on accusations that led to the assassination of Cornelius's godfather, falsely accuses the young horticulturist of treason. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Cornelius conspires with his jailer's daughter to grow the black tulip in secret. Alexandre Dumas sets his captivating tale in the 1670s, a generation after Holland was gripped by the economic madness of Tulip mania and shortly after the mob lynching of a pair of Dutch statesmen. His fictional treatment of these historic events forms a timeless political allegory in which the rare flower represents the triumph of justice, tolerance, and true love over greed, jealousy, and obsession.