Conspirators

Christopher Isherwood was only twenty-one when he began his first novel, All the Conspirators, in 1926; it was published in England two years later. In his introduction to the first American edition (published by New Directions in 1958), the author explained: "{All the Conspirators} records a minor engagement in what Shelley calls 'the great war between the old and young.'" In many ways this novel (like the classic Berlin Stories) is a "period piece" growing out of a particular historical situation--clashes between parents and children are still just as deadly but they are no longer invariably polite and restrained, and there are no longer (as Cyril Connolly once put it) "atrocities witnessed at tea in the drawing-room." But Isherwood's singular perceptions of the older generation holding on and the younger trying to wrench free are as valid today as they were half a century ago.

Alexandre Dumas, pre (French for "father," akin to Senior in English), born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (1802-1870) was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo (1845), The Three Musketeers (1844), and The Man in the Iron Mask (1848) were serialized, and he also wrote plays and magazine articles and was a prolific correspondent. Though best known now as a novelist, He earned his first fame as a dramatist. His Henri III et sa Cour (1829) was the first of the great Romantic historical dramas produced on the Paris stage, preceding Victor Hugo's more famous Hernani (1830). He was also a well-known travel writer, writing such books as From Paris to Cadiz (1847), and Travel Impressions: In Russia (1860).