More inconsistencies in Dumas

Apparently Dumas can't decide on the appearance of the Vicomte de Bragelonne :-p

His characters, where it is mentioned, are all mainly dark-haired, with the notable and probably conscious exception of Milady and her son who are both described as distinctively fair( Read more... )

But we are told that d'Artagnan, on observing a rider making a stealthy exit from Athos' home at dawn, reconnut le justaucorps grenat et les cheveux bruns de Raoul, which struck me at the time as being unexpected in a world where practically no-one has plain brown hair... which is why I then noticed with some surprise that when Athos takes him to visit Madame de Chevreuse in Paris, the allusion there is to ses cheveux noirs[...] élégamment partagés comme on les portait à cette époque! However it seemed not implausible that 'cheveux bruns' could simply have been intended to refer to 'dark hair' in general, so I assumed I'd simply misinterpreted the original phrase.

Matters become completely confused, on the other hand, when we reach the epilogue and d'Artagnan refers fondly to the boy as cette chère tête blonde! So I think that all that can be concluded is that Dumas had no very fixed idea in mind and ascribed a random appearance to Raoul at various different points during the construction of his lengthy serial...

(Given that his father is consistently described as dark-haired and his mother fair an intermediate brown would presumably have made sense :-)