CZM Book Club: The Storming of the Bastille, by Alexandre Dumas
Summary
Host Margaret Killjoy reads Alexander Dumas’s “The Storming of the Bastille” for the Black August series, highlighting Dumas’s mixed-race heritage and anti-slavery legacy. The episode features an abridged 1920 translation of the fictionalized account of the 1789 prison siege, focusing on themes of collective power and dismantling authority. Killjoy discusses how Dumas’s work challenges French national identity narratives while celebrating revolutionary solidarity.
Topics discussed
Sponsors: TD Bank, Kaizen Autosport, Gilead, and Kewpie Mayo
Intro: Cool Zone Media Book Club and Black August theme
Alexander Dumas: Biography and racial identity
Dumas's legacy and anti-slavery themes in his work
Story setup: The Storming of the Bastille
The Bastille interior and Governor de Launay's cruelty
Billet's negotiation with the Governor
The Governor's defiance and the crowd's resolve
Sponsors: TD Bank, Gilead, and Kewpie Mayo
The first cannon shot and the battle begins
Billet hacks the chains and the assault intensifies
Ceasefire attempts and the killing of truce bearers
Sponsors: TD Bank, Gilead, and Kewpie Mayo
Filling the moat and setting fire to the bridge
The Governor's failed threat to blow up the powder
Surrender, freeing prisoners, and the mob's victory
Outro: Reflections on the story and final sponsors
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