How cute!

I picked the book up in Brussels on the way back home to Germany on the quick in a second hand shop across the station. I was surprised to see a book of this size by Dumas, thinking that the guy could only write enormous ones ;).

At any rate... It was a little difficult to get into, because there was a lot of explanation, but in the end, once it kicked off, it just went gently on.

Gently... It is one of the most gentle love-stories I have read. Certainly reading Dumas one expects more passionate stuff, great declarations, not tender, gentle, naïve love. It is so adorable to have those two people who do not know love better than they do the black tulip, get to know it.

And that is where I think the black tulip actually comes in. The black tulip was not yet invented when Dumas was alive, but only in the 1880s it came about in a slightly purple form. Later a real black one was developed. But, for Dumas in 1850 this was still the unattainable, impossible, divine almost, tulip. He brings the impossible black tulip into the story as a developing love child between Cornelius Van Baerle and Rosa Gryphus, he even compares it to that in the Conclusion. As the tulip develops, Rosa and Cornelius's love also develops, her father tries to kill it, but it develops nonetheless, not least because of Rosa's attention. And indeed, love is got with two and does not allow to be developed from one side. As Boxtel steels the fully developed tulip, does he think he will be allowed to marry Rosa or does she also have a say in it?

But love is something that develops under the right conditions, in the right grounds and with the right attention. When it develops, it is unstoppable, and it has no place in an environment of envy; it does not give up when it is killed when just emerging; it is worth fighting for and it is wrapped up in innocence.

Beautiful story with the most tender and innocent aproach to developing love. A cute read!