The Conspirators (Dumas and Maquet novel)
1843 novel by Alexandre Dumas
The Conspirators (original French title: Le chevalier d'Harmental) is a novel written by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet, published in 1843. Dumas reworked a preliminary version by Maquet; this was the beginning of their collaboration which was to produce eighteen novels and many plays. The dramatisation of the novel – in five acts, a prologue and ten tableaux – was first performed on 16 July 1849 at the Théâtre-Historique in Paris. It was adapted into an opera, Le chevalier d'Harmental, by André Messager with a libretto by Paul Ferrier, which was first performed on 5 May 1896.
Plot
The novel is set in 1718, and its subject is a conspiracy against the regency of Philippe d'Orléans, who led France during the infancy of Louis XV. Dumas and Maquet's later novel Une fille du régent features some of the same characters.
Reception
George Saintsbury described the novel as "usually ranked among [Dumas's] masterpieces"; Dumas himself felt it had both strengths and weaknesses. Richard Stowe, Dumas's biographer, called it the best of his novels set during the reign of Louis XV.
Impact
A section of the novel involving a street named "rue du Temps-Perdu" (street of wasted time) may have inspired the title of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu.
“The Conspirators (Dumas and Maquet novel)” enters the record as 1843 novel by Alexandre Dumas. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Conspirators, Dumas and Maquet can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“The Conspirators (Dumas and Maquet novel)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Conspirators, Dumas and Maquet provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3221234. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1843, 1849, 1896 and 1718.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Conspirators (Dumas and Maquet novel)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.