About the book: 2015 / The whole world is getting acquainted with French history through the novels of Dumas. And although this story is not true in everything, it is interesting and full of the most exciting adventures. Moreover, he can even be considered the founder of a new literary genre - a kind of historical fiction, in which the author writes not about the future, but about the past, using known facts only as illustrations for the developing plot, for his own view of the events that took place. Of course, this cannot but irritate serious historians. We will not condemn Alexandre Dumas. He is not a historian, but a novelist, and he has written fascinating books that are read by many generations of people. And most importantly, Alexandre Dumas enchanted us all with the adventures of his hero. And what about de Courtille? He was simply not so lucky, and his name remained completely forgotten for a long time. However, his history of the Count de Rochefort is a lot of very apt historical portraits, a lot of events to which the fictional Count himself had not the slightest connection, an abundance of intrigues, conspiracies, love affairs, court gossip... And nothing demonic, because the Count de Rochefort was not a scoundrel, an anti-hero, or a “player in the field of evil,” as he is often called. On the contrary, he was of noble birth and highly respected the code of honor. It’s just that he worked as a spy for half his life (there is such a job, after all), and he performed his duties conscientiously. “Memoirs of the Comte de Rochefort” by Gacien de Courtille de Sandre is 448 pages of neat text, which, if presented in modern language, could well turn into into a historical adventure bestseller, set in the 17th century in good old France. Which is exactly what we tried to do.