The Black Tulip, a story about the gardener Cornelius van Baerle and the beautiful Rosa, is one of the most popular novels by Alexandre Dumas, père and filled with excitement and romance.

The city of Haarlem in The Netherlands has set a prize of 100 000 florins to the person who can grow a black tulip.

This begins a competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money, the honour and fame.

The young and bourgeois Cornelius van Baerle has almost succeeded, when he suddenly is thrown into prison. There he meets the prison guard's beautiful daughter Rosa, who shall be his comfort and help, and at last his rescuer.

The Black Tulip is not just an exciting novel from a dramatic period, but also a love story with a happy ending.

It was originally published in three volumes 1850 as La Tulipe noire by Baudry (Paris).

External link

• Free eBook of The Black Turnip (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/965) at Project Gutenberg
• eLook Literature: The Black Tulip (http://www.elook.org/literature/dumas/the-black-tulip/) - HTML version broken down chapter by chapter.