Tras extraviarse durante una cacería, el conde Élim descubre, en medio de una tormenta, un castillo que se alza en lo más profundo de un bosque alemán. Es la residencia del noble linaje de los Eppstein. No tarda el forastero en descubrir los misterios que rodean al castillo, en particular a una de sus estancias, la cámara roja. Una macabra leyenda pesa sobre la familia desde tiempos inmemoriales: todas las mujeres que mueren en el castillo la noche del 24 de diciembre no encuentran el reposo eterno y regresan del más allá para atormentar a sus moradores. Y Albina, la bella esposa del malvado conde Maximiliano, no será una excepción.

In the beginning I felt that this novel of this black french fellow Dumas was a bit too much romance; not at the very beginning, for I adored Count Elim and his adventure. Wheels within wheels here. Everard and his woods intrigued me. It was bizarre, his "mother religion" mixed with Christianity—a parallel to Catholicism. I have nothing really bad to say about the novel. I enjoyed it very much—so much so, that I stayed up to finish it at 4 AM. I can perfectly see the demesnial forest , the castle wall, the Red Chamber and the secret entrance to the tombs...

There is one thing I do not like however: that is that poor Everard didn't get Rosamund in the end. She chose to continue in her saintly mother role, leaving Everard to once again make powerful the name Eppstein. I would bet, 10 to one, that — irony of ironies! — he ended up with that Lucile dame.

Ms. Goodrich (who translated Dumas from the french and wrote the afterword) piqued my curiosity much by writing of Dumas' hired ghost writers. It quelled my anger a bit that Ms. Goodrich didn't write some horrible introduction, but at least had the good sense to make it an afterword. My anger rose, as Count Maximilian's, when I came to begin digesting that afterword. It was horrible, in my opinion. And yet, there were some intriguing things within it. I came up with her obituary, which is also interesting and horrible (in that it's an obit):

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06275/726707-122.stm

I plan to read many more of Alexandre Dumas' works. ( )