Electronic Books on Forensic Science and Forensic Medicine: Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine, Vol. 7, No. 1, January

Category: Nonfiction, Genre: History/true crime, Page count: 33, File size: 274k. Estimated Download Times: with 28.8 kbps - 2 Min 42 Sec; with 56 kbps - 1 Min 24 Sec, with Cable/DSL - 10 Sec. Price: $1.50 electronic copy

Whose face could this be, if not that of Louis XVI, twin-brother of the Man in the Iron Mask? Who else could hold the position of such importance to the Kingdom and Government of the time to make the discovery of this prisoner's identity so dangerous? As it was made clear to those that guarded the masked prisoner if they revealed the secret of the name, age, and features of the captive, there punishment would be death.

Dumas writes with such drama and intensity about this Man in the Iron Mask that he keeps you glued to the pages. You are drawn into this complex mystery whose main focus is to have you try to follow along with all the various theories by many people on who this masked prisoner is where he came from and why is he in prison.

Dumas dives right into the beginning of this book with a tale about Louis XIV's wife giving birth to twin boys. About how these twin boys Giafer and Sephi-Mirza who were complete opposites of each other also grew up with a mutual hatred of each other. The story then goes on to say that Giafer strikes Sephi-Mirza and according to the laws of the day the punishment for striking a Prince was punishable by death. But one of the councilors took pity on Giafer and instead pretended that he was sent to the army where weeks later his death from the plague would be announced. So that instead of being sent to his death he would be imprisoned for life, so any prison that he was sent to was to keep his identity a secret. however is that the real story behind the man in the Iron mask?

Did you ever play the game where you have a group of people sit in a line, whisper a story in the ear of the first person and they whisper to the next, but the story has changed by the time it gets to the end of the line! Well this book is a fine example of the variety of interpretations of a story when some of the facts are missing.

The man in the iron mask is a slow read at first, almost on the brink of boring but the author dangles intriguing questions along with a variety of theories to keep you going to the next page looking for the answer.

The Man in the iron mask (Celebrated Crimes series) by Alexandre Dumas (E-book format: Adobe Acrobat®)

...Dumas writes with such drama and intensity about this Man in the Iron Mask that he keeps you glued to the pages. You are drawn into this complex mystery whose main focus is to have you try to follow along with all the various theories by many people on who this masked prisoner is where he came from and why is he in prison...

As with many stories from the past, no-one is ever 100% sure of what parts of the story are true, and what parts have varied as they have past from generation to generation?

This uncertainty leads to the varied theories that the author capitalizes on to keep the reader in a constant state of wonderment, just when one statement starts to make sense another throws a question of uncertainty into the mix.

When you take the protected personnel information of Royalty, with the mysteries in side the protected walls of a prison, mixed with the lack of proper record keeping of the period, you come up with an intriguing read.

Finally I believe the translation all though staying true to the story should be adapted and edited a bit, the French terminology and old English wording are difficult to understand and keep up with at points!

The absolute truth behind such a story can only be discovered when human technology reach's the point when time travel is possible. Until then Dumas and many other authors will write of the mystery and intrigue behind this a many other tails of uncertainty!

Who's soul is under the mask, the face is truly un-important except to the curious, the true question for which Dumas tries to convey is who is this person, what does he feel, what are his dreams who is the "Human Being" behind the mask? The theories are of the face, the back ground, the family of this person, the true "who's who. That is man's natural curiosity of the un-known, but the reality that Dumas conveys is that the theories are all superficial and the true meaning is much deeper.

-Samantha South

Email: DuchessSammi@yahoo.com

Samantha South is an independent reviewer based in the USA. She has been associated with this journal as an advisor and reviewer.

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Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology

Volume 7, Number 1, January - June 2006

Book Reviews: Electronic Books Section

(Page 1 b - Review by Samantha South, USA)