Dumas (Pére) was commissioned by Parisian theatre manager Harel to write The Tower in 1832, a tale of murder, sexual depravity and treachery among the French aristocracy - just what the public wanted. Popularly dubbed as 'anti-monarchist', it played for 800 performances during a French revolution in the 1830s. Over 160 years later, in less turbulent times, lovers of swahbuckling romantic melodrama will not be disappointed. Contained in the volume The Tower and Ruy Blas.