A Gil Blas in California

the long version

This book is often considered to be a work of non-fiction that Dumas reworked from the journal of a Californian gold miner. Dumas does not give the name of the journal writer, but does include an introductory essay describing how he came to meet the miner and write the book. The more modern interpretation is that it is a work of fiction based on conversations with his last great love, Ada Isaacs Menken and her memories of men she had met through her life in San Francisco before Dumas.