The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas

The Black Tulip is a historical novel written by Alexandre Dumas.
The story The Black Tulip begins with a historical event — the 1672 lynching of the Dutch Grand Pensionary (roughly equivalent to a modern Prime Minister) Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis, by a wild mob of their own countrymen — considered by many as one of the most painful episodes in Dutch history, described by Alexandre Dumas with a dramatic intensity. The main plot line of The Black Tulip, involving fictional characters, takes place in the following eighteen months; only gradually does the reader understand its connection with the killing of the de Witt brothers...

The city of Haarlem, Netherlands has set a prize of 100,000 guilders to the person who can grow a black tulip, sparking competition between the country's best gardeners to win the money, honour and fame. The young and bourgeois Cornelius van Baerle has almost succeeded, but is suddenly thrown into the Loevestein prison. There he meets the prison guard's beautiful daughter Rosa, who will be his comfort and help, and at last his rescuer.

The novel The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas was originally published in three volumes in 1850 as La Tulipe Noire by Baudry (Paris)... (Summary by Wikipedia)