Every Chapter, In Order

Paris, 1540 — Benvenuto Cellini at the court of Francis I, a young apprentice's forbidden love, and a masterpiece cast in bronze, in two books and forty-two chapters.

Dumas structured this novel in two distinct books, presented here as one continuous, sequentially numbered read — the first following Cellini's arrival in Paris, the second building toward his famous, nearly disastrous bronze casting. See the full overview page for more on how closely this draws from Cellini's own real, outrageous memoirs.

Book One

Book Two