In Joseph Balsamo or Memoirs of a Physician, Alexandre Dumas manifests a teleological vision of History, embodied in the figure of Cagliostro. On the other hand, however, the serial publishing format enables him to move the reader forward into the unforeseeable future of the Revolution, with all due confusion and uncertainty. The happenstance nature of decisive moments is highlighted while aborted possibilities are integrated into the narrative as the shadows of the events that really happened. The Revolution, more than any other event, proves itself to be a battle between virtual worlds which exist in the belief systems and the hopes of its agents, who are propelled by the sheer blind force of their emotions. In focusing on characters and their passions, Dumas offers up a reading of history whose scale is human, where “nothing is over until it’s over”. The result is a dialectics between the “agreed” narrative and its “discordant” elements.