Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) was the French author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, two of the most popular adventure novels ever written. Playwright, historian, traveller and tireless storyteller, he produced, with collaborators, hundreds of books, and was the grandson of an enslaved woman from Saint-Domingue.
Genres
novels and stories, drama
Works
The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers
The general's son
Alexandre Dumas was born in 1802 at Villers-Cotterêts, near Paris. His father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, son of a French nobleman and an enslaved woman in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, had become a general in the armies of the Revolution. He died when Alexandre was four, leaving the family poor.
At twenty, Dumas went to Paris, where his fine handwriting got him a job as a clerk in the household of the Duke of Orléans, the future King Louis-Philippe. He educated himself by reading and going to the theatre.
The playwright
In 1829 his historical drama Henri III and His Court triumphed at the Comédie-Française, one of the first victories of Romantic theatre. He wrote many more plays, including Antony and The Tower of Nesle, and took part in the revolution of July 1830.
From the late 1830s he turned to historical novels, published as serials in newspapers, with the help of collaborators, especially the historian Auguste Maquet, who researched and drafted, while Dumas gave the stories their life and dialogue.
The novels and the fortune
The Three Musketeers (1844), Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne follow d'Artagnan and his friends; The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–46) tells of Edmond Dantès's revenge. Queen Margot and the other novels of the Valois made him the most read author in France.
He spent his earnings as fast as he made them, building a castle, the Château de Monte-Cristo, and founding his own theatre. Ruined, he travelled in Russia and joined Garibaldi in Italy. He died in 1870 at his son's house near Dieppe. In 2002 his remains were transferred to the Panthéon.
Anecdotes
The Château de Monte-Cristo
With his earnings Dumas built a Renaissance-style château at Le Port-Marly, west of Paris, with a small Gothic pavilion for writing, and held lavish parties there. Ruined, he had to sell it in 1849, only two years after its inauguration. It is now a museum.
A Panthéon in 2002
In November 2002, for the bicentenary of his birth, Dumas's remains were moved from Villers-Cotterêts to the Panthéon in Paris, in a coffin covered with a blue cloth bearing the musketeers' motto, All for one, one for all.
Frequently asked questions
What are Alexandre Dumas's most famous novels?
The Three Musketeers (1844), The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–46), Twenty Years After, Queen Margot and The Vicomte de Bragelonne, which includes The Man in the Iron Mask.
Did Dumas write his novels alone?
No. He worked with collaborators, especially Auguste Maquet, who did much of the research and first drafts, while Dumas shaped and wrote the final text.
Who was Dumas's father?
General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, born in Saint-Domingue to a French nobleman and an enslaved woman, who became a general of the French Revolution.