Alexandre Dumas

For his son, see Alexandre Dumas fils. For other uses, see Alexandre Dumas (disambiguation).
Alexandre Dumas
Dumas in 1855
Dumas in 1855
BornDumas Davy de la Pailleterie
(1802-07-24)24 July 1802
Villers-Cotterêts, Picardy, France
Died5 December 1870(1870-12-05) (aged 68)
Dieppe, Normandy, France
OccupationNovelist, playwright
Period1829–1869
Literary movementRomanticism and historical fiction
Notable worksThe Three Musketeers (1844)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–1846)
Spouse
Ida Ferrier
​
​
(m. 1840; died 1859)​
ChildrenAlexandre Dumas fils (illegitimate son)
ParentsThomas-Alexandre Dumas
Marie Louise Élisabeth Labouret
Relatives
Signature

Alexandre Dumas[a] (born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie,[b] 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870),[1][2] also known as Alexandre Dumas père,[c] was a French novelist and playwright.

His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later. Since the early 20th century, his novels have been adapted into nearly 200 films. Prolific in several genres, Dumas began his career by writing plays, which were successfully produced from the first. He wrote numerous magazine articles and travel books; his published works totalled 100,000 pages.[3] In the 1840s, Dumas founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris.

His father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) to Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman, and Marie-Cessette Dumas, an African slave.[4][5] At age 14, Thomas-Alexandre was taken by his father to France, where he was educated in a military academy and entered the military for what became an illustrious career.

Alexandre acquired work with Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, then as a writer, a career that led to his early success. Decades later, after the election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in 1851, Dumas fell from favour and left France for Belgium, where he stayed for several years. He moved to Russia for a few years and then to Italy. In 1861, he founded and published the newspaper L'Indépendent, which supported Italian unification. He returned to Paris in 1864.

English playwright Watts Phillips, who knew Dumas in his later life, described him as "the most generous, large-hearted being in the world. He also was the most delightfully amusing and egotistical creature on the face of the earth. His tongue was like a windmill – once set in motion, you would never know when he would stop, especially if the theme was himself."[6]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0.
  2. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011). Roach, Peter; Setter, Jane; Esling, John (eds.). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15255-6.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hamel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Gallaher, John G. (1997). General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution. SIU Press. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0809320981.
  5. ^ Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (2017). 100 Amazing Facts about the Negro. Pantheon Books. p. 332. ISBN 978-0307908711.
  6. ^ Watts Phillips: Artist and Playwright by Emma Watts Phillips. 1891 p. 63