Alexandre Dumas[a] (bornAlexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie,[b] 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870),[1][2] also known asAlexandre Dumaspère,[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 asserials, includingThe Count of Monte Cristo,The Three Musketeers,Twenty Years After andThe 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 magazinearticles and travel books; his published works totalled 100,000 pages.[3] In the 1840s, Dumas founded theThéâtre Historique in Paris.
His father, GeneralThomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in the French colony ofSaint-Domingue (present-dayHaiti) to Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman, andMarie-Cessette Dumas, an African slave.[4][5] At age 14, Thomas-Alexandre was taken by his father to France, where he was given his freedom, educated in a military academy, and entered the military for what became an illustrious career.
Alexandre acquired work withLouis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, then as a writer, a career that led to his early success. Decades later, after the election ofLouis-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 newspaperL'Indépendant, which supportedItalian unification. He returned to Paris in 1864.
English playwrightWatts 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]
Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (later known as Alexandre Dumas) was born in 1802 inVillers-Cotterêts in the department ofAisne, inPicardy, France. He had two older sisters, Marie-Alexandrine (born 1794) and Louise-Alexandrine (1796–1797).[7] Their parents were Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret, the daughter of an innkeeper, andThomas-Alexandre Dumas.
Thomas-Alexandre was born in the French colony ofSaint-Domingue (now Haiti), themixed-race, natural son of the marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (Antoine), aFrench nobleman andgénéral commissaire in the artillery of the colony, andMarie-Cessette Dumas, an enslaved woman ofAfro-Caribbean ancestry. The two extant primary documents that state a racial identity for Marie-Cessette Dumas refer to her as a "négresse" (a black woman) as opposed to a "mulâtresse" (a woman of visible mixed race).[8][9] It is unknown whether Marie-Cessette was born in Saint-Domingue or in Africa, nor is it known from which African people she had ancestry.[10][11][12] What is known is that, sometime after becoming estranged from his brothers, Antoine purchased Marie-Cessette and her daughter from a previous relationship for "an exorbitant amount" and made Marie-Cessette hisconcubine. Thomas-Alexandre was the only son born to them, but they had two or three daughters.
In 1775, following the death of both his brothers, Antoine left Saint-Domingue for France in order to claim the family estates and the title of Marquis. Shortly before his departure, he sold Marie-Cessette and their two daughters (Adolphe and Jeanette), as well as Marie-Cessette's oldest daughter Marie-Rose (whose father was a different man) to a baron who had recently come from Nantes to settle in Saint Domingue. Antoine however retained ownership of Thomas-Alexandre (his only natural son) and took the 14-year-old boy with him to France. There, Thomas-Alexandre received his freedom and a sparse education at a military school, adequate to enable him to join the French army, there being no question of the mixed-race boy being accepted as his father's heir. Thomas-Alexandre did well in the Army and was promoted to general by the age of 31, the first soldier of Afro-Antilles origin to reach that rank in the French army.[13]
The family surname ("de la Pailleterie") was never bestowed upon Thomas-Alexandre, who therefore used "Dumas" as his surname. This is often assumed to have been his mother's surname, but in fact, the surname "Dumas" occurs only once in connection with Marie-Cessette, and that happens in Europe, when Thomas-Alexandre states, while applying for a marriage licence, that his mother's name was "Marie-Cessette Dumas". Some scholars have suggested that Thomas-Alexandre devised the surname "Dumas" for himself when he felt the need for one, and that he attributed it to his mother when convenient. "Dumas" means "of the farm" (du mas), perhaps signifying only that Marie-Cessette belonged to the farm property.[14]
While working for Louis-Philippe, Alexandre Dumas began writing articles for magazines and plays for the theatre. As an adult, he used the surname of Dumas, as his father had done as an adult.[15] His first play,Henry III and His Court, produced in 1829 when he was 27 years old, met with acclaim. His second play,Christine, was equally popular the next year. These successes gave him sufficient income to write full-time.
In 1830, Dumas participated in theRevolution that oustedCharles X and replaced him with Dumas's former employer, theDuke of Orléans, who ruled asLouis-Philippe, the Citizen King. Until the mid-1830s, life in France remained unsettled, with sporadic riots by disgruntled Republicans and impoverished urban workers seeking change. As life slowly returned to normal, the nation began to industrialize. An improving economy combined with the end of press censorship made the times rewarding for Alexandre Dumas's literary skills.
After writing additional successful plays, Dumas switched to writing novels. Although attracted to an extravagant lifestyle and always spending more than he earned, Dumas proved to be an astute marketing strategist and writer. As newspapers were publishing many serial novels, he began producing these. His first serial novel wasLa Comtesse de Salisbury;Édouard III (July–September 1836). In 1838, Dumas rewrote one of his plays as a successful serial historical novel,Le Capitaine Paul ('Captain Paul'), partly based on the life of the Scottish-American naval officerJohn Paul Jones.
He founded a production studio, staffed with writers who turned out hundreds of stories, all subject to his personal direction, editing, and additions. From 1839 to 1841, Dumas, with the assistance of several friends, compiledCelebrated Crimes, an eight-volume collection of essays on famous criminals and crimes from European history. He featuredBeatrice Cenci,Martin Guerre,Cesare andLucrezia Borgia, as well as more recent events and criminals, including the cases of the alleged murderersKarl Ludwig Sand andAntoine François Desrues, who were executed. Dumas collaborated with Augustin Grisier, hisfencing master, in his 1840 novel,The Fencing Master. The story is written as Grisier's account of how he came to witness the events of theDecembrist revolt in Russia. The novel was eventually banned in Russia by CzarNicholas I, and Dumas was prohibited from visiting the country until after the Czar's death. Dumas refers to Grisier with great respect inThe Count of Monte Cristo,The Corsican Brothers, and in his memoirs.
Dumas depended on numerous assistants and collaborators, of whomAuguste Maquet was the best known. It was not until the late twentieth century that his role was fully understood.[16] Dumas wrote the short novelGeorges (1843), which uses ideas and plots later repeated inThe Count of Monte Cristo. Maquet took Dumas to court to get authorial recognition and a higher payment rate for his work. He was successful in getting more money, but not a by-line.[16][17]
Dumas's novels were so popular that they were soon translated into English and other languages. His writing earned him a great deal of money, but he was frequently insolvent, as he spent lavishly on women and sumptuous living. (Scholars have found that he had a total of 40 mistresses.[18]) In 1846, he had built a country house outside Paris atLe Port-Marly, the largeChâteau de Monte-Cristo, with an additional building for his writing studio. It often was filled with strangers and acquaintances who stayed for lengthy visits and took advantage of his generosity. Two years later, faced with financial difficulties, he sold the entire property.
Dumas wrote in a wide variety of genres and published a total of 100,000 pages in his lifetime.[3] He made use of his experience, writing travel books after taking journeys, including those motivated by reasons other than pleasure. Dumas travelled to Spain, Italy, Germany, England andFrench Algeria. After King Louis-Philippe was ousted in a revolt,Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was elected president. As Bonaparte disapproved of the author, Dumas fled in 1851 to Brussels, Belgium, which was also an effort to escape his creditors. In about 1859, he moved toRussia, where French was the second language of the elite and his writings were enormously popular. Dumas spent two years in Russia and visited St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Astrakhan, Baku, and Tbilisi. He published travel books about Russia.
Alexandre Dumas in achokha andpapakha during a trip to the Caucasus
In March 1861, thekingdom of Italy was proclaimed, withVictor Emmanuel II as its king. Dumas travelled there and for the next three years participated in the movement forItalian unification. He founded and led a newspaper,Indipendente. While there, he befriendedGiuseppe Garibaldi, whom he had long admired and with whom he shared a commitment to liberalrepublican principles as well as membership withinFreemasonry.[19][20] Returning to Paris in 1864, he published travel books about Italy.
Despite Dumas's aristocratic background and personal success, he had to deal with discrimination related to his mixed-race ancestry. In 1843, he wrote the short novelGeorges, which addressed some of the issues of race and the effects of colonialism. His response to a man who insulted him about his partial African ancestry has become famous. Dumas said:
My father was amulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends.[21][22]
On 1 February 1840, Dumas married actress Ida Ferrier (born Marguerite-Joséphine Ferrand) (1811–1859).[23] They did not have any children together.
Dumas had numerous liaisons with other women; the scholar Claude Schopp lists nearly 40 mistresses.[18] He is known to have fathered at least four children by them:
Alexandre Dumas,fils (1824–1895), son of Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay (1794–1868), a dressmaker. He became a successful novelist and playwright.
Marie-Alexandrine Dumas (1831–1878), daughter of Belle Kreilsamner (1803–1875) who acted under the stage name of Melanie Serre.
Henry Bauër (1851–1915), son of Anna Bauër, a German of Jewish faith, wife of Karl-Anton Bauër, an Austrian commercial agent living in Paris
Micaëlla-Clélie-Josepha-Élisabeth Cordier (born 1860), daughter of Emélie Cordier, an actress
About 1866, he had an affair withAdah Isaacs Menken, an American actress who was twenty-six years younger than Dumas and at the height of her career. She had performed her sensational role inMazeppa in London. In Paris, she had a sold-out run ofLes Pirates de la Savanne and was at the peak of her success.[24]
He was a Freemason and remained so until the day he died. He was a member of the Lodge “La Cauderet” and of the Lodge “L'Olympique".Dumas often incorporated references to Freemasonry and the importance of brotherhood in his writing.
A postal stamp ofGeorgia dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Alexandre Dumas, who visited the Caucasus in 1858–1859
On 5 December 1870, Dumas died at the age of 68 of natural causes, possibly a heart attack. He was buried at his birthplace of Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne. His death was overshadowed by theFranco-Prussian War. Changing literary fashions decreased his popularity. In the late 20th century, scholars such as Reginald Hamel and Claude Schopp have caused a critical reappraisal and new appreciation of his art, as well as finding lost works.[3]
Researchers have continued to find Dumas works in archives, including the five-act playThe Gold Thieves, found in 2002 by the scholarRéginald Hamel [fr] in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It was published in France in 2004 by Honoré-Champion.[3]
Frank Wild Reed (1874–1953), a New Zealand pharmacist who never visited France, amassed the greatest collection of books and manuscripts relating to Dumas outside France. The collection contains about 3,350 volumes, including some 2,000 sheets in Dumas's handwriting and dozens of French, Belgian and English first editions. The collection was donated to Auckland Libraries after his death.[27] Reed wrote the most comprehensive bibliography of Dumas.[28][29]
In 2002, for the bicentenary of Dumas's birth,French PresidentJacques Chirac held a ceremony honouring the author by having his ashes re-interred at the mausoleum of thePanthéon, where many French luminaries were buried.[3][18] When Chirac ordered the transfer to the mausoleum, villagers in Dumas's hometown of Villers-Cotterets were initially opposed, arguing that Dumas laid out in his memoirs that he wanted to be buried there. The village eventually bowed to the government's decision, and Dumas's body was exhumed from its cemetery and put into a new coffin in preparation for the transfer.[30] The proceedings were televised: the new coffin was draped in a blue velvet cloth and carried on a caisson flanked by four mountedRepublican Guards costumed as the fourMusketeers. It was transported through Paris to the Panthéon.[15] In his speech, Chirac said:
With you, we were D'Artagnan, Monte Cristo, or Balsamo, riding along the roads of France, touring battlefields, visiting palaces and castles – with you, we dream.[31]
Chirac acknowledged the racism that had existed in France and said that the re-interment in the Pantheon had been a way of correcting that wrong, as Alexandre Dumas was enshrined alongside fellow great authorsVictor Hugo andÉmile Zola.[31][32] Chirac noted that although France has produced many great writers, none has been so widely read as Dumas. His novels have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and inspired more than 200 motion pictures.
In June 2005, Dumas's last novel,The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, was published in France featuring theBattle of Trafalgar. Dumas described a fictional character killingLord Nelson (Nelson was shot and killed by an unknown sniper). Writing and publishing the novel serially in 1869, Dumas had nearly finished it before his death. It was the third part of the Sainte-Hermine trilogy. Claude Schopp, a Dumas scholar, noticed a letter in an archive in 1990 that led him to discover the unfinished work. It took him years to research it, edit the completed portions, and decide how to treat the unfinished part. Schopp finally wrote the final two-and-a-half chapters, based on the author's notes, to complete the story.[18] Published byÉditions Phébus, it sold 60,000 copies, making it a best seller. Translated into English, it was released in 2006 asThe Last Cavalier, and has been translated into other languages.[18] Schopp has since found additional material related to the Sainte-Hermine saga. Schopp combined them to publish the sequelLe Salut de l'Empire in 2008.[18]
The Vicomte de Bragelonne, sometimes calledTen Years Later (Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, ou Dix ans plus tard, 1847). When published in English, it was usually split into three parts:The Vicomte de Bragelonne (sometimes calledBetween Two Kings),Louise de la Valliere, andThe Man in the Iron Mask, of which the last part is the best known.
TheValois were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589, and many Dumas romances cover their reign. Traditionally, the so-called "Valois Romances" are the three that portray the Reign ofQueen Marguerite, the last of the Valois. Dumas, however, later wrote four more novels that cover this family and portray similar characters, starting with François orFrancis I, his sonHenry II, and Marguerite andFrançois II, children of Henry II andCatherine de' Medici.
La Reine Margot, also published asMarguerite de Valois (1845)
La Dame de Monsoreau (1846) (later adapted as a short story titled "Chicot the Jester")
The Two Dianas (Les Deux Diane, 1846), is a novel aboutGabriel, comte de Montgomery, who mortally wounded King Henry II and was lover to his daughterDiana de Castro. Although published under Dumas's name, it was wholly or mostly written by Paul Meurice.[33]
The Page of the Duke of Savoy, (1855) is a sequel toThe Two Dianas (1846), and it covers the struggle for supremacy between the Guises and Catherine de Médicis, the Florentine mother of the last three Valois kings of France (and wife of Henry II). The main character in this novel is Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy.
The Horoscope: a romance of the reign of François II (1858), covers François II, who reigned for one year (1559–60) and died at the age of 16.
TheMarie Antoinette romances comprise eight novels. The unabridged versions (normally 100 chapters or more) comprise only five books (numbers 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8); the short versions (50 chapters or less) number eight in total:
Joseph Balsamo (Mémoires d'un médecin: Joseph Balsamo, 1846–48) (a.k.a.Memoirs of a Physician,Cagliostro,Madame Dubarry,The Countess Dubarry, orThe Elixir of Life).Joseph Balsamo is about 1000 pages long, and is usually published in two volumes in English translations: Vol 1.Joseph Balsamo and Vol 2.Memoirs of a Physician. The long unabridged version includes the contents of book two, Andrée de Taverney; the short abridged versions usually are divided inBalsamo andAndrée de Taverney as completely different books.
Ange Pitou (1853) (a.k.a.Storming the Bastille orSix Years Later). From this book, there are long unabridged versions which include the contents of book five, but there are many short versions that treat "The Hero of the People" as a separated volume.
The Hero of the People
The Royal Life Guard or The Flight of the Royal Family.
The Countess de Charny (La Comtesse de Charny, 1853–1855). As with other books, there are long unabridged versions which include the contents of book six; but many short versions that leave contents inThe Royal Life Guard as a separate volume.
The Knight of Sainte-Hermine (Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine, 1869). Dumas's last novel, unfinished at his death, was completed by scholar Claude Schopp and published in 2005.[34] It was published in English in 2008 asThe Last Cavalier.
Although best known now as a novelist, Dumas first earned fame as a dramatist. HisHenri III et sa cour (1829) was the first of the greatRomantic historical dramas produced on the Paris stage, preceding Victor Hugo's more famousHernani (1830). Produced at theComédie-Française and starring the famousMademoiselle Mars, Dumas's play was an enormous success and launched him on his career. It had 50 performances over the next year, extraordinary at the time. Dumas's works included:
Christine – Stockholm, Fontainebleau, and Rome (1830)
Napoleon Bonaparte or Thirty Years of the History of France (1831)
Antony (1831) – a drama with a contemporaryByronic hero – is considered the first non-historical Romantic drama. It starred Mars' great rivalMarie Dorval.
Charles VII at the Homes of His Great Vassals (Charles VII chez ses grands vassaux, 1831). This drama was adapted by the Russian composerCésar Cui for his operaThe Saracen.
Teresa (1831)
La Tour de Nesle (1832), a historical melodrama
The Memories of Anthony (1835)
The Chronicles of France: Isabel of Bavaria (1835)
The Son of the Night – The Pirate (1856) (with Gérard de Nerval, Bernard Lopez, and Victor Sejour)
The Gold Thieves (after 1857): an unpublished five-act play. It was discovered in 2002 by the Canadian scholar Reginald Hamel, who was researching in theBibliothèque Nationale de France. The play was published in France in 2004 by Honoré-Champion. Hamel said that Dumas was inspired by a novel written in 1857 by his mistress Célèste de Mogador.[3]
Dumas was a prolific writer of nonfiction. He wrote journal articles on politics and culture and books on French history.
His lengthyGrand Dictionnaire de cuisine (Great Dictionary of Cuisine) was published posthumously in 1873, and several editions of it are still in print today. A combination of encyclopaedia and cookbook, it reflects Dumas's interests as both a gourmet and an expert cook. An abridged version (thePetit Dictionnaire de cuisine, orSmall Dictionary of Cuisine) was published in 1883.
He was also known for his travel writing. These books included:
Impressions de voyage: En Suisse (Travel Impressions: In Switzerland, 1834)
Une Année à Florence (A Year in Florence, 1841)
De Paris à Cadix (From Paris to Cadiz, 1846)
Le Véloce: Tangier a Tunis (Tangier to Tunis, 1846–47), 1848–1851
Travel Impressions in Russia – Le Caucase Original edition: Paris 1859
Adventures in Czarist Russia, or From Paris to Astrakhan (Impressions de voyage: En Russie; De Paris à Astrakan: Nouvelles impressions de voyage (1858), 1859–1862
Voyage to the Caucasus (Le Caucase: Impressions de voyage; suite de En Russie (1859), 1858–1859
The Bourbons of Naples (Italian:I Borboni di Napoli, 1862) (7 volumes published by Italian newspaperL'Indipendente, whose director was Dumas himself).[35][36]
French historianAlain Decaux founded the "Société des Amis d'Alexandre Dumas" (The Society of Friends of Alexandre Dumas) in 1971. As of August 2017[update] its president is Claude Schopp.[37] The purpose in creating this society was to preserve theChâteau de Monte-Cristo, where the society is currently located. The other objectives of the Society are to bring together fans of Dumas, to develop cultural activities of the Château de Monte-Cristo, and to collect books, manuscripts, autographs and other materials on Dumas.
^Letter from M. de Chauvinault, former royal prosecutor inJérémie,Saint Domingue, to the Count de Maulde, 3 June 1776, privately held by Gilles Henry. Note: It says Dumas's father (then known as Antoine de l’Isle) “bought from a certain Monsieur de Mirribielle a negress named Cesette at an exorbitant price,” then, after living with her for some years, “sold... the negress Cezette” along with her two daughters "to a... baron from Nantes." Original French: "il achetais d’un certain Monsieur de Mirribielle une negresse nommée Cesette à un prix exhorbitant"; "qu’il a vendu à son depart avec les negres cupidon, la negresse cezette et les enfants à un sr barron originaire de nantes." (The spelling of her name varies within the letter.)
^Judgment in a dispute between Alexandre Dumas (named as Thomas Rethoré) and his father’s widow, Marie Retou Davy de la Pailleterie, Archives Nationale de France, LX465. His mother's name is Marie-Cesette Dumas (spelled "Cezette") and referred to as “Marie Cezette, negress, mother of Mr. Rethoré” (“Marie Cezette negresse mere dud. [dudit] S. Rethoré”)
^Claude Schopp, Société des Amis d'Alexandre Dumas – 1998–2008
^Gilles Henry,Les Dumas: Le secret de Monte Cristo (Paris: France-Empire, 1999), 73; Victor Emmanuel Roberto Wilson,Le général Alexandre Dumas: Soldat de la liberté (Sainte-Foy, Quebec: Les Editions Quisqueya-Québec, 1977), 25.
^Martone, Eric (2016).Italian Americans: The History and Culture of a People. ABC-CLIO. p. 22.
^Doumergue, Christian (2016).Franc-Maçonnerie & histoire de France. Paris: Ed. de l'Opportun. p. 213.
^Christian Biet; Jean-Paul Brighelli; Jean-Luc Rispail (1986).Alexandre Dumas, ou les Aventures d'un romancier. Collection "Découvertes Gallimard" (in French). Vol. 12. Éditions Gallimard. p. 75.ISBN978-2-07-053021-2.Mon père était un mulâtre, mon grand-père était un nègre et mon arrière grand-père un singe. Vous voyez, Monsieur: ma famille commence où la vôtre finit.
Maurois, André (1957).The Titans, a Three-Generation Biography of the Dumas. trans. by Gerard Hopkins. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.OCLC260126.
Phillips, Emma Watts (1891).Watts Phillips: Artist and Playwright. London: Cassell & Company.
Reed, F. W. (Frank Wild) (1933).A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas, père. Pinner Hill, Middlesex: J.A. Neuhuys.OCLC1420223.
Ross, Michael (1981).Alexandre Dumas. Newton Abbot, London, North Pomfret (Vt): David & Charles.ISBN0-7153-7758-2.
Schopp, Claude (1988).Alexandre Dumas, Genius of Life. trans. by A. J. Koch. New York, Toronto: Franklin Watts.ISBN0-531-15093-3.
Spurr, Harry A. (October 1902).The Life and Writings of Alexandre Dumas. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, Company.OCLC2999945.
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