Alexandre Dumas

Dumas Davy de La Pailleterie, later known as Alexandre Dumas, st. (24.7.1802, - 5.12.1870) was a prominent French writer.

He was of Creole descent and had mild black features. His father, the divisional general and hero of the French Revolution, Thomas-Alexandre Davy de La Pailleterie, was of African-French descent - born on the island of Santo Domingo from the mixed marriage of the Marquis de La Pailleterie and the black Cossette Dumas.

In his youth, Dumas made a significant impact on the development of French drama. His 1829 historical play Henry III and His Court (Henri III et sa cour) was the first romantic drama successfully brought to the stage. His other plays Antony (1831) with the modern theme of a young rebel not unlike Lord Byron, as well as the Tower of Neo-Neo-Saxony (La Tour de Nesle, 1832) with a theme from the Middle Ages, co-written with Frédéric Gaillardet (1808-1882), were also very successful.

A major turning point in Dumas's literary work was an encounter with history professor Augustm Maquet (1813-1888) in 1839, when they co-wrote the drama Bathilde and the historical novel Knight Harmental (Chevalier d'Harmental). Their mutual cooperation lasted until 1857, when they parted on bad terms. Maquet sought out the material and worked out the first outline of the action. Dumas then had a literary treatment, but was often assisted by other collaborators. This Factory of Novels, as the title of a 1854 pamphlet by Dumas's detractors read, resulted in the author's enormous fertility. Dumas's work spans three hundred volumes and includes dramas, comedies, novels, novellas, memoirs, books of travel impressions, images of mores, as well as historical treatises.

Maquet also had the greatest credit for the creation of Dumas's most famous novel, The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires, 1844), with the heroes d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. The success of the novel, set during the reign of Louis XIII, was so great that Dumas and Maquet created two more sequels: The three musketeers after twenty years (Vingt ans après, 1845) and the Three Musketeers after ten years, or Viscount de Bragelonne (Le vicomte de Bragelonne, ou Dix ans plus tard, 1847-1850), in which they took the action until d'Artagnan's death.

Another huge success for the Dumas-Maquet pair was the adventure novel The Count of Monte-Christo (Le comte de Monte-Cristo, 1844-1845). Their very well-known works also include a trilogy from the period of the religious wars in France in the 16th century, Queen Margot (La reine Margot, 1845), the Lady of Monsoreau (La dame de Monsoreau, 1846) and the King's Jester (Les Quarante-Cinq, 1847-1848) and a cycle from the history of the Great French Revolution of the Memory of the Physician (Mémoires d' un médecin), whose individual works include Joseph Balsamo (Joseph Balsamo, 1846-1849), Queen's Necklace (Le collier de la reine, 1849-1850), Bastille (Ange Pitou, 1850-1851) and Countess de Charny (La Comtesse de Charny, 1852).

Although Dumas has earned a fortune writing for his life, his failed investments (e.g. a mansion bearing the name Count of Monte-Christo built on land bought only by word of mouth, a theatre lease in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1848 that had to be closed for lack of interest in October 1850), the unsuccessful publishing of Mousquetaire (Musketeer) and D'Artagnan, an unresolved property matter with actress Ida Ferrier after the divorce of their eight-year-old At the end of his life, he was forced to turn to his son, also a writer named Alexandre Dumas, Jr., in Puys, where he died.

Dumas was always more about entertainment than historical fidelity in his works. That's why he's always emphasized everything that could bring his narrative dramatically to life. To do so, he used proven means such as conspiracies, duels, secret kidnappings, terrible secrets, and other surprising events to keep the reader in constant suspense. He also ensured wide publicity for his novels, Dumas, by first publishing them in parisian diaries for a sequel as a so-called novel-featureton. He thus became the most widely read writer of his time, and his popularity does not fade today.