The work of Alexandre Dumas has always been very popular around the world, especially in Spanish-speaking places. Even when Dumas visited Spain in 1846, he was surprised to see that everyone recognized him as the author of The Three Musketeers. But ask yourself for a moment, Do you know who Alexander Dumas was? At we want to tell you everything about his life and work. Join us! 🙂
Who was Alexander Dumas?
Alexandre Dumas’s phrases are recognized worldwide, each of them has the perfect measure between wisdom and adventure. And all of them are distributed in the more than 200 works published by this prolific French writer of the 19th century.. So… It is not an easy task to discover who Alexander Dumas was, yes, his work is as extensive as his life, but as he would say: «Everything fits into the brief. Small is the child and encloses the man; The brain is narrow and shelters the thought; The eye is nothing more than a point and covers leagues.
To know who Alexander Dumas was, let’s start with his biography. The prolific writer was born on July 24, 1802, in a town located northeast of Paris. Before his birth, his history would already be marked. You see, in 1760 his paternal grandfather, the Marquis Antonie-Alexandre Davy, was forced to emigrate to Saint-Domingue to avoid falling into misery in France. There he worked as a planter and met the love of his life, Marie Céssette Dumas, a black slave from the French part of the island, who gave birth to Thomas-Alexadre Dumas and died ten years later. The latter is precisely the father of Alexander Dumas, and is known as the «black count» or the «black devil.» hero of the French Revolution and inspiration for what would become one of the most popular books in universal literature; The Count of Monte Cristo.
Now, who was the mother of Alexandre Dumas? Her name was Marie-Louise Labouret, who 4 years after giving birth, she was widowed and without the pension she was entitled to, nor the possibility of giving her son an elementary education.
1. The work of Alexander Dumas
Although he began publishing from a very young age, this does not explain the extraordinary number of novels, plays and travel chronicles published throughout his life; and which are estimated at around 300, not counting the numerous articles for newspapers and magazines. Although his future was being forged until now, He had no doubt that in the future everyone would know who Alexander Dumas was..
It was in 1831, it premiered Anthony at the Théatre de la porte de Saint-Martin. The performance established Dumas as one of the best dramatists of the time. The theater successes followed one after another. As time went by, his works became better paid and therefore, he also gained greater prestige as a writer..
As you already know, Dumas’ writings have been part of the best-selling books in history, which, in his lifetime, also brought him enormous wealth that earned him the economic well-being that he had always longed for. In 1844, Alexander Dumas began the series of great novels. In each of them he narrates the unique events in the history of France, and as expected, he conquered the world with his masterpiece: The Three Musketeers.
This insatiable writer published, starting in 1845 and with the collaboration of other writers who collected data and made historical sketches, one after another the great successes that we know: The Count of Monte Cristo, A Daughter of the Regent, Queen Margaret, Twenty Years Later, The Knight of the Pink House and The lady of Monserau.
If this was not enough to know who Alexander Dumas is, we tell you that, in 1846, when this writer was at the peak of his career and his fame surpassed the borders of France, the country’s Minister of Public Instruction, invited him to travel to Algeria. The idea was for Alexander Duma to write from there and help promote that country’s foreign policy..
As their profits increased, so did their rampant spending; he built a palace in Porty-Marly called Monte Cristo. To do this, he brought decorators from Algeria, bought the most classic and expensive furniture, and offered unlimited meals and parties. He supported his children, their mothers and several lovers. As we can suppose, Alexander Dumas lived in great luxury and waste and, although he earned more than 200,000 francs a year, he was always in debt..
2. Recent years
He was a writer on weapons and his numerous travel diaries attest to this: He toured Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, Russia and Palestine, among other countries.. As we already told you, Alexander Dumas was immensely rich, but he squandered his fortune on parties, dinners and luxury items, to the point of having to leave France on one occasion fleeing from his creditors.
Furthermore, Dumas always had a rebellious spirit. He was involved in the Revolution of 1848, but managed to avoid legal complications. Likewise, on a trip to Italy in 1859, he met Giuseppe Garibaldi, whom he helped by purchasing weapons in Marseille and transporting them to Sicily on his own ship. As a result of this friendship and the triumph of the Italian, He was appointed as director of Excavations and Museums of Naplesa position he held for several years, until he returned to France.
By 1870, Dumas took refuge in his son’s country house in Puys, unable to reach Paris due to the war and his state of health. Despite his old age and illness, Dumas’s writings continued to fill newspapers across the country. Even when he couldn’t write anymore, he hired a scribe to help him, so basically, Until his last days his followers were able to enjoy one more work: The Knight of Saint-Hermine. One of the curious facts about the work of Alexander Dumas is that this writing was not known as a book until 2005, thanks to the compilation by Cluade Schopp, a well-known biographer of Dumas.
Not even his death, on December 5, 1870, could avoid a certain romantic touch. He suffered a heart attack the same day that Prussian troops entered his town. Two years later, at the end of the war, his remains were transferred to Villers-Cotterets. They were there until 2002, after which they were taken to the Pantheon of Illustrious Men of France, in Pariswhere he rests alongside other great writers such as Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Voltaire and Rousseau.
In fact, on the occasion of Dumas’s death, the great writer Victor Hugo said: «No popularity in this century has surpassed that of Alexander Dumas. His successes are more than successes, they are triumphs that have the brilliant sound of fanfares. The name of Alexandre Dumas is more than French: he is European, he is universal »
For many, Alexander Dumas is one of the men who forged a new civilization, with his writings he purifies people’s spirits with a joyful and strong radiance. We hope that with this article you have been able to answer your question about who Alexander Dumas was. We are sure that this historical figure has been one of the great writers of all time. And if you want to know more about universal literature, we invite you to read about what magical realism is, a place where the extraordinary becomes everyday.