Alexandre Dumas (père)

(1802 – 1870)

Biographical Sketch

Alexandre Dumas (born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, Villers-Cotterêts, France, July 24, 1802 – Puys near Dieppe, France, December 5, 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas, père), was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure. Translated into nearly 100 languages, these have made him one of the most widely read French authors in history. Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later were originally published as serials. His novels have been adapted since the early twentieth century for nearly 200 films. Dumas’ last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine, unfinished at his death, was completed by a scholar and published in 2005, becoming a bestseller. It was published in English in 2008 as The Last Cavalier.

Prolific in several genres, Dumas began his career by writing plays, which were successfully produced from the first. He also wrote numerous magazine articles and travel books; his published works totaled 100,000 pages. In the 1840s, Dumas founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris.

His father, general Thomas-Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in Saint-Domingue from a French nobleman and a black slave woman. His aristocratic rank helped young Alexandre acquire work with Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans.

With the election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in 1851, Dumas fell from favor, and left France for Belgium, where he stayed for several years. Upon leaving Belgium, Dumas moved to Russia for a few years, before going to Italy. In 1861 he founded and published the newspaper, L’ Indipendente, which supported the Italian unification effort. In 1864 he returned to Paris.

Married, Dumas also had numerous affairs, said to total 40. He was known to have at least four illegitimate or “natural” children, including a boy named Alexandre Dumas after him. This son became a successful novelist and playwright, and was known as Alexandre Dumas, fils (son), while the elder Dumas became conventionally known in French as Alexandre Dumas, père (father). Among his affairs, in 1866 Dumas had one with Adah Isaacs Menken, an American actress then at the height of her career and less than half his age. Twentieth-century scholars have found that Dumas fathered another three natural children.

Bibliography

Novels, Novellas and Tales

Pauline (1838)
(Pauline: A Tale of Normandy)
Le Capitaine Paul (1838)
(Captain Paul)
Jacques Ortis (1839)
La Comtesse de Salisbury (1839-1848)
Marie Stuart (1839-1841)
(Mary Stuart; Mary Queen of Scots)
Martin Guerre (1839-1841)
Maître Adam le Calabrais (1840)
(Master Adam the Calabrian)
Les Aventures de John Davys (1840)
Orthon l’Archer (1840)
(Otho the Archer)
Le Maître d’Armes (1840-1841)
(The Fencing Master)
Praxède; Don Martin de Freytas; Pierre-le-Cruel (1841)
Le Chevalier d’Harmental (1842)
(The Chevalier d’Harmental; The Chateau d’Harmental; The Conspirators )
Aventures de Lyderic (1842)
Georges (1843)
(George)
Ascanio (1844)
(Francis I; The Sculptor’s Apprentice)
Sylvandire (1844)
(Beau Tancrède; The Marriage Verdict)
Fernande (1844)
(Fernande: The Story of a Courtesan; The Fallen Angel)
Le Château d’Eppstein (1844)
(The Castle of Eppstein)
Amaury (1844)
Cécile (1844)
Gabriel Lambert (1844)
(The Galley Slave)
The Musketeers Cycle:
- Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844)
  (The Three Musketeers)
- Vingt Ans Après (1845)
  (Twenty Years After)
- Le Vicomte de Bragelonne; Ou, Dix Ans Plus Tard (1848-1850)
  (Ten Years Later, or, The Vicomte Bragelonne; The Iron Mask; Louise de la Vallière; The Man in the Iron Mask)
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1845-1846)
(The Count of Monte Cristo)
La Reine Margot (1845)
(Margaret de Navarre; Marguerite de Valois)
Une Fille du Régent (1845)
Les Frères Corses (1845)
(The Corsican Brothers)
La Guerre des Femmes (1845)
(The War of Women; Woman’s War; Nanon):
- Nanon de Lartigues
- Madame de Condé
- La Vicomtesse de Cambes
- L’Abbaye de Peyssac
Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge (1845-1846)
(The Knight of Redcastle; The Chevalier de Maison-Rouge)
La Dame de Monsoreau (1846)
(Diana of Meridor; Chicot the Jester; La Dame de Monsoreau; Diane)
Le Bâtard de Mauléon (1846-1847)
(Agenor de Mauléon; The Half Brothers; The Head and the Hand; The Iron Hand)
Les Deux Diane (1846-1847)
(The Two Dianas; The Taking of Calais; The Chatelet; The Comte de Montgomery)
Mémoires d’un Médecin: Joseph Balsamo (1846-1848)
(Memoirs of a Physician; Andrée de Tavarney; The Chevalier; Joseph Balsamo; Madame du Barry; The Countess Dubarry; The Elixir of Life; Cagliostro)
Les Quarante-Cinq (1847-1848)
(Five Guardsmen; The Forty-Five)
Les Mariages du Père Olifus (1849)
(The Man with Five Wives)
Le Collier de la Reine (1849-1850)
(The Queen’s Necklace)
La Femme au Collier de Velours (1850)
(The Woman with the Velvet Collar)
La Tulipe Noire (1850)
(The Black Tulip)
Dieu Dispose (1851)
(Olympia; Samuel Gelb; God’s Will Be Done)
Ange Pitou (1851)
(Taking the Bastille; Six Years Later; The Royal Life-Guard; Ange Pitou)
Conscience l’Innocent; Le Bien et le Mal; Dieu et Diable (1852)
(The Conscript)
Olympe de Clèves (1852)
(Madame de Mailly)
La Comtesse de Charny (1852-1855)
(The Countess de Charny
Isaac Laquedem (1853)
(Isaak Lakadam)
Le Pasteur d’Ashbourn (1853)
Ingénue (1853-1855)
El Salteador (1854)
(The Brigand)
Catherine Blum (1854)
(The Foresters)
Vie et Aventures de la Princesse de Monaco (1854)
Le Page du Duc de Savoie (1855)
(The Page of the Duke of Savoy; The Duke’s Page; Leone-Leona; Saint Quentin; The Tourney of the Rue Saint Antoine)
Les Mohicans de Paris (1854-1855)
(The Monsieur Jackal; The Carbonari; The Horrors of Paris, or, the Flower of the Faubourg; The Mohicans of Paris; The Suicides;
Monsieur Sarranti; Princess Regina)
Les Mohicans de Paris (Suite): Salvator le Commissionnaire (1856 – 1859)
(Salvator; Conrad de Valgeneuse; Rose-de-Noël; The Chief of Police; Madame de Rozan)
Madame du Deffand (1856-1857)
Les Compagnons de Jéhu (1857)
(The Company Of Jéhu; The Aide-de-Camp of Napoleon)
Le Meneur de Loups (1857)
(The Wolf-Leader)
Le Capitaine Richard (1858)
(The Twin Captains; The Twin Lieutenants)
L’Horoscope (1858)
(The Horoscope)
Le Chasseur de Sauvagine (1858)
(The Wild Duck Shooter)
Black (1858)
(Black: The Story of a Dog)
Les Louves de Machecoul (1859)
(She-Wolves of Machecoul; The Last Vendée)
With G. de Cherville.
La Princesse Flora; La Frégate l’Espérance (1859)
Sultanetta; Ammalat-Beg (1859)
(Ammalat Bey)
Journal du Docteur Maynard (1859)
(The Whalers)
La Maison de Glace (1860)
(The Russian Gipsy; The Palace of Ice)
Le Fils du Forçat; Monsieur Coumbes (1860)
(The Convict’s Son)
Le Père la Ruine (1860)
La Boule de Neige; Moullah-Nour (1860)
(The Ball of Snow, The Snowball)
Charles le Téméraire (1860)
Les Drames Galants; la Marquise d’Escoman (1860)
Une Nuit à Florence sous Alexandre de Médicis (1861)
Madame de Chamblay; Ainsi Soit-il! (1862)
Jane (1862)
La Dame de Volupté; Mémoires de Mlle de Luynes (1864)
Les Deux Reines (1864)
La San-Felice et Emma Lyonna (1864-1865)
(The Lovely Lady Hamilton; The Beauty and the Glory; Love and Liberty; The Neapolitan Lovers)
Une Aventure d’Amour (1867)
Les Blancs et les Bleus (1867-1868)
(The Whites and the Blues; The First Republic; The Polish Spy; The Prussians on the Rhine; The 13th Vendémaire; The 18th Fructidor)
Parisiens et Provinciaux (1868)
(Parisians and Provinsials)
L’Île de Feu (1871)
(Doctor Basilius)
Création et Rédemption:
Le Docteur Mystérieux (1872)
La Fille du Marquis (1872)
Le Prince des Voleurs (1872)
(Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves)
Robin Hood le Proscrit (1873)
(Robin Hood the Outlaw)
D’Artagnan (1928)

Short Fiction

Nouvelles Contemporaines (1826)
Maître Cappeluche (1832)
Un Bal masqué (1835)
(A Masked Ball)
Souvenirs d’Antony (1835)
Chroniques de France: Isabel de Bavière (Règne de Charles VI) (1835)
(Isabel of Bavaria; or, the Chronicles of France for the Reign of Charles VI)
La Salle d’Armes (1838):
- Pauline
  (Pauline: A Tale of Normandy)
- Pascal Bruno
- Murat
La Main Droite du Sire de Giac (1838)
Le Capitaine Pamphile (1839)
La Chasse au Chastre (1841)
(The Bird of Fate)
Histoire d’un Casse-Noisette (1845)
(The Nutcracker)
La Bouillie de la Comtesse Berthe (1845)
(Countess Bertha’s Banquet)
Les Mille et Un Fantômes (1849)
(Tales of the Supernatural)
Les Drames de la Mer (1853)
La Jeunesse de Pierrot (1854)
(When Pierrot Was Young)
L’Homme aux Contes (1857):
- Le Soldat de Plomb et la Danseuse de Papier
- Petit-Jean et Gros-Jean
- Le Roi des Taupes et sa Fille
  (The King of the Moles and his Daughter)
- La Jeunesse de Pierrot
Le Lièvre de mon Grand-Père (1857)
(The Phantom White Hare)
Le Vaillant Petit Tailleur (1858)
Marianna (1859)
Contes pour les Grands et les Petits Enfants (1859)
Le Père Gigogne (1860)
Le Capitaine Rhino (1872)
Jacquot sans Oreilles (1873)
(Crop-Eared Jaquot)

Plays

Ivanhoe (1822)
La Chasse et l’Amour (1825)
(Hunting and Love; Love and the Chase)
La Noce et l’Enterrement (1826)
Fiesque de Lavagna (1827)
– Based on Friedrich Schiller’s Fiesko.
Henri III et sa Cour (1829)
(Henry III and His Court)
Christine, ou Stockholm, Fontainebleau et Rome (1830)
Napoléon Bonaparte, ou trente Ans de l’Histoire de France (1831)
Antony (1831)
(Anthony)
Charles VII chez ses Grands Vassaux (1831)
(Charles VII at the Homes of his Great Vassals)
Richard Darlington (1831)
Térésa (1832)
Le Mari de la Veuve (1832)
La Tour de Nesle (1832)
(The Tower of Nesle)
– With Frédéric Gaillardet.
Angèle (1834)
Catherine Howard (1834)
(The Throne, the Tomb, and the Scaffold; All for a Crown, or, the Only Love of King Henry VIII)
Cromwell et Charles I (1835)
With M.-E.-G. Théaulon de Lambert and E. Rousseau.
Don Juan de Marana ou la Chute d’un Ange (1836)
Kean, ou Désordre et Génie (1836)
(Kean, or Disorder and Genius)
Piquillo (1837)
– With Gérald de Nerval.
Caligula (1837)
Paul Jones (1838)
– With Adrien Dauzats.
Le Bourgeois De Gand (1838)
With Hippolyte Romand.
Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (1839)
(The Great Lover; Gabrielle de Belle Isle)
L’Alchimiste (1839)
(The Alchemist)
– With Gérald de Nerval.
Léo Burckart (1839)
– With Gérald de Nerval.
Jarvis l’Honnête Homme (1840)
– With Charles Lafont.
Jeannic le Bréton (1841)
– With Eugène Bourgeois.
Un Mariage sous Louis XV (1841)
(A Marriage Under Louis XV)
Louise Bernard (1843)
Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr (1843)
(The Damsels of Saint-Cyr)
Sylvandire (1845)
The Musketeer Plays:
- Les Mousquetaires (1845)
  (The Three Musketeers)
  (Prologue: L’Auberge de Béthune)
- La Jeunesse des Mousquetaires (1849)
  (The Young Musketeers)
- Le Prisonnier de la Bastille (1861)
  (The Prisoner of the Bastille)
  First 2 plays with Auguste Maquet.
Une Fille du Régent (1846)
Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge (1847)
(The Knight of the Red House)
– With Auguste Maquet.
La Reine Margot (1847)
(Margaret de Navarre; Marguerite de Valois)
– With Auguste Maquet.
Intrigue et Amour (1847)
Hamlet, Prince de Danemark (1848)
– With Paul Meurice.
Catilina (1848)
– With Auguste Maquet.
The Monte Cristo Plays:
- Monte-Cristo (1848)
- Le Comte de Morcerf (1851)
  (The Count of Morcerf)
- Villefort (1851)
  All 3 plays with Auguste Maquet.
La Guerre des Femmes (1849)
– With Auguste Maquet.
Le Comte Hermann (1849)
La Chasse au Chastre (1850)
(The Bird of Fate)
La Barrière de Clichy (1851)
Ascanio (1852)
Le Marbrier (1854)
La Conscience (1854)
La Jeunesse de Louis XV (1854)
La Jeunesse de Louis XIV (1856)
(Young King Louis)
L’Orestie (1856)
La Tour Saint-Jacques-la-Boucherie (1856)
L’Invitation à la Valse (1857)
Les Compagnons de Jéhu (1857)
L’Honneur est Satisfait (1858)
Les Gardes Forestiers (1858)
(The Forest Rangers)
Le Gentilhomme de la Montagne (1860)
Le Roman d’Elvire (1860)
La Dame de Monsoreau (1860)
Prologue: L’Etang de Beaugé
– With Auguste Maquet.
L’Envers d’une Conspiration (1860)
Les Mohicans de Paris (1864)
Les Deux Diane (1865)
Gabriel Lambert (1866)
– With Amédée de Jallais.
Madame de Chamblay (1869)
Les Blancs et les Bleus (1869)
(The Whites and the Blues)
La San-Felice (1881)

On History, Politics and Society

Gaule et France (1833)
(The Progress of Democracy; Illustrated in the History of Gaul and France)
Crimes Célèbres (1839-1841)
(Celebrated Crimes)
Napoléon (1840)
Les Stuarts (1840)
Jehanne la Pucelle, 1429 – 1431 (1842)
(Joan the Heroic Maiden)
Filles, Lorettes et Courtisanes (1843)
Un Alchimiste au Dix-Neuvième Siècle (1843)
Louis XIV et son Siècle (1844-1845)
(Louis XIV and his Century)
Michel-Ange et Raphaël Sanzio (1845)
La Régence (1849)
Louis XV et sa Cour (1849)
Louis XVI et la Révolution;
Louis XVI et Marie-Antoinette (1850-1851)
Montevideo, ou une Nouvelle Troie (1850)
Le Drame de Quatre-Vingt-Treize (1851)
Le Trou de l’Enfer (1851)
(The Mouth of Hell)
Histoire de Deux Siècles, ou la Cour, l’Eglise et le Peuple depuis 1650 jusqu’à nos Jours (1852)
Le Dernier Roi: Histoire de la Vie Politique et Privée de Louis-Philippe (1852)
(The Last King; The New France)
Saphir, Pierre Précieuse:
Montée par Alexandre Dumas (1854)
La Dernière Année de Marie Dorval (1855)
Les Grands Hommes en Robe de Chambre (1856):
- César
- Henri IV
- Louis XIII
- Richelieu
La Retraite Illuminée (1858)
Causeries (1860)
Les Morts Vont Vite (1861)
Les Garibaldiens; Révolution de Sicile et de Naples (1861)
(The Garibaldeans; On Board the ‘Emma’)
L’ Histoire des peintres; Italiens et Flamands (1862)
Les Hommes de Fer (1867)
La Terreur Prussienne (1868)
(The Prussian Terror)
Souvenirs Dramatiques (1868)

Translations

Mémoires d’un Policeman (1859)
Translation of Water’s Stories of a Detective; by Victor Perceval, credited to Dumas.
Un Cadet de Famille (1860)
Translation of Trelawny’s Adventures of a Younger Son;
by Victor Perceval, published by Dumas.
La Vie au Désert; Cinq ans de Chasse dans l’Intérieur de l’Afrique Méridionale (1860)
Translation of R. Gordon-Cumming’s Lion Hunter in South Africa
Mémoires de Garibaldi (1860)
Translated from Garibaldi’s original manuscript.

Travelogues and Memoirs

La Vendée et Madame (1832)
(The Duchess of Berri in La Vendée)
Impressions de Voyage (1834-1837)
(Travel Impressions)
Nouvelles Impressions de Voyage: Quinze jours au Sinaï (1839)
With A. Dauzats.
Nouvelles Impressions de Voyage: Midi de la France (1841)
Excursions sur les Bords du Rhin (1841)
Une Année à Florence (1841)
Le Speronare (1842)
Le Capitaine Arena (1842)
Le Corricolo (1843)
La Villa Palmieri (1843)
Impressions de voyage:
De Paris à Cadix (1847-1848)
Mémoires de J.-F. Talma (1849)
Impressions de voyage: En Suisse (1851)
(Adventures in Switzerland)
Le Véloce, ou Tanger, Alger et Tunis (1848-1851)
(Adventures in Algeria)
Un Gil Blas en Californie (1852)
Mes Mémoires (1852-1854)
(My Memoirs)
Une Vie d’Artiste (1854)
(A Life’s Ambition)
Souvenirs de 1830 à 1842 (1854-1855)
Pèlerinage de Hadji-Abd-el-Hamid-Bey: Médine et la Mecque (1856-1857)
Taïti; Marquises; Californie: Le Journal de Madame Giovanni (1856)
(Tahiti; Marquesas; California: The Journal of Madame Giovanni)
Lettres de Saint-Pétersbourg (1859)
Le Caucase: Impressions de Voyage (1859)
(Adventures in Caucasia)
De Paris à Astrakan: Nouvelles Impressions de Voyage (1860)
(Adventures in Czarist Russia)
La Route de Varennes (1860)
(The Flight to Varennes)
Souvenirs d’une Favourite (1865)
Un Pays Inconnu (1865)
Histoire de mes Bêtes (1867)
(Adventures with My Pets)

Fine Arts and Cuisine

L’Art et les Artistes Contemporains au Salon de 1859 (1859)
Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine (1873)
(Dictionary of Cuisine)
With D.-J. Vuillemot.
Propos d’Art et de Cuisine (1877)
Petit Dictionnaire de Cuisine (1882)

Online editions of Alexandre Dumas’s works:

A Selection of Quotes

The Three Musketeers

“All for one and one for all.”

“You are very amiable, no doubt, but you would be charming if you would only depart.”

“As a general rule,’ he had once said, ‘people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or, if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.”

The Count of Monte Cristo

“How strange,” continued the king, with some asperity; “the police think that they have disposed of the whole matter when they say, ‘A murder has been committed,’ and especially so when they can add, ‘And we are on the track of the guilty persons.”

“To learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the others.”

Les Mohicans de Paris

“Il y a une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu’on me fait un rapport, je dis: ‘Cherchez la femme!”

Queen Margot, or Marguerite de Valois

“Women are never so strong as after their defeat.”

Ange Pitou

“Nothing succeeds like success.”

Adventures in Czarist Russia

“Sleeping on a plank has one advantage – it encourages early rising.”

Find more quotes by Alexandre Dumas (père) on Wikiquote and Goodreads.