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DUMAS, ALEXANDRE

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 656 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DUMAS, See also:ALEXANDRE [ALEXANDRE See also:DAVY DE LA PAILLE- TERIE] (1802-1870), See also:French novelist and dramatist, was See also:born at Villers-Cotterets (See also:Aisne) on the 24th of See also:July 1802. His See also:father, the French See also:general, See also:Thomas Alexandre Dumas (1762–1806)—also known as Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie—was born in See also:Saint Domingo, the natural son of See also:Antoine Alexandre Davy, See also:marquis de la Pailleterie, by a negress, See also:Marie Cessette Dumas, who died in 1772. In 178o he accompanied the marquis to See also:France, and there the father made a mesalliance which drove the son into enlisting in a See also:dragoon See also:regiment. Thomas Alexandre Dumas was still a private at the outbreak of the revolution, but he See also:rose rapidly and became general of See also:division in 1793. He was generalin-See also:chief of the See also:army of the western See also:Pyrenees, and was transferred later to commands in the See also:Alps and in La See also:Vendee. Among his many exploits was the defeat of the Austrians at the See also:bridge of See also:Clausen on the 22nd of See also:April 1797, where he commanded See also:Joubert's See also:cavalry. He lost See also:Napoleon's favour by See also:plain speaking in the See also:Egyptian See also:campaign, and presently returned to France to spend the See also:rest of his days in retirement at Villers Cotterets, where he had married in 1792 Marie Elisabeth Labouret. The novelist, who was the offspring of this See also:union, was not four years old when General Dumas died, leaving his See also:family with no further resource than 30 acres of See also:land. Mme Dumas tried to obtain help from Napoleon, but in vain, and lived with her parents in narrow circumstances. Alexandre received the rudiments of See also:education from a See also:priest, and entered the See also:office of a See also:local See also:solicitor. His chief friend was Adolphe de Leuven, the son of an exiled See also:Swedish nobleman implicated in the assassination of Gustavus III. of See also:Sweden, and the two collaborated in various vaudevilles and other pieces which never saw the footlights. Leuven returned to See also:Paris, and Dumas was sent to the office of a solicitor at Crepy.

When in 1823 Dumas contrived to visit his friend in Paris, he was received to his See also:

great delight by See also:Talma. He returned See also:home only to break with his employer, and to arrange to seek his See also:fortune in Paris, where he sought help without success from his father's old See also:friends. An introduction to-the See also:deputy of his See also:department, General See also:Foy, procured for him, however, a See also:place as clerk in the service of the See also:duke of See also:Orleans at a See also:salary of 1200 francs. He set to See also:work to rectify his lack of education and to collaborate with Leuven in the See also:production of vaudevilles and melodramas. Madame Dumas presently joined her son in Paris, where she died in 1838. Soon after his arrival in Paris Dumas had entered on a liaison with a dressmaker, Marie See also:Catherine Labay, and their son, the famous Alexandre Dumas fils (see below), was born in 1824. Dumas acknowledged his son in 1831, and obtained the custody of him after a lawsuit with the See also:mother. The first piece by Dumas and Leuven to see the footlights was La See also:Chasse et l'amour (See also:Ambigu-Comique, 22nd of See also:Sept. 1825), and in this they had help from other writers. Dumas had a See also:share in another See also:vaudeville, La Noce et l'enterrement (See also:Porte Saint-See also:Martin, 21st of Nov. 1826). It was under the See also:influence of the See also:Shakespeare plays produced in Paris by See also:Charles See also:Kemble, Harriet See also:Smithson (afterwards Mme See also:Berlioz) and an See also:English See also:company that the romantic See also:drama of Christine was written.

The subject was. suggested by a bas-See also:

relief of the See also:murder of Monaldeschi exhibited at the See also:Salon of 1827. The piece was accepted by See also:Baron See also:Taylor and the members of the Comedie Fran9aise with the stipulation that it should be subject to revision by another dramatist because of its innovating tendencies. But the production of the piece was deferred. Meanwhile Dumas had met with the See also:story of the See also:ill-fated Saint-Megrin and the duchess of See also:Guise in See also:Anquetil's See also:history, and had written, in See also:prose, See also:Henri III. et sa tour, which was immediately accepted by the Comedie Fran9aise and produced on the 11th of See also:February 1829. It was the first great See also:triumph of the romantic drama. The brilliant stagecraft of the piece and its admirable See also:historical setting delighted an See also:audience accustomed to the decadent classical tragedy, and brought him the friendship of See also:Hugo' and See also:Vigny. His See also:literary efforts had met with marked disapproval from his See also:official superiors, and he had been compelled to resign his clerk-See also:ship before the production of Henri III. The duke of Orleans had, however, been See also:present at the performance, and appointed him assistant-librarian at the Palais Royal. Christine was now recast as a romantic trilogy in See also:verse in five acts with a See also:prologue and See also:epilogue, with the sub-See also:title of See also:Stockholm, See also:Fontainebleau, See also:Rome, and was successfully produced by Harel at the Odeon in See also:March 1830. The revolution of 183o temporarily diverted Dumas from letters. The See also:account of his exploits should be read in his Memoiies, where, though the incidents are true in the See also:main, they lose nothing in the telling. During the fighting in Paris he attracted the See also:attention of La Fayette, who sent him to See also:Soissons to secure See also:powder.

With the help of some inhabitants he compelled the See also:

governor to See also:hand over the See also:magazine, and on his return to Paris was sent by La Fayette on a See also:mission to raise a See also:national guard in La Vendee. The See also:advice he gave to See also:Louis-Philippe on this subject was ill-received, and after giving offence by further indiscretions he finally alienated himself from the Orleans See also:government by being implicated in the disturbances which attended the funeral of General Lamarque in See also:June 1832, and he received a hint that his See also:absence from France was desirable. A tour in See also:Switzerland undertaken on this account furnished material for the first of a See also:long See also:series of amusing books of travel. Dumas remained, however, on friendly and even affectionate terms with the See also:young duke of Orleans until his See also:death in 1842. Meanwhile he had produced Napoleon See also:Bonaparte (Odeon, loth of See also:Jan. 1831), his unwillingness to make a See also:hero of the See also:man who had slighted his father having been overcome by Harel, who put him under See also:lock and See also:key until the piece was finished. His next See also:play, Antony, had a real importance in the history of the romantic See also:theatre. It was put in See also:rehearsal by Mlle See also:Mars, but so unsatisfactorily that Dumas transferred it to See also:Bocage and Mme Dorval, who played it magnificently at the Porte Saint-Martin theatre on the 3rd of May 1831. The Byronic hero Antony was .a portrait of himself in his relations with Mme Melanie Waldor, the wife of an officer, and daughter of the journalist M. G. T. de Villenave, except of course in the extravagantly melodramatic denouement, when Antony, to See also:save his See also:mistress's See also:honour, kills her and ex-claims, " See also:Elie me resistait, je 1'ai assassinee." He produced more than twenty more plays alone or in collaboration before 1845, exclusive of dramatizations from his novels. See also:Richard See also:Darlington (Porte Saint-Martin, loth of Dec.

1831), the first See also:

idea of which was See also:drawn from See also:Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott's See also:Chronicles of the Canongate, owed See also:part of its great success to the admirable acting of See also:Frederick See also:Lemaitre. La Tour de See also:Nesle (Porte Saint-Martin, 29th of May 1832), announced as by MM. X X X and Gaillardet, was the occasion of a See also:duel and a See also:law-suit with the See also:original author, See also:Frederic Gaillardet, whose MS. had been revised, first by Jules See also:Janin and then by Dumas. In rapidity of See also:movement, and in the terror it inspired, the piece surpassed Henri III. and Antony. ' His friendship with See also:Victor Hugo was interrupted in 1833–1834 by the articles contributed to the See also:Journal See also:des debats by a friend and protege of the poet, Granier de See also:Cassagnac, who brought against Dumas charges of wholesale See also:plagiarism from other dramatists. A lighter drama, Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle (Theatre Frangais, 2nd of April 1839), still remains in the repertory. In 1840 Dumas married See also:Ida See also:Ferrier, an actress whom he had imposed on the theatres that took his pieces. The amiable relations which had subsisted between them for eight years were disturbed by the See also:marriage, which is said to have been under, taken in consequence of a strong hint from the duke of Orleans, and Mme Dumas lived in See also:Italy separated from her See also:husband. As a novelist Dumas began by See also:writing See also:short stories, but his happy collaboration with Auguste Maquet,2 which began in 1839, led to the admirable series of historical novels in which he proposed to reconstruct the whole course of French history. In 1844 he produced, with Maquet's help, that most famous of " cloak and See also:sword " romances, See also:Les Trois Mousquetaires (8 vols.), the material for which was discovered in the Memoiies de M. d'Artagnan (See also:Cologne, 1701—1702) of Courtils de Sandras. The adventures of d'Artagnan and the three musketeers, the gigantic Porthos, the See also:clever Aramis, and the See also:melancholy See also:Athos, who unite to defend the honour of See also:Anne of See also:Austria against See also:Richelieu and the machinations of " Milady," are brought down to the murder of See also:Buckingham in 1629. Their admirers were gratified by two sequels, Vingt ans apre,s (10 vols., 1845) and See also:Dix ans plus tard, ou le vicomte de Bragelonne (26 pts., 1848—1850), which opens in 1660, showing us a mature d'Artagnan, a respectable See also:captain of musketeers, and contains the magnificent account of the heroic death of Porthos.

The three musketeers are as famous in See also:

England as in France. See also:Thackeray could read about Athos from sunrise to sunset with the utmost contentment of mind, and R. L. See also:Stevenson and See also:Andrew See also:Lang have paid See also:tribute to the See also:band in Memories and Portraits and Letters to Dead Authors. Before 1844 was out Dumas had completed a second great See also:romance in 12 volumes, Le See also:Comte de See also:Monte-Cristo, in which he had help from Fiorentino as well as from Maquet. The idea of the intrigue was suggested by Peuchet's See also:Police devoilee, and the stress laid on the earlier incidents, Dantes, Danglars and the See also:Chateau d'If, is said to have been an afterthought. Almost as famous as these two romances is the set of See also:Valois novels of which Henri IV. is the central figure, beginning with La Reine Margot (6 vols., 1845), which contains the history of the struggle between Catherine of Medicis and See also:Henry of See also:Navarre; the history of the reign of Henry III. is told in La See also:Dame de Monsoreau (8 vols., 1846), generally known in English as Chicot the See also:Jester, from its See also:principal See also:character; and in Les Quarante-cinq (10 vols., 1847—1848), in which Diane de Monsoreau avenges herself on the duke of See also:Anjou for the death of her former See also:lover, See also:Bussy d'See also:Amboise. Much has been written about the exact share which Dumas had in the novels which See also:bear his name. The Dumas-Maquet series is undoubtedly the best, but Maquet alone never accomplished anything to approach them in value. The See also:MSS. of the novels still exist in Dumas's See also:handwriting, and the best of them bear the unmistakable See also:stamp of his unrivalled skill as a narrator. The chief key to his enormous output is to be found in his untiring See also:industry and amazing fertility of invention, not in the See also:system of wholesale collaboration which was exposed with much exaggeration by See also:Querard in his Supercheries litteraires and by "See also:Eugene de Mirecourt" (C. B.

J. Jacquot) in his misleading Fabrique de See also:

romans, maison Alexandre Dumas et c4e (1845). His assistants, in fact, supplied him with outlines of romances on plans drawn up by himself, and he then rewrote the whole thing. That this method was never abused it would be impossible to say; Les Deux Diane, for instance, a prelude to the Valois novels, is said to have been written. entirely by See also:Paul See also:Meurice, although Dumas's name appears on the title-See also:page. The latter part of Dumas's See also:life is a See also:record of excessive toil to meet prodigal See also:expenditure and accumulated debts. His disasters began with the See also:building of a See also:house in the See also:Renaissance See also:style, with a See also:Gothic See also:pavilion and an " English " See also:park, at Saint Germain- ' The details of this collaboration were brought to See also:light in a suit brought against Dumas by Maquet with regard to his share in the profits. See the See also:Gazette des tribunaux (See also:January 21, 22, 28, and February 4, 1858). en-Laye. This place, called Monte-Cristo, was governed by a See also:crowd of hangers-on of both sexes, who absorbed Dumas's large earnings and See also:left him penniless. Dumas also founded the Theatre Historique chiefly for the performance of his own See also:works. The enterprise was under the patronage of the duc deMontpensier, and was under the management of Hippolyte Hostein, who had been the secretary of the Comedie Francaise. The theatre was opened in February 1847 with a dramatic version of La Reine Margot.

Meanwhile Dumas had been the See also:

guest of the duc de See also:Montpensier at See also:Madrid, and made a quasi-official tour to See also:Algeria and See also:Tunis in a government See also:vessel, which caused much comment in the See also:press. Dumas had never changed his republican opinions. He greeted the revolution of 1848 with delight, and was even a See also:candidate for electoral honours in the department of the See also:Yonne. But the See also:change was fatal to his theatrical enterprise, for the failure of which in 185o he was made financially responsible. His son, Alexandre Dumas, was at that See also:time living with his mother Mlle Labay, who was eventually reconciled with the See also:elder Dumas. Father and son, though always on affectionate terms when they met, were too different in their ideas to see much of one another. After the coup, d'etat of 1851 Dumas crossed the frontier to See also:Brussels, and two years of rapid production, and the See also:economy of his secretary, See also:Noel Parfait, restored something like See also:order to his affairs. On his return to Paris in the end of 1853 he established a daily See also:paper, Le Mousquetaire, for the See also:criticism of See also:art and letters. It was chiefly written by Dumas, whose Memoires first appeared in it, and survived until 1857, when it was succeeded by a weekly paper, the Monte-Cristo (1857-186o). In 1858 Dumas travelled through See also:Russia to the See also:Caucasus, and in 186o he joined See also:Garibaldi in See also:Sicily. After an expedition to See also:Marseilles in See also:search of arms for the insurgents, he returned to See also:Naples, where Garibaldi nominated him keeper of the museums. After four years' See also:residence in Naples he returned to Paris, and after the See also:war of '66 he visited the battlefields and produced his story of La Terreur prussienne.

But his See also:

powers were beginning to fail, and in spite of the 1200 volumes which he told Napoleon he had written, he was at the See also:mercy of his creditors, and of the See also:succession of theatrical ladies who tyrannized over him and feared nothing except the occasional visits of Dumas fils. He was finally rescued from these by his daughter, Mme Petel, who came to live with him in 1868; and two years later, on the 5th of See also:December 187o, he died in his son's house at Puys, near See also:Dieppe. Dumas was never an actual candidate for See also:academic honours, but he had more than once taken steps to investigate his chances of success. A statue of him was erected on the Place See also:Malesherbes, Paris, in 1883, and the figure of d'Artagnan finds a place on the See also:pedestal. Auguste Maquet was'Dumas's chief collaborator. Others were Paul See also:Lacroix (the bibliophile "P. L. See also:Jacob"), Paul Bocage, J. P. Mallefille and P. A. Fiorentino.

The novels of Dumas may be conveniently arranged in a historical sequence. The Valois novels and the musqueteers series brought French history down to 1672. Contributions to later history are:—La Dame de volupte (2 vols., 1864), being the See also:

memoirs of Mme de See also:Luynes, and its sequel Les Deux Reines (2, vols., 1864); La Tulipe noire (3 vols., 185o), giving the history of the See also:brothers de Witt; Le See also:Chevalier d'Harmental (4 vols., 1853), and Une Fille du See also:regent (4 vols., 1845), the story of two plots against the regent, the duke of Orleans; two books on Mme du See also:Deffand, Memoires d'une aveugle (8 vols., 1856-1857) and Les Confessions de la marquise (8 vols., 1857), both of doubtful authorship; Olympe de See also:Cleves (9 vols., 1852), the story of an actress and a young Jesuit novice in the reign of Louis XV., one of his most popular novels; five books on the beginning of the Revolution down to the See also:execution of Marie Antoinette: the Memoires d'un medecin, including See also:Joseph Balsamo (19 pts., 1846-1848), in which J. J. See also:Rousseau, Mme du See also:Barry and the dauphiness Marie Antoinette figure, with its sequels; Le See also:Collier de la reine (9 vols.,1849-1850),inwhich Balsamo appears under the See also:alias of See also:Cagliostro; Ange Pitou (8 vols., 1852), known in English as " The Taking of the See also:Bastille "; La Comtesse de Charny (1q vols., 1853-1855), describing the attempts to savethe See also:monarchy and the See also:flight to Varennes; and Le Chevalier de maison See also:rouge (6 vols., 1846), which opens in 1793 with the hero's See also:attempt to save the See also:queen. Among the numerous novels dealing with the later revolutionary See also:period are:—Les Blancs et les bleus (3 vols., 1868) and Les Compagnons de See also:Jehu (7 vols., 1857). Les Louves de Machecoul (lo vols., 1859) deals with the rising in 1832 in La Vendee. Other famous 'stories are:—Les Freres corses (2 vols., 1845); La Femme an collier de velours (2 vols., 1851); Les Mohicans de Paris (19 VOLS., 1854-1855), detective stories with which may be classed the series of Crimes celebres (8 vols., 1839-1841), which are, however, of doubtful authorship; La See also:San Felice (9 vols., 1864-1865), in which See also:Lady See also:Hamilton played a prominent part, with its sequels Emma Lyonna and Souvenirs d'une favorite. Of his numerous historical works other than fiction the most important is his Louis XI V et son siecle (4 vols., 1845). See also:Mes Memoires (20 vols., 1852-1854; Eng. trans. of selections by A. F. See also:Davidson, 2 vols., 1891) is an account of his father and of his own life down to 1832.

There are collective See also:

editions of his plays (6 vols., 1834-1836, and 15 vols., 1863-1874), but of the 91 pieces for which he was wholly or partially responsible, 24 do not appear in these collections. The See also:complete works of Dumas were issued by See also:Michel See also:Levy freres in 277 volumes (1860-1884). The more important novels have been frequently translated into English. There is a long See also:list of writings on his life and his works both in English and French. The more important French authorities are: his own memoirs, already cited; C. Glinel, Alexandre Dumas et son oeuvre (See also:Reims, 1884) ; H. Parigot, Dumas here (Grands ecrivains See also:francais series, 1902), and Le Daame d'Alexandre Dumas (1899); H. See also:Blaze de See also:Bury, Alexandre Dumas (1885) ; Philibert Andebrand, Alexandre Dumas d la maison d'or (1888); G. See also:Ferry, Dernieres Annees d'Alexandre Dumas (1883); and L. H. Lecomte, Alexandre Dumas (1904). Of the English lives of Dumas perhaps the best is that by See also:Arthur F.

Davidson, Alexandre Dumas Pere, his• Life and Works (1902), which contains an extensive bibliography. See also lives by P. See also:

Fitzgerald (2 vols., 1873) and H. A. Spurr (1902), and essays by Andrew Lang (Letters to Dead Authors), See also:Brander See also:Matthews (French Dramatists), R. L. Stevenson (Memories and Portraits). (M.

End of Article: DUMAS, ALEXANDRE

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