Alexandre Dumas fils’s Followers (560)

Alexandre Dumas fils

Born

in Paris, France

July 27, 1824

Died

November 27, 1895

Genre

Literature & Fiction

edit data

Alexandre Dumas (fils) (son) was born in Paris, France, the illegitimate child of Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay (1794-1868), a dressmaker, and novelist Alexandre Dumas. During 1831 his father legally recognized him and ensured that the young Dumas received the best education possible at the Institution Goubaux and the Collège Bourbon. At that time, the law allowed the elder Dumas to take the child away from his mother. Her agony inspired Dumas fils to write about tragic female characters. In almost all of his writings, he emphasized the moral purpose of literature and in his play The Illegitimate Son (1858) he espoused the belief that if a man fathers an illegitimate child then he has an obligation to legitimize the child and marry the woman. Alexandre Dumas (fils) (son) was born in Paris, France, the illegitimate child of Marie-Laure-Catherine Labay (1794-1868), a dressmaker, and novelist Alexandre Dumas. During 1831 his father legally recognized him and ensured that the young Dumas received the best education possible at the Institution Goubaux and the Collège Bourbon. At that time, the law allowed the elder Dumas to take the child away from his mother. Her agony inspired Dumas fils to write about tragic female characters. In almost all of his writings, he emphasized the moral purpose of literature and in his play The Illegitimate Son (1858) he espoused the belief that if a man fathers an illegitimate child then he has an obligation to legitimize the child and marry the woman.

Dumas' paternal great-grandparents were a French nobleman and a Haitian woman. In boarding schools, Dumas fils was constantly taunted by his classmates. These issues all profoundly influenced his thoughts, behaviour, and writing.

During 1844 Dumas moved to Saint-Germain-en-Laye to live with his father. There, he met Marie Duplessis, a young courtesan who would be the inspiration for his romantic novel The Lady of the Camellias. Adapted into a play, it was titled in English (especially in the United States) as Camille and is the basis for Verdi's 1853 opera, La Traviata. Although he admitted that he had done the adaptation because he needed the money, he had a great success with the play. Thus began the career of Dumas fils as a dramatist, which was not only more renowned than that of his father during his lifetime but also dominated the serious French stage for most of the second half of the 19th century. After this, he virtually abandoned writing novels (though his semi-autobiographical L'Affaire Clemenceau (1867) achieved some success).

On 31 December 1864, in Moscow, Dumas married Nadjeschda von Knorring (1826 – April 1895), daughter of Johan Reinhold von Knorring and wife, and widow of Alexander, Prince Naryschkine. The couple had two daughters: Marie-Alexandrine-Henriette Dumas, born 20 November 1860, who married Maurice Lippmann and was the mother of Serge Napoléon Lippmann (1886–1975) and Auguste Alexandre Lippmann (1881–1960); and Jeanine Dumas (3 May 1867–), who married Ernest d' Hauterive (1864–1957), son of George Lecourt d' Hauterive and wife (married in 1861) Léontine de Leusse. After Naryschkine's death, he married in June 1895 Henriette Régnier de La Brière (1851–1934), without issue.

During 1874, he was admitted to the Académie française, and in 1894 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur.

Alexandre Dumas fils died at Marly-le-Roi, Yvelines, on November 27, 1895 and was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris. His grave is, perhaps coincidentally, only some 100 metres away from that of Marie Duplessis.

...more

Combine Editions
Alexandre Dumas fils’s books

Average rating: 4.04 · 64,329 ratings · 5,336 reviews · 457 distinct works • Similar authors

	La dame aux camélias 4.05 avg rating — 63,132 ratings — published 1848 — 532 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Margaretta Gauthier by Alexandre Dumas fils, Hamka (translator) 4.23 avg rating — 253 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Camille: A Play in Five Acts 3.72 avg rating — 220 ratings — published 1857 — 123 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	camille Dama cu camelii 4.41 avg rating — 107 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La signora delle camelie - La traviata 4.11 avg rating — 63 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La signora delle camelie - La vita a vent'anni 3.74 avg rating — 46 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	LA DAMA DE LAS CAMELIAS: Alejandro Dumas by Alexandre Dumas fils, Jhon Soto (Translator), Alejandro Dumas hijo 4.28 avg rating — 40 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Diane De Lys 3.74 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 1851 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	La Dama de las Camelias (Annotated) (Spanish Edition) by Alexandre Dumas fils, Francisco Luis De Retes (Translator), Antonio Rotondo y Rabasco (Translator) 4.22 avg rating — 23 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Son of Clemenceau 3.36 avg rating — 25 ratings — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Alexandre Dumas fils…

Quotes by Alexandre Dumas fils (?)

“The difference between genius and stupidity is: genius has its limits.”
― Alexandre Dumas-fils

tags: misattributed-to-einstein

21527 likes

“Women sometimes allow you to be unfaithful to their love; they never allow you to wound their self-esteem.”
― Alexandre Dumas fils, La dame aux camélias

tags: love, women

152 likes

“No matter how long I live, I shall live longer than you will love me”
― Alexandre Dumas fils, Camille

101 likes

See all Alexandre Dumas fils's quotes »

Polls

October 2020 Old School Poll

La Dame aux Camelias: The Lady of the Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils 1848, 404 pages

78 votes, 24.5%

Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand 1897, 240 pages

53 votes, 16.7%

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan 1678, 324 pages

48 votes, 15.1%

The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 1826, 479 pages

46 votes, 14.5%

Sonnets From The Portugese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1850, 93 pages

41 votes, 12.9%

In Praise of Folly by Erasmus 1510, 71 pages

31 votes, 9.7%

Phantastes by George MacDonald 1858, 216 pages

21 votes, 6.6%

318 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Romance Readers R...: Gloria's Reading List	9	91	Jan 08, 2011 01:17PM
Reading with Style: FA11 Reading w/Style Completed Tasks - Fall 2011	662	198	Nov 30, 2011 09:03PM
Reading with Style: Summer 2012 20.9 - Elizabeth (Alaska)'s task - Fatherly	45	95	Aug 16, 2012 01:57PM
You'll love this ...: Mad Top Hatt3rs Reporting ONLY	124	56	Oct 26, 2014 04:58AM
You'll love this ...: Mad Top Hatt3rs (Team 3)	747	81	Nov 12, 2014 02:43PM
Goodreads Librari...: ordering of an author's name	3	26	Nov 29, 2014 01:06AM

More…