Alexandre Dumas fils’s Followers (531)

Alexandre Dumas fils

Born

in Paris, France

July 27, 1824

Died

November 27, 1895

Genre

Literature & Fiction

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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.

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Alexandre Dumas fils’s books

Average rating: 4.04 · 60,375 ratings · 4,861 reviews · 239 distinct works • Similar authors

	La dame aux camélias 4.05 avg rating — 59,808 ratings — published 1848 — 1871 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 — 215 ratings — 110 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 traviata 4.07 avg rating — 60 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 Dame aux Camelias 3.94 avg rating — 50 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 vita a vent'anni 3.71 avg rating — 45 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 3.69 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1851 — 25 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 — 38 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 Clemenceau Case (1890) by Alexandre Dumas fils, William Fleron 3.85 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 1866 — 64 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 Princess of Bagdad: A Play in Three Acts 3.65 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 1881 — 36 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
	A dama das Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Luciana Leal (contributor), Victória Monteiro de Lima (translator) 4.54 avg rating — 13 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

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

21529 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

151 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

May 2015 Old School Classics Poll

Which book would you like to read for our May 2015 Old School Classics group read?

1868, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, 528 pages

11 votes, 29.7%

1818, Persuasion by Jane Austen, 249 pages

10 votes, 27.0%

1877, Black Beauty, 245 pages

4 votes, 10.8%

1837, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe

4 votes, 10.8%

1839, The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, 532 pages

3 votes, 8.1%

1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 438 pages

2 votes, 5.4%

1597, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, 283 pages

2 votes, 5.4%

1794, The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, 654 pages

1 vote, 2.7%

1848, La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas-fils, 382 pages

0 votes, 0.0%

37 total votes

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