Born: July 24, 1802 Soissons, France Died: December 5, 1870 Puys, France French author, playwright, and

novelist Read more: Alexandre Dumas Biography - life, family, name, son, old, information, born, time http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dumas-Alexandre.html#ixzz1CF8X0IIC Alexandre Dumas, the French author of many plays, popular romances, and historical novels, wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. Early life Alexandre Dumas was born on July 24, 1802, near Soissons, France, the son of a Creole general of the French Revolutionary armies. His grandfather was from a noble family, and his grandmother had been a Dominican slave. Dumas's father died when he was four years old, leaving the family with very little money. Dumas was not a very good student, but his handwriting was noticeably beautiful, and he studied to work as a notary (a public officer who witnesses the signing of important documents and makes them official). He also began writing musical comedies and then historical plays in collaboration (working together with others) with a poet friend named Adolphe de Leuven. Historical subjects, as well as his ability to collaborate, were to be permanent elements of Dumas's work during his career. Dumas then found work as a secretary to the Duke of Orlans (later King Louis Philippe, 17731850) in Paris, France. He read and attended the theater as much as he could during his time off. He was greatly influenced by the works of William Shakespeare (15641616) and wrote his first plays in 1825 and 1826. Others followed, with Henri III et sa cour (1829) bringing him great success and popularity. The revolution of 1830 slowed down Dumas's writing, and he became a strong supporter of the Marquis de Lafayette. His political activities were viewed unfavorably by the new king, his former boss, and he was forced to leave France for a time. A series of amusing travel books resulted from this period of exile. His fiction When Dumas returned to Paris, he began writing a new series of historical plays. By 1851 he had written alone, or in collaboration with others, more than twenty plays. He also began writing fiction at this time, first short stories and then novels. In collaboration with Auguste Maquet he wrote Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844; The Three Musketeers ), Vingt Ans aprs (1845; Twenty Years After ), and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (1850). Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1846; The Count of Monte Cristo ) was also a product of this period. Dumas worked with many collaborators who helped him with the outlines of his romances. The scale of his "fiction factory" has often been exaggerated. Although at least a thousand works were published under his own name, most were due to his own hard work and amazing imagination. Dumas's works were received with enthusiasm by his loyal readers, and he earned a lot of money. He could never earn enough to keep up with his spending habits, however. Among his problems was his estate of Monte-Cristo in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, which attracted many hangers-on and female admirers who Dumas ended up supporting. Later life Dumas, who had never changed his political opinions, was pleased by the Revolution of 1848 and even ran as a candidate for the Assembly. In 1850 the Thetre-Historique, which he had founded to present his plays, failed. After Napoleon III (18081873) took power in 1852, Dumas went to Brussels, Belgium, where his secretary managed to straighten out his affairs to a degree. Here he continued to write constantly. In 1853 Dumas returned to Paris and began the daily paper Le Mousquetaire, which was devoted to art and literature. The paper survived until 1857, and Dumas then published the weekly paper Monte-Cristo. This in turn folded after three years. In 1860 he was named keeper of museums in Naples, Italy. After remaining there for four years, he returned to Paris, where he found himself deep in debt and regularly chased by debt collectors. He also had many women friends who expectedand receivedexpensive gifts from him.

Working hard to pay his debts, Dumas produced a number of works of lower quality, among them Madame de Chamblay (1863) and Les Mohicans de Paris (1864), which were not very successful. His unhappy last years were softened by the presence of his son, Alexandre, and his daughter, Madame Petel. (The elder Alexandre Dumas is generally called Dumas pre to distinguish him from his son, known as Dumas fils, who was also a dramatist and novelist.) Dumas pre died in poverty on December 5, 1870. For More Information Gallaher, John G. General Alexandre Dumas: Soldier of the French Revolution. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997. Hemmings, F. W. J. Alexandre Dumas: The King of Romance. New York: Scribner, 1979. Schopp, Claude. Alexandre Dumas: Genius of Life. New York: Franklin Watts, 1988.

Read more: Alexandre Dumas Biography - life, family, name, son, old, information, born, time http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dumas-Alexandre.html#ixzz1CF8gUYPr http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Dumas-Alexandre.html Alexandre Dumas, pre, (1802-1870), prolific French playwright, historian, and author is best known today for his novel (first serialised in the magazine Le Sicle), The Three Musketeers (1844);

www.aimHIGH101Tips.com Ads by Google It is by his courage, please observe, by his courage alone, that a gentleman can make his way nowadays. Whoever hesitates for a second perhaps allows the bait to escape which during that exact second fortune held out to him. You are young. You ought to be brave for two reasons: the first is that you are a Gascon, and the second is that you are my son. Never fear quarrels, but seek adventures. I have taught you how to handle a sword; you have thews of iron, a wrist of steel. Fight on all occasions.--Ch. 1 This is the counsel young D'Artagnan's father gives him as he sets off to Paris to become a musketeer. He becomes fast friends with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis and embraces their motto "One for all, and all for one", exemplifying the major theme in Dumas' works of loyalty and honour among men. Like Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) Dumas pre also wrote several roman feuilleton or serial works; Twenty Years After (1845) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847), including Louise de la Valliere, Ten Years Later, and The Man in the Iron Mask concludes his d'Artagnan Romances. The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), first serialised in the weekly Journal des dbats was also a huge literary and financial success for Dumas pre. Through protagonist Edmond Dants the reader is taken along his journey of a wrongful trial, his search for justice, revenge, and ultimately riches, forgiveness, and love. Mirroring Dumas pre's own life of high adventure and decadence, he based many of his protagonists on historical figures, as is apparent in his Celebrated Crimes series (written between 1839 and 1841) which includes essays on The Borgias, Ali Pacha, Mary Stuart, and La Constantin. Although the issue of his part-African ancestry was not one that Dumas pre wrote about often Georges: The Planter of the Isle of France (1843) particularly deals with the theme of mixed-race and white colonialism. Dumas pre collaborated with French historian and author Auguste Maquet (1813-1886) on some of his more famous works; many of them are still in print today and have inspired other author's works and numerous adaptations to the stage and screen. Alexandre Dumas pre was born on 24 July 1802 in the village of Villers-Cotterts, just outside of Paris, France, the third child born to Marie Louise Labouret, daughter of an inn keeper, and Thomas Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie (1762-1806) a military General under Napolon. Alexandres' grandfather, the Marquis Alexandre Davy de La Pailleterie (1710-1786) married a slave he fell in love with in San Domingo (now Haiti) named Marie Louise Csette Dumas (d.1772). Thomas took her last name when he himself enlisted with the French army. After a falling out with Napolon due to his criticism of the Egypt campaign, and a long imprisonment which left him in poor health, Thomas returned returned home a broken man with no pension. After his death the family was left in dire financial straits. Alexandre's mother set her best efforts to providing an education for her son although he proved to be less than enthusiastic about it. He attended Abb Grgoire's school before finding employment with a local notary to help support the family.

In 1822 Dumas pre set off for Paris and was soon immersed in literary life. He worked as a scribe for the duc d'Orlans, later to be King Louis Philippe when the 1830 revolution which Dumas pre participated in ousted King Charles X. He met noted playwrights and collaborated with them before making his own entrance to the stage at the Comdie franaise with his plays Henry III and His Court (1829), The Tower of Nesle (1832), Kean (1836), and his Byronic Antony (first performed in 1831) inspired by the works of Lord George Gordon Byron. An avid reader of William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott, his dramas were immensely popular, being among the first of the Romantic movement along with friend and sometimes rival Victor Hugo's (1802-1885). They were a decided change from the Neoclassic style that dominated Parisian stages at the time. During this period Dumas pre had a son, Alexandre fils (1824-1895) with his lover Marie Laure Catherine Labay (1794-1868) who also became a noted author and playwright, being admitted to the Acadmie franaise in 1874. Although Dumas pre kept up his womanising ways, in 1840 he married actress Ida Ferrier (1811-1859) and had an illegitimate daughter, Marie Alexandrine (b.1831) with Belle Kreilssamner (1803-1875). After a short but terrifying bout of cholera during the epidemic of 1832, Dumas pre was ordered by his physician--"when they have nothing more to say" [from The Glacier Land (1852)]--to take a tour of Europe; on 21 July 1832 he left Paris and embarked on his first of many travels which took him to such countries as Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, England, Germany, and North Africa. As was his wont, he kept remarkable records of his adventures included in Travel Impressions: In Switzerland (1834), A Year in Florence (1841), From Paris to Cadiz (1847), The Caucasus (1859), and Travel Impressions: In Russia (1860). Dumas pre continued his prodigious output of essays, short stories, and novels. With the success of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers he sought a place of refuge to concentrate on further writings. He bought land and built the Chteau de Monte Cristo (nicknamed Chteau d'If) in Port Marly, Yvelines, France, now a museum. There he worked when not lavishly entertaining guests, but it was not long before he had to sell it when his debts grew too much. In 1851 he fled to Brussels, Belgium to avoid creditors. Further titles published during this time were his Valois Romances including Queen Margot (1845), The Lady of Monsoreau (a.ka. Chicot the Jester (1845), and The Forty-Five Guardsmen (1847); and The Regent's Daughter (1845), The Two Dianas (1846), The Black Tulip (1850), The Wolf Leader (1857), The Companions of Jehu (1857), and his autobiography Mes Mmoires (written between 1852-55). Alexandre Dumas pre died on 5 December 1870 at his son's villa in Puys, near Dieppe, France. He was buried in the cemetery of Villers-Cotterts, but as of the year 2002 he now rests in the Panthon in Paris, among other such notable French literary giants as mile Zola, Victor Hugo, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire. Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny, Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man, who like Satan thought himself for an instant equal to God, but who now acknowledges with Christian humility that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom. .... There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living. "Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--"Wait and hope."--Ch. 117, The Count of Monte Cristo Biography written by C. D. Merriman for Jalic Inc. Copyright Jalic Inc. 2008. All Rights Reserved. http://www.online-literature.com/dumas/ Alexandre Dumas, pre, (b. July 24, 1802, Villers-Cotterts, Aisne, Fr.d. Dec. 5, 1870, Puys, near Dieppe), one of the most prolific and most popular French authors of the 19th century. Without ever attaining indisputable literary merit, Dumas succeeded in gaining a great reputation first as a dramatist and then as a historical novelist, especially for such works as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. His memoirs, which, with a mixture of candour, mendacity, and boastfulness, recount the events of his extraordinary life, also provide a unique insight into French literary life during the Romantic period. He was ... (100 of 522 words) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/173440/Alexandre-Dumas-pere