Alexandre Dumas

Playwright and novelist Alexandre Dumas is so irrevocably linked in my mind with images of pre-Revolutionary France that it’s always a shock to remember that he actually wrote his books in the middle of the 19th century. Dumas was the author of numerous historical adventure stories, including The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Queen Margot.

Dumas was the grandson of a French Marquis and a black former slave, Marie-Cesette Dumas. By the time young Dumas was born his family had lost all pretensions to wealth, and his widowed mother struggled to give him a decent education. Despite his difficult childhood, Dumas rapidly achieved success as a playwright and novelist, and by the 1840s he was happily churning out tales of high adventure for the masses.

Note: Dumas, like so many other famous male authors, wasn’t too hot on marital fidelity. He had at least three illegitimate children.

Note #2: Due to his mixed-race heritage, Dumas suffered from racism all his life—actually, he suffered from racism even after his life. It wasn’t until 2002 that his body was deemed worthy to be exhumed and re-buried in the Pantheon of Paris alongside fellow French literary figures Voltaire and Victor Hugo.

Aftertaste:
Dumas relied heavily on ghostwriters, researchers, and assistants. The best known of these was a man named Auguste Manquet, whose contributions included the outline for The Count of Monte Cristo and sections of The Three Musketeers. While Dumas made no secret of this, I’ve always felt that it wasn’t fair that his minions didn’t get more of the credit.

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
The Scarlet Pimpernel, by the Baroness Orczy

The Talisman Ring, by Georgette Heyer

The Pink Carnation series, by Lauren Willig