Alexandre Dumas was born in France of 1802 and also the writer of some legendary books. The Three Musketeers and one of my favorites…The Count of Monte Cristo, to name just a couple. There is not much to be found of his childhood, but his father came from quite an interesting background.
Alexandre’s father, Thomas, was born in what we now know as Haiti. Alexandre’s grandfather, Antoine, purchased a woman (Marie-Cessette) and her present daughter. He eventually sold them off, (along with the other two blood related daughters he’d made with Marie) to a baron who was planning to settle in Saint Domingue. Despite the detached nature of Antoine, he did decide to keep Thomas in tow (his only son) and off they traveled to France. Thomas led a successful career in the Army and was promoted to general by age 31. Sometime after that came the famous author, Alexandre Dumas.
Alexandre’s father passed away of cancer when he was only 4. Alexandre read everything he was able to and taught himself Spanish. His mother was not able to provide much for her son, but the family was shadowed by Thomas’s reputation and rank, which benefited Alexandre’s advancement.
Alexandre started working for King Louis-Philippe, writing articles for magazines and theatre plays. His first play, Henry III and His Court was produced in 1829 and met with much acclaim! The creation of his second play, Christine, was such a success that it allowed him to focus on writing full-time. The following year Alexandre joined the French Revolution and felt the impact of sporadic riots and disgruntled Republicans. Slowly, life returned to normal, and the economy began improving.
Alexandre reveled in the finer things in life and often spent more than he earned. But he was a quite clever marketing strategist in accompaniment of his writing. He began writing novels and in 1836 La Comtesse de Salisbury was published. Alexandre decided he had more ideas than he could put out, so he founded a production studio, and filled it with writers who wrote hundreds of stories based on his ideas and guidance. This lead to the publication of an eight-volume collection of essays on famous criminals and crimes from European history, Celebrated Crimes.
Alexandre depended on countless assistants that he would collaborate with, but the best known was Auguste Maquet, who was responsible for co-writing my two favorite books, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. I suppose Alexandre can’t get ALL the credit then, eh?
Despite the success of Alexandre’s novels, he was often broke. He seemed to like the ladies a bit too much and didn’t really go about courting them in the most gentlemanly way, if you catch my drift. He had at least 40 mistresses…nothing too crazy. Not at all…that’s normal, right?
He was also living in a large country house (Chateau de Monte-Cristo) that he built in 1846. He also had an additional building off the house for his writing studio. (I wonder if that’s where Ernest Hemingway came up with that idea?) His home was often filled with random folks (randos) who stayed for lengthy visits and took advantage of the free goods. I kid you not that appallingly, just a mere two years later, he was forced to sell due to financial troubles. Hopefully this forced him to take some time away from the ladies as well?
After King Louis-Phillippe was outed in a revolt, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president. Bonaparte was not a fan of the writings of Alexandre. Off fled Alexandre to Brussels, Belgium in 1851. This may have also been motivated due to his urgent need to escape from his creditors as well. I suppose this seemed like an opportune time to get out and travel.
Due to Alexandre’s travels later in life, he continued writing often of his travels. He wrote about his experiences in Russia and Italy, while later founding a newspaper in Italy. During his time there, he manifested long lasting friendships and gained admirable success. Even still, Alexandre also faced incredible discrimination from his ancestry. His parents and grandparents of mixed race caused insults to be thrown his way and prejudices were often held against him.
Alexandre did get married to an actress, despite his straying eyes…and other things. Ida Ferrier was chosen to play a role in a play that Alexandre wrote. He fell under her spell and after the premiere the two just couldn’t keep away from each other. She was often mocked for her small stature and her perpetual appearance of looking cold. Now THATS an interesting description!
The pair were married in 1840 and separated in 1844 but did not divorce. They both had affairs during their marriage and obviously dealt with various vexations. She passed away in 1859, at only 47. They didn’t have any children…but as you may have guessed, Alexandre had four children with various women. Ida actually cared for one of the children until she passed away. No wonder he loved her so! She must have had a generous soul.
In 1870, Alexandre died at the age of 68 due to natural causes…more than likely a heart attack. His death was quickly veiled by the Franco-Prussian War and the sudden shift in literary style preferences. Moving into 1990, Claude Schopp (a Dumas scholar) discovered a letter in an archive and found unfinished work of Alexandre’s. After years of research, editing the completed portions of the book and then researching how to best finish it, Claude Schopp finally released the finished book in 2005 and it was a bestseller! The Last Cavalier sold 60,000 copies. After the publication, Schopp found additional material and combined them to produce a sequel, Le Salut de I’Empire in 2008.
“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.” The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
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