Alexandre Dumas was perhaps the most popular author of the nineteenth century, and his best works continue to be popular today. Two of his novels, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, are ranked among the best adventure stories of the world and have been read by countless thousands. The Three Musketeers has also been the subject of many movies and has inspired many similar types of swashbuckling films.
Born on July 24, 1802, Dumas was one of the most prolific writers of the nineteenth century. His father, a mulatto, was somewhat of an adventurer-soldier and was not a favorite of Napoleon because of his staunch republicanism. When his father died, young Dumas was only four, and the family was left in rather severe financial straits. The young boy's formal education was scanty, most of it provided by a priest, and as soon as he could qualify, Dumas worked in the office of a lawyer. As he grew older, he became close friends with the son of an exiled Swedish nobleman, and the two of them began to dabble in vaudeville enterprises.
As a young man, Dumas went to Paris and secured a position as a clerk to the Duc d'Orleans; this was a marvelous stroke of good fortune, for the Duc would soon become king, and Dumas would write a superb memoir about his many and varied mishaps while he was employed by the future king. At the same time, Dumas and an old friend, Adolphe de Leuven, produced several melodramas.
When Dumas was twenty-two, his life underwent a drastic change: first, he wrote and produced his own melodrama which was a popular success and, second, he became the father of an illegitimate son by a dressmaker. When the boy was seven, Dumas went to court to get custody of the boy and succeeded.
Professionally, these years were extremely happy times for Dumas; for six years, he and Leuven had been collaborating on plays, and their legitimate dramas had been staged to much popular acclaim. In 1829, Dumas's Henry III et sa Cour (Henry III and his Court) was produced; it was Dumas's first spectacular triumph. The Duc was so fond of it that he appointed Dumas the librarian of the Palais Royale.
