The Revolution of 1830 interrupted Dumas's playwriting, and for a pleasant and amusing account of these years, one should consult Dumas's memoirs for many richly humorous anecdotes (don't worry unduly about the degree of truth in them). Later, because Dumas was implicated in some "irregularities" during a noted general's funeral, he decided to "tour" Switzerland; as a result, we have another long series of memoirs, this time issued as travel books. It should be noted, though, that Dumas always retained his affectionate relationship with the Duc and that he eventually returned to France, where he composed many first-rate, long-running plays.
Dumas's well-known collaboration with Auguste Maquet began in 1837 and resulted in a series of historical novels in which Dumas hoped to reconstruct the major events of French history. For example, in The Three Musketeers, the musketeers are united in order to defend the honor of Anne of Austria (the queen of France) against Cardinal Richelieu's schemes. This particular novel was so popular that Dumas immediately composed two sequels and, by coincidence, his other great novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, was also written during this same creative period, even though the time periods of the two novels vary greatly.
With the aid of collaborators, Dumas turned out so much fiction and miscellaneous writing that it has been remarked that "no one has ever read the whole of Dumas, not even himself." We know now, however, that Dumas's assistants provided him with only rough plotlines and suggested incidents. He himself filled in the outlines, and all of his manuscripts are in his handwriting.
Like so many creative and productive men, Dumas's life ended in a series of personal and financial tragedies. He built a strangely beautiful and impressive French Gothic, English Renaissance hybrid mansion and filled it with a multitude of scavenger-friends; both his home and his hangers-on were tremendous drains on his purse, as was the construction and upkeep of his own theater, the Theatre Historique, built specifically for the performance of his own plays.
In 1851, Dumas moved to Brussels, as much for his political advantage as to escape creditors — despite the 1,200 volumes which bore his name — and he died not long after a scandalous liaison with an American circus girl, a situation that he might well have chosen as a fictional framework for his demise.
Dumas's son, Alexandre ("Dumas fils"), is remembered today chiefly for his first novel, The Lady of the Camellias, which was the basis for the libretto of Verdi's opera La Traviata, as well as the plot of one of Hollywood's classic films, Camille, starring Greta Garbo.
