Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas (1824-1895), French playwright and novelist. He was born in Paris, the natural son of the writer Alexandre Dumas père. Dumas fils, as he was known, had an unhappy childhood because his schoolmates constantly taunted him about his illegitimacy. His first literary work was a volume of poetry, Péchés de Jeunesse (Sins of Youth, 1847). The following year his first novel, La Dame aux Camélias (1848; trans. 1856), appeared, and his subsequent dramatization of this work (known outside France as Camille), produced in 1852, established him as a success in the theatre. The play, about a courtesan who sacrifices her happiness for her lover’s good, has served as a vehicle for many great actresses, including Sarah Bernhardt and, in a film version, Greta Garbo. The story was immortalized by Giuseppe Verdi in his opera La Traviata.

Dumas continued to write novels, but he was far more successful as a dramatist. He was one of the founders of the “problem play”—middle-class realistic drama dealing with contemporary ills and possible solutions. In his view the playwright’s function is essentially moralistic, and nearly all of his plays are concerned with social and moral problems (some inspired by his own illegitimacy and the bohemian society of his childhood), such as marital infidelity and prostitution. Despite his dramatic ingenuity and his gift for dialogue, some consider his plays marred by their tendency to preach. Dumas was elected to the Académie Française in 1874. Among his other plays are Le Demi-Monde (1855), Le Fils Naturel (1858), and Un Père Prodigue (A Prodigal Father, 1859).