Alexandre Dumas full name. Biography of Alexandre Dumas (father). Screen adaptations of the writer's works

“This is not a person, but a force of nature,” historian Jules Michelet, whose works Dumas admired, said about the writer. Michelet paid him in the same coin. A giant who lived beyond his means, a generous nature, a subtle connoisseur of the culinary arts, an inexhaustible author, who was always accompanied by success, debts and women. This is what Alexandre Dumas is all about. Moreover, the writer’s life is a continuous novel, like those that he himself wrote, a story about a glutton giant who was in a hurry to eat everything at once; a life in which work, adventures, reflections, dreams, love for all women and at the same time for none (with the exception, of course, of his mother Marie-Louise) replaced each other.

In 1806, when the writer's father, General Dumas, died, Alexander was only three and a half years old. The child grabbed the gun, telling the tearful widow that he was going to heaven to “kill the God who killed daddy.”

The image of the father was elevated to a cult in the family: an illegitimate child, moreover a mulatto, and so ferocious that the Germans in Tyrol in 1797 nicknamed the general the “black devil.” He had incredible strength: suspended from a chandelier, he could pull a horse towards him, put four guns in a vertical position at once, inserting his fingers into the muzzles. The son of the poor Marquis Alexander Antoine de La Pailletrie and a slave, a “flighty woman,” as they said in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), his father endowed Alexander with gigantic height, the strength of Hercules, and courageous appearance (he had a dark face and curly hair ): all this brought women into ecstasy, infuriated his rivals and infuriated critics who did not skimp on offensive racist attacks against him. Balzac, for example, said: "Just do not compare me with this black man!" One of the regulars at the literary salon, who dared to joke on this topic, received a sharp answer from Dumas: “My father was a mulatto, my grandmother was a black woman, and my great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers were generally monkeys. My family tree begins where yours ends.”

The writer poetically spoke about his ordinary childhood spent in the town of Villers-Cotterets, where he lived with his beloved mother, but where he no longer had enough space, about his studies, which were very superficial due to his passion for the theater, in the book of memoirs “My Memoirs.” They have an insatiable thirst for life, a frantic desire to gain the upper hand over everyone and everything. And at the age of 20 he ended up in Paris! This ignorant Alexander, the Villers-Cotterets gossips said about him, is already serving as a writer for the Duke of Orleans, that is, for the future king Louis Philippe. Alexander was sure: he would conquer Paris, France, and the whole world with his pen. The future showed him right.

After several fruitless attempts to write a work for the theater, success finally came: Dumas's first drama, Henry III and His Court, was staged. The Duke of Orleans personally contributed to the success of the premiere. in order to attract romantic youth to our side. The play, however, aroused the ire of supporters of classicism, but a year later Dumas again won during the legendary battle around Victor Hugo's play "Hernani". Dumas actively supported his friend, shouted on the ground along with others, and participated in a verbal altercation that sometimes reached hand-to-hand combat. The theater gave Dumas his first ticket to fame. The poor young man, who at the age of 16 played Hamlet (a certain Ducie, not Shakespeare) in the attic of Villers-Cotterets, writing play after play, soon began to conquer Parisian salons, high society ladies and famous actresses. After the drama "Christine", he wrote the drama "Anthony", and then "Richard Darlington"...

On May 22, 1832, at the Porte Saint-Martin theater, the play “The Tower of Nels” (not signed by the author) was greeted with thunderous applause. By this time, in less than 17 months, seven plays by Alexandre Dumas had been staged on stage: five with his signature and two without. And he was already bored. With Dumas’ theater everything happened as with women: ardent passion at the beginning and indifference later when they gave up. He was like a hunter for whom the main thing is the chase. And Dumas moved away from the theater to discover the genre of novels and short stories, and then the historical novel. Alone or with the help of the “literary negro” Auguste Macquet, he created “The Three Musketeers”, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, “Queen Margot”, “Twenty Years Later”, “Cavalier de la Maison Rouge”, “Countess de Monsoreau”, “ Joseph Balsamo" and "Forty-Five" (these eight novels were written in less than four years, from 1844 to 1847).

But one should not think that he was only writing at that time. His friends occupied a large place in his life - Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny and Duke Ferdinand of Orleans. Plus there are women. Dumas left so many illegitimate children everywhere, but he recognized only the eldest, Alexander, and then with a seven-year delay. And, in addition, travel, roe deer hunting, spiritualism sessions, interest in real estate...

In July 1830, Dumas, along with the rebels, shot and erected barricades on the streets of Paris. When people are worried, a writer cannot stay away. Dumas was a Republican, but this did not stop him from being friends with aristocrats and admiring the empire, sympathizing with representatives of the younger (Orleans) branch of the Bourbon dynasty, and, like Victor Hugo, taking the side of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in 1858, and then not moving away from him, anticipating a revolution. He sympathized with the Three Glorious Revolutions. True, in 1848 the writer put forward his candidacy for the parliamentary elections from the moderate camp, but did not get elected.

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It is known how much this freedom, which he used with insane courage, cost him.

George Sand called Alexandre Dumas "a genius of life." To this wonderful description one could well add the words “... and love.”

Dumas could have several mistresses at once, however, he did not demand constancy from his women either. One day a curious incident happened to him, which the next day was discussed throughout Paris.

The author of The Three Musketeers lived on the Rue de Rivoli with Ida Ferrier, an actress and a very frivolous person, whom he had just married. She occupied an apartment on the second floor, and he occupied three rooms on the fifth floor.

One evening the writer went to a ball in the Tuileries. Less than an hour later, he returned covered in dirt, went to his wife’s apartment and burst into Ida’s bedroom with curses. It turned out that he slipped and fell into the mud, his mood was hopelessly spoiled, and he abandoned the fun. He took paper, ink and pen and plunged into work.

Half an hour later, the door leading to the toilet room swung open with a noise, Roger de Beauvoir appeared on the threshold, almost completely naked, and said: “I’ve had enough, I’m completely chilled!”

The astonished Dumas jumped up and attacked his wife's lover with furious abuse. As a person accustomed to writing for the theater, he unleashed an angry tirade on his head, which he himself was very pleased with. Finally, the writer decided to change his anger to mercy: “I cannot drive you out into the street in such bad weather. Sit down closer to the fire. You will spend the night in this chair.” And he again buried himself in his papers.

At midnight he lay down next to Ida and blew out the candle. After a while, the fire in the fireplace went out, and he heard Roger de Beauvoir's teeth chattering from the cold. Dumas threw him a blanket.

But this did not help, the unlucky lover tried to stir the coals in the fireplace. Then the writer allowed him to go to bed. Beauvoir did not keep himself waiting and settled between Ida and Alexander.

In the morning, Dumas took Roger’s hand, lowered it to his wife’s intimate place and solemnly proclaimed: “Roger, let us reconcile, like the ancient Romans, in a public place.”

Dumas often gave his mistresses obscene epigrams and poems of his own composition. If the lady was offended, he reassured her by saying that “everything that came from the pen of Father Dumas will someday be very expensive.”

When Dumas the father visited the grown-up Dumas the son, which did not happen very often, there was a commotion in the house, the father rushed around the rooms, trying to hide numerous half-dressed women in closets and servants' rooms.

Soon, complete understanding arose between father and son. How close they became is shown by a conversation that one of their mutual acquaintances overheard. “Listen, father,” said Dumas Jr., “but this is just boring. You always give me your old lovers with whom I have to sleep, and your new shoes that I have to wear out.”

“So what are you complaining about?” exclaimed the surprised father. “This is a huge honor. This once again proves that you have a big phallus and a small leg!”

Speaking about Dumas, it is difficult to do without numbers. Meticulous biographers have calculated that the creator of The Three Musketeers had 500 mistresses; this is impressive, but less than the number of works he created, of which there are only 647. In Paris, there were legends about Dumas’s violent temperament; “They talk about my “African passions,” he admitted. The creator of the immortal Gascon even flaunted his love of love: “I take many mistresses out of love for humanity; If I had one mistress, she would die within a week."

Alexandre Dumas, a theater man through and through, achieved fame primarily as a playwright. If the old metaphor is true that the world is a theater, then for Dumas a fascinating, ever-new drama was always played out on its stage - the drama of love. In love and literature, he did not change Voltaire’s behest: “All genres are good, except the boring one.” Among the many heartfelt adventures the writer experienced were tragedies and comedies, romantic melodramas and light, cheerful vaudevilles. That's why most of the heroines of his romance novels are actresses. In an endless play about love, in which the most important thing for him was the exciting intrigue of passion, Alexandre Dumas managed to play all the roles - from the ardent first lover to the deceived husband.

The famous actress of the romantic era, Marie Dorval, a friend of Dumas, wondered: “Well, where did you get to know women so well?” Now we can answer her question: he comprehended them in life with his genius. Dumas understood the soul of women, and most importantly, he loved them and was always grateful for their love. This passionate Don Juan had a kind heart, which all his lovers felt and appreciated. One of them, Melanie Valdor, after the death of Alexandre Dumas, wrote to his son: “If there was a man who was invariably kind and generous, then this, of course, is your father.”

Arriving in Paris from his hometown of Villers-Cotterets in 1823, young Dumas settled in a house on Place des Italians. His neighbor turned out to be a kind, sweet and meek woman - the dressmaker Laure Labe, who was eight years older than Alexander. Marie-Catherine-Laure Labe was born in 1749 in Belgium, but her parents were French. Before arriving in Paris, she lived in Rouen, where she got married, but quickly separated from her husband, who was crazy. According to one memoirist, “Marie was not a beauty, but her face showed some kind of charm that I liked.” This charm did not escape the ardent provincial, who managed to quickly win the heart of his neighbor. On July 27, 1824, Laure Labé gave Alexandre Dumas a son, Alexander, who remained in literary history as the author of the novel “The Lady of the Camellias.” Dumas the father recognized the child in 1831, but maintained almost no relationship with the mother. True, in 1832 he helped Laure Labe open the so-called “reading room” (they were in fashion at the height of romanticism).

On May 26, 1864, Laure Labe and Alexandre Dumas met at the mayor's office for the wedding of their son to Princess Nadezhda Naryshkina. Dumas the son had the idea of ​​marrying his elderly parents, but he never achieved success. Marie-Catherine-Laure Labe died in Paris on October 22, 1868. June 3, 1827 in the salon of the scientist and writer Mathieu Villenave. Dumas met his daughter Melanie Valdor.

Melanie's fate and personality are romantic. She was born in Nantes on June 28, 1796, and spent her childhood on her father's poetic estate in the Vendée. In February 1818, Melanie's best friend, whose brother she was unrequitedly in love with, suddenly died. Out of desperation, she married Lieutenant Francois-Joseph Valdor, who served in the Nantes garrison, and they had a daughter. But the couple did not live together; The husband's service threw him from garrison to garrison, and his wife became the mistress of her father's Parisian literary salon.

Dumas, who conquered Paris with frantic energy, at the same time conquered, but much faster, in just over a hundred days, the 30-year-old poetess, a married lady with a hitherto impeccable reputation. The date when this happened is even known: September 23, 1827; ten days earlier there had been a stormy declaration of love - both of these dates were to be carved, according to her will, on the white grave marble.

Melanie - a passionate, insanely jealous, romantic nature - dreamed of becoming the muse-inspirer of a young talent. She realized that Dumas had a great future ahead of him, and encouraged his desire to seriously devote himself to theater and poetry. Melanie was a very talented woman and she herself wrote poems, which her lover published in the magazine “Psyche” he published.

Melanie and Alexander's romance was stormy, stormy and passionate; Melanie was tormented by jealousy because her idol did not let in a single pretty actress who was unable to “resist such great love.” One of them was the greatest tragic actress Marie Dorval, the other was the actress Belle Krelsamer. The latter bore him a daughter.

I dreamed of a child from Alexander and Melanie. For the married woman and the freedom-loving Alexander, this desire to have a baby together was codenamed “to grow geraniums.” But trouble happened: the geranium broke. In 1830 she had a miscarriage.

The unfortunate woman fell ill from shock. Dumas reassured his friend: “Don’t worry about the broken geranium... Our stormy explanations led to this crime - because it was a crime.”

At the beginning of 1831, a painful break occurred. Melanie threatened to commit suicide (that’s when the will appeared), wrote begging letters to her lover (“Oh, how cruel you are! What a shame my love for you and how I despise myself!”, “And away from you, I think only about you” ), however Dumas remained adamant.

The writer immortalized Melanie Waldor in his most famous drama, Anthony, which premiered on May 3, 1831. The author invited his rejected lover to the premiere. The hero of the drama "Anthony" in the finale kills the married Adele, whom he loves. To the victim’s husband, he throws the most famous phrase of the French theater of the 19th century: “She was not inferior to me, I killed her!”

Dumas admitted that he transferred his stormy romance with Melanie to the stage. "Anthony" is a five-act love scene of jealousy and rage. Anthony is me, but without the murder. Adele is her..." he wrote.

After breaking up with Dumas, the inconsolable Melanie Valdor led a social and literary life. She wrote poems and novels, and in 1841 her play “School for Girls” was staged, in which Dumas can easily be seen in one of the characters. She was received at Victor Hugo's salon and corresponded with Gautier, Sainte-Beuve and Flaubert.

An ardent Bonapartist, Melanie Valdor enthusiastically welcomed the coup d'etat of Napoleon III, which took place on December 2, 1851. She wrote a lot in newspapers under the pseudonym Bluestocking; her panegyrics to the new regime attracted the attention of the emperor, who assigned her a pension of 6,000 francs.

Melanie Valdor did not survive Dumas much. She died in the spring of 1871. After the death of the author of “Anthony,” she wrote to Dumas the son: “I will never forget your father.”

On March 30, 1830, the premiere of Alexandre Dumas's play "Christine, or Stockholm, Fontainebleau and Rome" took place. The next day, Dumas walked along Odeon Square. Suddenly a cab stopped next to him, the door swung open, and an unfamiliar woman called out to him: “So you are Monsieur Dumas?” - "Yes, madam". - “Wonderful. Sit down with me and kiss me... Oh, how talented you are and how good you are at portraying female characters!”

This enthusiastic fan of the young playwright turned out to be the famous actress of the French theater of the Romantic era, Marie Dorval.

Marie Dorval (real name Delaunay) was born in 1798. The illegitimate daughter of traveling comedians, at the age of fifteen she married the actor Dorval, who soon died. Another actor, Charles Potier, brought Marie to Paris and placed her in the Port-Saint-Martin theater. It was here, in 1823, that young Dumas first saw Marie on stage: she played in Charles Nodier's melodrama "The Vampire".

Marie Dorval played the role of Adele in Dumas' masterpiece "Anthony". The actress rewarded the author for his skill in portraying female characters and became his mistress at the end of 1833. Marie jokingly called Alexandre Dumas “my good dog.” “It was a friendly, I would even say, a loving nickname that Dorval gave me,” he wrote in “Memoirs.” “And the good dog” remained devoted to her to the end.”

Their relationship did not last long. Marie decided not to upset the poet Alfred de Vigny, who was in love with her, with betrayal, and Dumas decided not to upset Ida Ferrier.

On May 20, 1849, the dying Marie Dorval, who had fallen into poverty, called Dumas to her and begged him not to allow her to be buried in a common grave. Dumas fulfilled the actress’s last wishes (Dorval wanted to be buried next to her grandson Georges), for which he sold his orders. In 1855, Alexandre Dumas wrote the book “The Last Year of Marie Dorval” (dedicated to George Sand): with the proceeds, he bought a plot in the cemetery for eternal possession and erected a tombstone for his friend.

In 1839, Alexandre Dumas was thirty-seven years old; He had already been a Parisian celebrity for ten years, but there were still five years left before The Three Musketeers. For seven years Dumas lived with actress Ida Ferrier. In the same 1839, the writer had the imprudence to introduce his mistress to the Duke of Orleans, the son of King Louis Philippe, at a ball. “Of course, my dear Dumas, you could only introduce me to your wife,” the Duke kindly remarked. Dumas understood the transparent hint and decided... to get married. The marriage contract was signed on February 1, 1840; The groom's witnesses were the great Chateaubriand himself and Valmain, a member of the French Academy. This strange marriage amazed all of Paris, which knew that Dumas had a son and daughter from different women, and in addition - countless mistresses. According to another version, Alexander's only official marriage was the result of blackmail. Ida Ferrier, an actress, asked an accomplice to buy up all the IOUs of an aspiring writer and generously gave him a choice: marry her or go to prison for non-payment of debts.

Marguerite Josephine Ferrand (on stage - Ida Ferrier) was born in Nancy on May 31, 1811. When she was seventeen years old, her father died, leaving the family in a difficult situation. The girl, who received a good education and learned the basics of dramatic art in a small theater at a boarding school in Strasbourg, decided to “conquer Paris,” where she moved to her brother, who controlled small theaters in the capital’s suburbs. Under the pseudonym Ida, she made her debut at the Belleville theater, receiving 50 francs a month. Ida quickly found herself a wealthy patron, Jacques Domange, who called himself her guardian; he rented her an apartment in Paris and got her a job at the Nuvote Theater.

Dumas first saw Ida in December 1831: the young actress was rehearsing in his play “Teresa.” Then Ida was a plump blonde with dazzling white skin and blue eyes. Only by the age of forty did she, according to one memoirist, “become fat, like a hippopotamus.” On February 6, 1832, the premiere was a great success; Ida, throwing herself into the arms of Dumas, exclaimed: “I just don’t know how to thank you!” The famous playwright - he then had a relationship with the actress Belle Krelsaner, who gave birth to his daughter Maria Alexandrina - did not refuse to taste the delights of the debutante.

Ida spent several years trying to win over her flighty lover. In 1836, she finally settled with Dumas. Ida loved Dumas’ daughter very much, but she couldn’t stand Dumas the son.

Memoirists painted an unattractive portrait of Dumas’s only legal wife. “On earth, Ida loved only herself and no one else,” wrote Countess Dash. Ida, a passionate but calculating woman, was particularly capricious and jealous. She constantly caused scenes and quarrels for Dumas. She was mainly concerned with her toilets and devoted all her time to taking care of her own beauty. Her acting talent was not great, and in 1839 she left the stage.

Madame Dumas was not faithful to her famous husband for long. In 1841, she met a noble Sicilian nobleman, Prince Villafranca, and became his mistress. In October 1844, Alexandre Dumas and Ida Ferrier separated. Ida Ferrier died at the age of forty-eight in Genoa, taking with her to the grave, in the words of the prince, “half of his soul.” But Alexandre Dumas crossed her out of his heart forever.

Unforgettable for Dumas was his meeting with the Italian actress Fanny Gordosa. Fanny's first husband was so tired of her sexual appetite that he forced her to wear a wet, cold towel tied around her waist in order to somehow cool the heat of love. Dumas was not afraid of the passionate actress, and she no longer had to tie a towel. Dumas, however, soon kicked Fanny out of the house: she, having contacted the music teacher, was nevertheless jealous of his other women.

Dumas traveled around Italy, accompanied by Emilia Cordier, whom he called “my admiral.” During the day, she dressed up and pretended to be a boy. However, everyone knew about this masquerade. Soon the “boy” turned out to be pregnant. The “admiral” gave birth to a daughter, Mikaella, in due course, whom Dumas loved dearly. Much to her chagrin, Emilia did not allow Dumas to officially announce her paternity.

Then Dumas had fun with the famous dancer Lola Montes, whose performances shocked women and delighted men. Lola added Dumas to her long line of famous lovers after spending only two nights with him. She did this, however, with extraordinary grace.

In the summer of 1866, all of London went crazy about the American actress-rider Ada Mencken, who played in the circus drama "Mazeppa", based on Byron's poem. Strapped in flesh-colored tights, Ada, tied to a horse, galloped through the arena: this was then called “erotic horse tricks.”

From London she came to Paris and conquered the French capital, playing the same tricks in the play "Pirates of the Savannah". When Dumas came to the artistic room to express his admiration for the brave actress. Ada Mencken threw herself on the old writer's neck. Dumas introduced her to the world of literary and secular bohemia of Paris, promised to write her a play based on Walter Scott's novel "The Monastery", and took her to dinners in Bougival. And the aging celebrity Alexandre Dumas agreed to be photographed with Ada Mencken in a very frivolous pose. These photographs were taken by the photographer Lebiere, to whom Dumas owed money. An enterprising master of artistic photography, trying to get his money back, put these postcards on sale, which were displayed in all Parisian shop windows. This photo delighted young Paul Verlaine, who wrote a poem containing the following lines: “Uncle Tom with Miss Ada is a sight one can only dream of.”

But Dumas's daughter, Maria, had a different opinion: she did everything possible to remove the postcards from sale. Alexandre Dumas sued Lebiere, and finally on May 24, 1867, the photographs disappeared from sale.

For his part, Dumas the son implored his father not to advertise his scandalous relationship with an eccentric American woman who had already been married four times. But Dumas did not heed prudence. In July 1868, he again met in Le Havre with Ada, who was returning from a tour in England.

The fate of Ada Mencken was tragic. She suddenly fell ill and died on August 10, 1868 from acute peritonitis. She was accompanied to the Père Lachaise cemetery by a maid, several actors and... her beloved horse.

In a surviving letter from Dumas to Ada Mencken, the author of “The Count of Monte Cristo” wrote: “If it is true that I have talent, then it is true that I have love, and they belong to you.”

In 1870, Alexandre Dumas again, for the twentieth time in his life, went bankrupt. “They reproach me for being wasteful,” Dumas told his son before his death. “I came to Paris with twenty francs in my pocket.” And, pointing with his gaze at his last gold piece on the mantelpiece, he finished: “And so, I saved them... Look!" A few days later, on December 6, he was gone. The writer lived a stormy life. He enjoyed and worked, lived in grand style and worked tirelessly. Ordinary natures are forced to choose what to be content with. He took everything from life.

In the thirties of the 18th century, this author, one of the first romantic playwrights, became famous in France and far beyond its borders. Today his works are reread several times, the adventures of his heroes are so fascinating. Interest in his books did not disappear even centuries later; more than 150 films were made based on them. According to statistics, the most read French author in the world is Alexandre Dumas, whose biography and photos are presented in this article.

The writer's childhood

The famous novelist Dumas (1802-1870) was born in the town of Villers-Cotterets. His father is General Tom Dumas, his mother, a serious and virtuous woman, Marie-Louise Labouret, is the daughter of an innkeeper.

Alexander's father served in Bonaparte's army, and upon returning to his homeland in 1801, he ended up in prison. On the occasion of reconciliation, an exchange of prisoners took place and he was released. But the prison did its job - he came out half-paralyzed, mutilated and with a stomach ulcer. There was no question of serving in the army. At this time, son Alexander appeared in the family.

The boy spent his childhood in financially constrained conditions. They couldn’t even get him a scholarship to study at the lyceum. Alexander was taught to write and read by his mother and sister. But in mathematics things did not progress beyond the multiplication table. But his handwriting was excellent - clear, neat, with numerous curls.

His mother tried to teach him music, but Dumas had no hearing. The boy danced beautifully, fenced and shot well. While attending Abbe Gregoire's college, Dumas learned the basics of grammar and the rudiments of Latin. For days on end, the future writer disappeared in the forest, because he loved hunting very much. But you can’t live by hunting alone. It's time to look for a job. And Alexandre Dumas enters the service of a notary.

New life

One day, during a trip to Paris, Dumas meets the actor Talma. And having concluded that a career can only be built in Paris, Alexander, without hesitation, moves there. Gets a job in the office of the Duke of Orleans. Service was for him only a source of existence.

For himself, the future writer concluded that he needed to study, since his ignorance caused amazement among his acquaintances. He devotes a lot of time to literature, communicates with playwrights and famous writers. In 1829 he wrote the drama “Henry the Third and His Court.” The play was a stunning success and went through several performances.

The king saw in the drama “Henry the Third” some similarities with the reigning monarch and was going to ban the play. But the Duke of Orleans supported her. Thus, Dumas, who came from the provinces without education or money, became a famous person. Soon the theater's repertoire was enriched with such dramas and plays as “Kean, or Genius and Dissipation”, “Nel Tower”, “Anthony”.

After the Great Revolution, the Duke of Orleans ascends to the French throne. Among those who stormed the royal Tuileries Palace was Dumas Alexandre. His biography developed in such a way that from the very first days the writer took every possible part in public life and carried out the instructions of General Lafayette, who headed the guard.

In 1832, Dumas, at the request of the relatives of General Lamarck, who was buried on June 5, stood at the head of a column of artillerymen accompanying the funeral procession. The police disperse the crowd, which was the beginning of an uprising that was brutally suppressed.

A false report appeared in the press that Dumas had been shot. In fact, on the advice of friends, he leaves France and goes to Switzerland, where he prepared the essay “Gaul and France” for publication.

Love's beautiful impulses

“Busy people have no time to look at women,” as the great writer Alexandre Dumas liked to say. A biography for children, which many became acquainted with at school, tells only about the main milestones of the biography: “born, married, created.” In fact, Dumas was not only active as a writer. The personal life of the immortal author was in full swing.

Before lifting the veil of the adventures of a passionate Don Juan, I would like to note that Dumas understood the female soul, and most importantly, he really loved them all and was grateful to them for their love. He was a kind-hearted man. It was for this that all his lovers appreciated him. Many of them admitted that they had never met a more generous person than him.

There are legends about the love affairs of the great writer. No one knows how many mistresses he had in his life, but biographers are inclined to believe that there were from 350 to 500 of them. Dumas himself mentions only a few in his memoirs:

• Adele Dalvin, her first Parisian love, broke the heart of a fifteen-year-old rake. After a two-year relationship, she married someone else. The only woman who broke up with him herself; in all other cases, Dumas was the initiator of the breakups.
• Catherine Labe is a neighbor on the landing with whom he moved to live. But the modest and devoted Catherine no longer suited him. Having learned that she was expecting a child, he drew conclusions: she simply decided to tie him to her. Dumas leaves and appears on the threshold of her house when her son is seven years old.
• Alexandre Dumas justified his “African passions” by the fact that he takes many mistresses out of love for humanity; the only one would simply die in a week. Among the many heartfelt adventures with actresses is a relationship with Belle Krelsamer. It ended with her giving birth to a daughter from him in 1831.

Personal life

In 1832, chance brought him together with actress Ida Ferrier (real name Margarita Ferran). As soon as a relationship began between them, Dumas already falls in love with another actress. Nevertheless, in 1838 Dumas married Margarita Ferrand. How a plump blonde with crooked teeth managed to accomplish such a feat remains a mystery.

Having married, Dumas did not change his lifestyle. In 1844 the marriage broke up. In 1851, another lover of the tireless womanizer, Anna Bauer, gave birth to a son, Henri, from Dumas. Since she was a married woman, her son bore her husband's surname.

Alexandre Dumas's last love was the American equestrian actress Ada Mencken. He met her in 1866, when she came to conquer Paris. Dumas the son persuaded his father not to advertise his relationship with a young American woman who had already been married four times. But the father did not heed the voice of reason.

It is not known how the relationship with the woman would have ended, but Ada’s fate turned out to be tragic. She died of acute peritonitis in 1868. After which Dumas the son decided to unite his parents. The father was not against it, but Catherine Labé replied that her lover was forty years late. In October 1868 she passed away. Dumas would outlive her by two years.

Unknown Dumas

An outstanding novelist, traveler, historian and publicist, Dumas was also an excellent cook. In many of his works, he describes in detail the preparation of certain dishes. The writer spoke about the fact that he planned to create a “Culinary Dictionary” during his stay in the Russian Empire. In 1870, he submitted a manuscript containing 800 short stories on a culinary theme to print.

The Great Culinary Dictionary was published in 1873, after the death of the writer. Later, an abridged copy of it was published - “Small Culinary Dictionary”. By the way, Dumas was not a gourmet or a glutton. On the contrary, he led a healthy lifestyle and did not drink alcohol, tobacco or coffee. Alexandre Dumas rarely cooked for himself because he was on a diet. For guests only.

Dumas was known as a hospitable and generous host. The Monte Cristo estate, which belonged to Dumas, becomes an open house from the very first days. Everyone is welcomed there, no matter who they are, fed and, if necessary, put to bed. Any person strapped for money could easily live in the estate.

Castle of Monte Cristo

The success of The Count of Monte Cristo, a novel published in 1844, exceeded all expectations. In it, Dumas described his dream of a luxurious, worry-free life, without money problems. Having experienced this on the pages of the novel through the fate of Dantes, the writer began to make his dream come true.

He started with the construction of a castle. In July 1847, its grand opening took place, which was attended by more than 600 guests. The castle was magnificent! The beautiful building is surrounded by a park laid out like an English one. It contains sculptures of great people - Shakespeare, Goethe, Homer. Above the entrance is the owner’s motto: “I love those who love me.”

Dumas did not have time to realize many of the dreams associated with the castle. For example, he dreamed of creating a literary park and calling each alley one of his works. 150 years later, his dream came true. You can study his books using it. Everything is as Dumas Alexander dreamed.

The biography of this great writer has united thousands of people who are not indifferent to his work. Thanks to their efforts, today the house-museum of Alexandre Dumas has been created in the castle, open to the public.

Creation

In the thirties, Alexander had the idea to recreate the history of France with a whole series of books. Dumas expands his knowledge by studying the works of famous historians: O. Thierry, P. Baranta, J. Michelet. In his works he adheres to a natural sequence of events. His books testify to the author's knowledge of issues of French history.

Isabella of Bavaria was the first book in this series. The historical basis for the creation of the novel was: “Chronicle of the Times of Charles VI”, “History of the Dukes of Burgundy”, “Chronicle of Froissart”. Along with historical characters, fictitious names are also used in the novel. Thus, it was Alexandre Dumas who revived the genre of the historical novel.

The biography and work of this author are connected with an important event for every Frenchman - the Great French Revolution. He will dedicate a series of books to her. The author understands that in order for the life of kings and ministers to be interesting to the reader, it is necessary to show that they are not alien to the same feelings and experiences as mere mortals.

He knew that his novels had no historical value, since the facts were presented as required by the artistic form. The story was the way the French wanted it to be: colorful, funny, with good and evil on opposite sides.

The readers of that time consisted of people who had committed a great revolution and fought in the armies of the empire. And they liked it when monarchs were represented in heroic pictures.

History of France

Dumas based his work on well-known sources, sometimes fake. Like, for example, "Memoirs of d'Artagnan." Authentic materials - “Memoirs of Madame de Lafayette” - served as the basis for the book “The Vicomte de Bragelonne”.

From 1845 to 1855, Alexandre Dumas wrote without respite. Perhaps in the entire history of literature, no writer has been so prolific. In Dumas's novels, the history of France passes before the reader. After The Three Musketeers come Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne.

Dumas perfectly depicts the character of the crowd - sometimes cruel and thirsty for blood, sometimes slavish and submissive, sometimes rude and cynical, sometimes sentimental. The novels “Queen Margot”, “Countess de Monsoreau”, “Forty-Five” are the living embodiment of the soul of France.

Dumas dedicates a series of novels to the Great French Revolution: “Joseph Balsame”, “The Queen’s Necklace”, “Ange Pitou”, “The Cavalier of the Red Castle”, “Countess Charny”. In them, the author reveals the reasons that caused the revolution and describes the fall of the French monarchy.

Dumas allows deviations from historical facts quite boldly, but he compensates for this with the drama of events, effects and wonderful adventures that make the readers’ hearts beat fast.

During his life, Dumas the Father managed to write and publish more than 500 volumes of works in various genres. This shows the enormous talent of this writer, his amazing and boundless imagination.

Alexandre Dumas is considered a cult figure in world literature. Incredible creative fertility, the favor of ladies, success, debts, adventures - these are the words that can describe the life of a writer. “This is not a man, but a force of nature,” his contemporaries admired Dumas.

1. Origin of A. Dumas

The popularity of Alexandre Dumas was incredible, despite the fact that the writer had to live in an era of racism, because he was considered a quadroon. The writer's paternal grandmother was a dark-skinned slave from the island of Haiti.

Once at a literary club, someone tried to make an unsuccessful joke about the writer’s origins, to which Dumas replied: “My father was a mulatto, my grandmother was a black woman, and my great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers were generally monkeys. My family tree begins where yours ends.”

2. Film adaptations of the writer’s works

Based on the works of Dumas, an incredible number of films have been made around the world (only Shakespeare is ahead) - more than 200 film adaptations. If we count from 1896, then this is approximately two films a year.

3. Creative fertility of the writer

Alexandre Dumas was extremely prolific in the literary field. Researchers of his work note that the writer left behind 100,000 pages of various works (more than 250 plays, adventure stories, travels, novels). He is the best-selling writer of all time.

In fact, Alexandre Dumas had several authors, in collaboration with whom he created his works. One of them was the writer Auguste Macke. Dumas worked with him on the creation of such books as “The Chevalier d’Harmental” and “The Three Musketeers.” Emile de Girardin, editor-in-chief and owner of the La Presse newspaper, where Dumas was published, was against adding the name of a co-author to his works. He motivated this by the fact that readers wanted to see only the name of the famous writer, otherwise the popularity of the novels could decrease. Auguste Macke received a substantial compensation. When the friends quarreled, Macke sued Dumas, demanding recognition of co-authorship, but he lost all the claims.

4. The last novel by A. Dumas

Despite the fact that Alexandre Dumas died in 1870, his last bestseller was published in 2005. Researcher of the writer's work Claude Schopp ( Claude Schopp) discovered an unfinished novel by Dumas (almost 1000 unknown pages). The book was published under the title “The Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine”. It became the final part of a trilogy, which included the novels “White and Blue” (1867) and “Companions of Jehu” (1857).

5. Love of A. Dumas

In 1840, Alexandre Dumas married actress Ida Ferrier, which, however, did not prevent him from continuing his love affairs. Historians know the names of at least 40 women who were the writer’s mistresses. From these connections, Dumas officially recognized only four children.

6. Writer's house-museum

When Alexandre Dumas had the opportunity to build his own house, he named it “Castle of Monte Cristo.” Another reference to the adventure novel was the writer's studio (a miniature Gothic castle built nearby), which the writer called "Castle d'If." Unfortunately, Dumas lived in his house for only about two years. He entertained his guests so lavishly that he quickly fell into debt. The house had to be sold for 31 thousand francs, although the construction of the estate cost him tens of times more. “Castle of Monte Cristo” passed from hand to hand until the next owner wanted to demolish it in 1969. Thanks to enthusiasts, the building was preserved, restored and turned into the Dumas house-museum.

7. Reburial of remains

Traditionally, prominent figures in France are buried in the Panthéon mausoleum. But the racist prejudices of Dumas' contemporaries did not allow him to rest in that place in 1870. Only in 2002, on the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth, he was reburied in the Pantheon. The remains of the writer were accompanied by guards dressed as musketeers.

Alexandre Dumas was prone to various kinds of adventures and funny antics, for which he is often included in lists

Name: Alexandre Dumas

Age: 68 years old

Place of Birth: Villers-Cotterets, France

Activity: writer, playwright and journalist

Family status: was married

Alexandre Dumas: biography

Success, debts and women - the classic adventure novel Alexandre Dumas lived under this motto.

In 1822, a strange-looking young man arrived in Paris: tall, dark, ridiculously dressed. The young man, whose grandmother was a dark-skinned slave from Haiti, had neither education nor money, but he had optimism and self-esteem in abundance. No, his name was not D'Artagnan, but Dumas. Instead of a sword, the weapon was a feather, and in his pocket there was a letter of recommendation not to Monsieur de Treville, but to his father's friend, General de Foix. Dumas traveled almost 50 miles from his hometown of Villers-Cotterets to capital of France with the firm intention of making a career as a writer.

His father, a Republican general, died, leaving his wife and son nothing but debts. Alexander himself, under the supervision of a local abbot, learned to read and write and was hired as an assistant to a notary. He gambled away his modest salary in the billiard room until he finally got lucky. Dumas won 600 glasses of absinthe, which he chose to take in cash. Money was needed to go to Paris. Thanks to his patronage, Alexander received a position as a scribe to the Duke of Orleans himself. He quickly made a career, becoming the Duke's personal librarian.

Dumas led a bohemian lifestyle - he visited theaters and salons, read a lot, filling in the gaps in his education. Very soon he became “one of our own” in Paris. In his spare time he wrote plays and short stories - he published some at his own expense, others were staged by small theaters.

The upstart writer had two idols - Shakespeare and Hugo. He met the second through a circle of romantics. The new movement in literature gave him the idea to write a novel with a historical plot, but always lively and intriguing.

The novel had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the revolution. Gambling Dumas enthusiastically climbed onto the barricades. He was lucky: a stray bullet did not hit his gigantic body, and his patron, the Duke of Orleans, came to power. At the same time, feuilleton novels came into fashion, which were published in newspapers in excerpts with continuations and were well paid. Dumas remembered his idea for a historical adventure novel and sat down in his office, writing tons of paper and devoting no more than three hours of sleep a day.

Alexandre Dumas: Literature, books

Soon the whole of France was engrossed in Dumas’s novels, he was recognized on the streets, and honor and preferences awaited the writer in hotels and shops. But he realized that he couldn’t cope. And then a brilliant idea came to his mind: to hire young, unknown writers - “literary blacks.” Alexander gave them an insignificant part of his fees, immediately including ironic descriptions and lively dialogues in everything they wrote.

After the wild success of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo and other works, Dumas was reproached for neglecting historical facts, and some of the “co-authors” even sued him. It was rumored that one of Alexander Dumas’ secret assistants was his talented son, also Alexander, who later became famous for his novel “The Lady of the Camellias.”

Money poured in to the poor provincial, but he was unable to manage it correctly. First, Alexander built his own castle, which he called “Monte Cristo,” and nearby he built a second, smaller one, “Castle If,” for work. Gothic windows and turrets, intricate sculptures and stained glass, an artificial fountain, wine cellars, a stable with the best horses and a poultry yard were designed to outshine the aristocratic neighbors.

As soon as the castle was ready, Dumas began throwing feasts that lasted for weeks. Expensive champagne flowed like a river, snacks were prepared by the best chefs, and fireworks lit up the night sky. Alexander did not even know most of the guests by sight, which did not stop him from lending them large sums and giving them luxurious gifts. The owner himself, during noisy bacchanalia, preferred to sit more and more in his office, working on a new novel.

Dumas’s attitude towards money was fantastic: he worked hard, saved on travel, preferring to walk, instead of money he gave his second-hand clothes and shoes to his son, and at the same time managed to spend huge amounts of money on carousing. The inability to organize financial discipline eventually led Dumas to debtor's prison, and his castle was sold at auction. However, the enterprising writer soon managed to get rich again. According to the recollections of friends, during his turbulent life he “got back on his feet” and went bankrupt at least twenty times.

Alexandre Dumas: biography of personal life

The owner of enormous height and an equally huge belly, Dumas had a weakness for carnal pleasures, especially delicious food and pretty women. Beauties flocked to him like moths to a light, and he did not refuse any of them. Biographers estimate that Dumas had at least 500 mistresses and 50 illegitimate children. However, he recognized only one child - the first-born Alexander, whom his neighbor gave birth to in his youth.

Envious people claimed: the writer had affairs with several women at once, to whom instead of expensive jewelry he gave his poems, often with obscene content. If the beauty was offended, he calmed her down: “Darling, one day you will sell this for good money!” He had long-term relationships with some writers, dancers and actresses.

One of them was the actress Ida Ferrier, whom Dumas stole from a wealthy aristocrat. For seven years, the skilled seductress tried unsuccessfully to bring Dumas to the altar. Then the cunning woman resorted to blackmail. Knowing about Alexander’s financial instability, she asked her former guardian to buy up his debt notes and offered the writer a choice: either we legalize the relationship, or you go to prison. Dumas had to choose marriage. But he did not love his wife, he constantly cheated on her, and as a result, Ida switched to the Sicilian prince. When his wife died at the age of 48, Dumas did not grieve for too long, and after a short time he again embarked on love affairs.

The writer did not hide from his “ladies” that in real life he was not inclined towards romance and sentimentality, preferring a woman’s leg to a pork knuckle. However, many of them loved this giant glutton with an unapproachable but kind heart, and when parting they fell into hysterics and even threatened to commit suicide. Dumas said that in real life he is not prone to romance and prefers pork knuckle to a woman’s leg. After the death of the novelist, his son for a long time received letters from his father’s former passions, in which they told what a wonderful person he was.

In recent years, Dumas traveled a lot (including around Russia), instead of plays and short stories, publishing travel notes, which sold no worse. However, luck eventually turned against him. After the revolutions, France no longer wanted to read historical works, and the aged Dumas could not write others. He was still living large and getting into debt when he had a stroke, then another. A sick, almost immobilized, impoverished 68-year-old father was sheltered by his son.

A few months later, in December 1870, the world-famous author of adventure novels died in Dumas Jr.’s arms. Before his last breath, he managed to whisper: “Son, I’m not at all what many people think. I came to Paris with one gold piece and I saved it for you!” With these words, Dumas placed a coin in his hand. How is the rating calculated?
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Biography, life story of Dumas Alexandre

Years of youth

French writer Alexandre Dumas was born on the 24th of July 1802 in the city of Villers-Cotterets. Dumas's father was a general, his mother was the daughter of a hotel owner from Villers-Cotterets. One of Alexander's grandmothers was a black slave brought to France from the island of Haiti, so Dumas was considered a quadroon. He received no education. Childhood, adolescence and youth were spent in his hometown.

Dumas had beautiful handwriting. He came to Paris and received a position in the office of the Duke of Orleans when he was 20 years old. For this purpose, Alexander took advantage of his father’s connections (General Foix helped him). His friends made a list of books for him that he had to read. These were works of classics, chronicles and memoirs.

Dumas often went to theaters; he wanted to become a playwright. Subsequently, he composed the vaudeville play “Hunting and Love.” The vaudeville was staged by the Ambigu Theatre.

Victory of Romanticism

He once wrote a drama, Cristina, on the theme of the murder of Giovanni Monaldeschi, which was in a romantic style. The drama was not accepted, since it was based on the classical repertoire, of which the all-powerful Mademoiselle Mars was a fan. He was offered to finalize the play, but Dumas refused.

He really needed money, as he supported the mother and illegitimate son of Alexandre Dumas. So he wrote another play, a new drama, Henry III and His Royal Court. After reading the play at the Comedie Française theater, the theater actors asked to accept it. The theater, which until that time had been the mainstay of classicism, staged a romantic work for the first time. This was a victory for the romantics, representatives of the new school in theatrical art.

Soon the regulars of Nodier's salon in the Arsenal accepted Dumas as one of their own. Dumas was the first to dare to touch upon the theme of passion in the theater. The intensity of passions was characteristic of the Renaissance, according to generally accepted opinion. Dumas endowed the man of his time with such a high intensity of feelings that since then all his plays have been successful. His name on the poster meant big box office, he knew how to keep the viewer in suspense from the first to the very last act. His plays were not artistically perfect, but he became the co-author of all playwrights and could lead the most unsuccessful authors to success.

CONTINUED BELOW

Years of the bourgeois revolution

When the revolution occurred in Paris in 1830, which established the power of the bourgeoisie and overthrew King Charles X, Dumas was also among those who destroyed the Tuileries Palace.

The Duke of Orleans ascended the throne of France. He became king under the name Louis Philippe. In 1832, revolutionary events began with the funeral of General Lamarck; Dumas knew him personally.

An uprising soon began, in which Dumas also took part. It was brutally suppressed. The newspapers spread the false news that Dumas had been shot. In fact, he fled to Switzerland and lived there for several months.

At this time he was working on his first journalistic work, “Gaul and France”; the essay was published in 1833.

Personal life

In 1840, Dumas separated from his wife and married theater actress Ida Ferrier. His relationships with other women continued. Dumas led a luxurious lifestyle, he earned a lot of money. He created his own theater and published magazines, but his endeavors were unsuccessful.

In 1851, Dumas fell into disgrace after a coup and fled from his creditors to Brussels. He began to write a book, Memoirs, which were not inferior in artistic merit to his works of fiction.

Dumas then went to St. Petersburg and lived in Russia from 1858 to 1859. He traveled around Karelia, visited the island of Valaam, Moscow, the city of Tsaritsyn, and Transcaucasia. Impressed by his travels, he wrote the book “Travel Impressions. In Russia.”

Dumas took part in the struggle for the liberation of Italy for three years, and took the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian War as a personal grief. He was overtaken by a blow, during which he was almost paralyzed, but he still managed to get to his son's house in Puy, the department of Basse-Seine. Here Alexander Dumas the father died a few months later on December 5, 1870.

Alexandre Dumas the father was the author of the novel “The Count of Monte Cristo”, the series of novels “The Three Musketeers”, “XX Years Later” and “The Vicomte de Bragelonne”, the novel “Queen Margot” and many others. Dumas was unusually prolific and used the work of literary blacks, his name attracted readers.

One of his employees, Gerard de Nerval, introduced Dumas to Auguste Macquet. Dumas and Macke wrote many historical novels together with sequels. Macke did not sign the novels, he received compensation. Macke's contribution remains a subject of debate.