Alexandre Dumas, fils

**Alexandre Dumas, fils** (fils is French for _son_), (27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père (père is French for _father_). Like his father, Alexandre Dumas, fils was a celebrated author and playwright.

Alexandre Dumas _fils_ was born in Paris, France, the illegitimate child of Marie-Catherine Labay, a dressmaker, and novelist Alexandre Dumas. In 1831 his father legally recognized him (he adopted him) and ensured the young Dumas received the best education possible at the Institution Goubaux and the College Bourbon. At that time, the law allowed the elder Dumas to take the child away from his mother. Her agony inspired Dumas _fils_ to write about tragic female characters. In almost all of his writings, he emphasized the moral purpose of literature and in his 1858 play, _Le fils naturel_ (_The Illegitimate Son_), he wrote about the belief that if a man fathers an illegitimate child, then he has an obligation to legitimize the child and marry the woman.

Dumas' paternal great-grandparents were a white French nobleman and a young black Haitian woman. In the boarding schools, Dumas _fils_ was constantly taunted by his classmates. These issues all profoundly influenced his thoughts, behaviour, and writing.

In 1844, Dumas _fils_ moved to Saint-Germain-en-Laye to live with his father. There, he met Marie Duplessis, a young courtesan who would be the inspiration for his romantic novel, _La dame aux camélias_ (_The Lady of the Camellias_). Adapted into a play, it was titled in English (especially in the United States) as _Camille_ and is the basis for Verdi's 1853 opera, _La Traviata_. Although he admitted that he had done the adaptation because he needed the money, he had a huge success with the play. With this work began the playwriting career of Dumas _fils_ which not only eclipsed that of his father during his lifetime but also dominated the serious French stage for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. After this, he virtually abandoned the novel (though his semi-autobiographical _L'Affaire Clemenceau_ (1867) achieved some success).

In 1864, Dumas married Nadeja Naryschkine, with whom he had a daughter. After Naryschkine's death, he married Henriette Regnier.

In 1874, he was admitted to the Académie française and in 1894 he was awarded the _Légion d'Honneur_.

Alexandre Dumas the son died at Marly-le-Roi, Yvelines, on 27 November 1895 and was interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris. It was, perhaps coincidentally, only some 100 metres away from Marie Duplessis.

## Books

- _La dame aux camélias_ (_Camille_ or _The Lady of the Camellias,_ 1848)
- _L'affaire Clemenceau_ (_The Clemenceau Case,_ 1867)

## Opera

- Verdi's _La Traviata_ was based on the novel _The Lady of the Camellias_

## Plays

- _Atala_ (1848)
- _La Dame aux camélias_ (1852)
- _Diane de Lys_ (1853)
- _Le Bijou de la reine_ (1855)
- _Le Demi-monde_ (1855)
- _La Question d'argent_ (1857)
- _Le Fils naturel_ (_The Illegitimate Son_ or _The Natural Son,_ 1858)
- _Un Père prodigue_ (1859)
- _Un Marriage dans un chapeau_ (1859) coll. Vivier
- _L'Ami des femmes_ (1864)
- _Le Supplice d'une femme_ (1865) coll. Emile de Girardin
- _Heloise Paranquet_ (1866) coll. Durentin
- _Les Idees de Madame Aubray_ (1867)
- _Le Filleul de Pompignac_ (1869) coll. Francois
- _Une Visite de noces_ (1871)
- _La Princesse Georges_ (1871)
- _La Femme de Claude_ (1873)
- _Monsieur Alphonse_ (1873)
- _L'étrangère_ (1876)
- _Les Danicheff_ (1876) coll. de Corvin
- _La Comtesse Romani_ (1876) coll. Gustave Fould
- _La Princesse de Bagdad_ (1881)
- _Denise_ (1885)
- _Francillon_ (1887)