Alexandre Dumas (redirected from Alexandre Dumas, père)

Dumas, Alexandre 

(Dumas fils). Born July 28, 1824, in Paris; died Nov. 27, 1895, in Marly-le-Roi, Seine-et-Oise Department. French writer. member of the Académie Franchise from 1874. Son of A. Dumas.

The first published work by Dumas fils was the collection of poems Sins of Youth (1845). He was the author of the novels La Dame aux camelias (vols. 1-2, 1848; Russian translation, 1892), Doctor Servan (vols. 1-2, 1849; Russian translation, 1850), and Three Strong Men (vols. 1-4, 1850), and he also wrote petit bourgeois philanthropic plays. Dumas won wide acclaim in 1852 with the staging of the drama La Dame aux camelias (in English, Camille), which was based on his novel of the same name. (Verdi’s opera La Traviata was based on the plot of La Dame aux camélias.)

Dumas understood well the rules of the stage and knew how to develop intrigue and dialogue. His plays are not devoid of fundamental truth, but many of them tend to moralize and are imbued with petit bourgeois morals affirming the stability of the bourgeois family and society (The Demimonde, 1855, The Natural Son, 1858, The Wife of Claude, 1873, and The Stranger, 1876).

WORKS

Théátre complet, vols. 1-10. Paris, 1923.

REFERENCES

Istoriia frantsuzskoi literatury, vol. 2. Moscow, 1956.
Maurois, A. Tri Diuma. Afterword by K. Andreev. Moscow, 1962. (Translated from French.)
Claretie, J.A. Dumas fils. Paris, 1883.
Bourget, P. Essais de psychologie contemporaine. Paris, 1886.
Doumic, R. Portraits d’écrivains. Paris, 1897.

I. A. LILEEVA