This creative “workshop” turned writing into a production line, branding his work alongside other authors. In crafting his historical adventure novels, plays, travel stories, and cookbooks, the creator of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” employed the labor of “literary slaves,” astonishing readers with his unprecedented productivity. Under the name of the most prolific writer of his time, no less than 100,000 pages of text were published, with the help of hired assistants. One of the most widely read Frenchmen had beautiful handwriting and a knack for storytelling, earning well and spending lavishly, with a passion for fine food, travel, and women. Alexandre Dumas collected recipes, cooked dishes himself, and had around 500 lovers. He also dabbled in journalism and publishing, hid from creditors, and participated in the revolution.
Portrait of Alexandre Dumas, painted by William Henry Powell, 1855
An Extraordinary Heritage
The future master of popular literature was born on July 24, 1802, to General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the only recognized son of a French aristocrat and a black slave from the island of Haiti. Through his paternal grandmother, Marie-Sesette, who was the mistress of his grandfather, the Norman Marquis Antoine Délile de la Paitrie, Alexandre Dumas père became a quarteron. In colonial countries, this term referred to mulattos with African ancestry from a grandparent (quarta in Latin means a quarter). When later, some detractors tried to insult the general’s son by reminding him of his “less than noble” origins, Alexandre Dumas cleverly retorted, “My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather was a monkey. So my evolution, monsieur, began where yours ends.”
Alexandre Dumas père’s childhood and youth were spent in the commune of Villers-Cotterêts (Aisne department), where he lived until he was 20 and continued to visit even after moving to the capital. Symbolically, it was in this small town in northern France that the edict recognizing the French language as the state language was issued in 1539, and the future world-famous writer would significantly contribute to its popularization. The birthplace of the celebrity is referred to in travel guides as the “city of three Dumas”: “grandfather” Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, Alexandre Dumas père, and Alexandre Dumas fils (one of the heirs also became a well-known writer, author of “The Lady of the Camellias”). Local guides share fascinating stories about their famous compatriots. In particular, the tumultuous life of the first Dumas is worthy of adventure novels—perhaps it was this very life that sparked the remarkable creative imagination of his son?
Father of Alexandre Dumas
The “Black Devil”
Alexandre Dumas begins the story of his family history with facts about his grandfather, the Marquis de la Paitrie, who quarreled with his brother and left France, fleeing creditors to the colony of Haiti. On the island of Saint-Domingue, he fathered children with a black slave, who were legally considered slaves themselves. After his brother’s death, the exiled marquis was able to return to the mainland, reclaiming his lost wealth and restoring his noble title. Meanwhile, planter Délile sold his property in Haiti—including four slave children. The agreement included the option to redeem the eldest son within five years. After returning to Paris in 1775, the Marquis de la Paitrie married his housekeeper and, four years later, redeemed Thomas-Alexandre (his black mother had died by then), officially acknowledging his paternity and giving his son the family name. However, the son could not forgive his father for refusing to acknowledge and redeem his brothers. He would build a military career under his mother’s surname, Dumas.
Confirming that his father was born of the Marquis de la Paitrie and a black slave, Alexandre Dumas recounted the subsequent stages of the life of a man he barely remembered. In Villers-Cotterêts, the young dragoon met his future wife, Marie-Louise Laboure. Some say her father was a tavern keeper, while others claim he was a nobleman and owner of a local hotel. The father agreed to marry his daughter to a soldier on the condition that the groom would become a brigadier general. A year later, the rank was achieved, the couple married, and soon the young father set off on an Egyptian campaign with Bonaparte. For his bravery, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was nicknamed the “Black Devil” in the army. However, the transformation of the commander into Emperor Napoleon contradicted the republican beliefs of Thomas-Alexandre, and General Dumas preferred retirement, leaving without a pension. On his way home, he was captured in Italy and was only freed after a year and a half. Left without means of support, the father sought another mission and was sent to suppress a rebellion and restore slavery on his native island of Saint-Domingue. The son of a slave refused such a fate.
The house where Dumas was born
The “Renaissance of the Renaissance”
The sick father died at 43, when Alexandre Dumas was only four years old. He left his wife and two children—a son and a daughter with the same name—under the care of acquaintances. Friends helped the struggling mother open a shop selling tobacco and salt. The son began attending the local school only at the age of 10. Today, this college bears his name, but at that time, no one was pleased to see a mulatto boy there. According to Alexandre Dumas’s recollections, the teacher always asked to open the windows so that “it wouldn’t smell like a Negro.” The material evidence of Dumas’s childhood remains his school notebooks with blue pages, filled with calligraphic handwriting. From the age of 14, the teenager worked as a messenger, later becoming an apprentice clerk and an employee in two notary offices, an assistant librarian, and a secretary in the Duke’s office. His father’s connections and beautiful handwriting helped him secure a position as a secretary to the Duke of Orléans without sufficient education, paving the way for the gifted boy’s writing career. Working in the capital’s office allowed the young man to settle in Paris in 1823 and start writing plays, which began to be staged in the prestigious Comédie-Française and other theaters as early as 1829.
Alexandre Dumas, 1828
With his new theater friend, Adolphe de Leuven, the former provincial became a regular at Parisian theaters, where he realized that audiences preferred vaudevilles over classical productions. Thus, Alexandre Dumas decided to focus on creating works in the “light genre.” His first drama, “The Court of Henry III,” was requested for production without delay by the actors of Comédie-Française. This notable premiere became a professional springboard for the writer, who needed funds to support his mother and his illegitimate son, Alexandre. Dumas’s innovative approach lay in offering his contemporaries vivid passions more characteristic of the Renaissance. His subsequent theatrical works—”Christina,” “Genius and Debauchery,” “Antony,” “The Nile Tower”—solidified his literary ambitions: a successful author of romantic plots with turbulent action and historical context aimed to become the best playwright of his time.
The Price of Fame
During the July Revolution of 1830, the writer was among the rebels storming the Tuileries Palace, toppling monarch Charles X. When the next revolutionary uprising was suppressed two years later, Dumas found himself “at the wrong time, in the wrong place.” At the funeral of General Lamarque, which preceded the uprising, a writer who knew him in life led the mourning column of artillerymen following the hearse, and his presence with a weapon could have had serious consequences for Alexandre Dumas. He was not shot, as rumors suggested, but he would not have escaped arrest had he not managed to leave France. For several months, Dumas had to stay in Switzerland, where he prepared his first historical and journalistic article, “Gaul and France,” for publication. This experience inspired the writer in the 1830s to recreate 400 years of French history in a series of novels based on artistically interpreted real events.
Alexandre Dumas’s works “Isabella of Bavaria,” “Chronicle of the Times of Charles VI,” and “The History of the Dukes of Burgundy” strengthened the author’s financial position, allowing him to lead a lavish lifestyle. At various times, Dumas published his own literary magazine, “Psyche,” founded the newspapers “The Musketeer,” “Monte Cristo,” “D’Artagnan,” and even had his own “Historical Theater.” In 1847, Alexandre Dumas père built a luxurious three-story stone castle, Monte Cristo, which now houses his museum. In the chateau estate near Port-Marly, his literary assistants occasionally lived, working on themes and plots, contributing to the writer’s creative legacy. This was a true “collective,” significantly boosting the productivity of the official author. It all began in the late 1830s when French newspapers started publishing Dumas’s serialized novels to increase circulation. His name attracted readers intrigued by the captivating narrative, eagerly purchasing the next issue in anticipation of the continuation of the cliffhanger.
The Monte Cristo estate
How to Do It All?
In the 1840s and 50s, the writer worked at an incredibly high pace, supplying competing publishers with new chapters of various novels as previous ones went to print. Since authors were paid by the amount written, Dumas produced, to put it in modern terms, 24,000 characters of unique artistic content daily. According to the writer, for 20 years he worked 10 hours a day: during this time, he created 400 volumes of works and 35 plays. In just 1844, he wrote 16 significant works, including “The Three Musketeers,” “The Regent’s Daughter,” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” (which was completed a year later), and in 1845, he produced another 12 novels, including “Twenty Years After” and “Queen Margot.” Meanwhile, Dumas still found time to court actresses (he was briefly married to one of them), “make children,” and travel the world. Dumas’s prolific output irritated his envious contemporaries, and in 1845, amidst the deafening success of his books, a scathing pamphlet titled “The Novel Factory: The House of Alexander Dumas & Co.” emerged. Its author, Eugène de Mirecourt, criticized the writer’s private life and accused him of exploiting the labor of “literary slaves.” Dumas sued the “slanderer” and even won the case, but he could not stop the rumors that tarnished his reputation.
Alexandre Dumas writing “The Three Musketeers” in his library, engraving from the 1890s, artist Maurice Leloir
After all, Dumas’s collaborators were aware of the story of the little-known writer Auguste Maquet, under whose influence the chief turned to the genre of historical adventure novels. At one point, Dumas adapted a play by the young author for production. A delighted Maquet showed Alexandre Dumas other works of his. After reworking them in his style, the writer published the works under his own name, as dual signatures were not practiced by publishers at the time. This includes the novels “Chevalier d’Armenthal,” “The Three Musketeers,” “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “Queen Margot,” and “The Women’s War.” Based on correspondence between Maquet and Dumas, experts determined that the co-author’s contribution to the intellectual products was significant. After the scandal, Dumas asked Maquet to publish a letter renouncing rights to reissue their joint books, and Maquet wrote the following lines: “We have always had enough good friendship and honest word, and now, dear friend, you have shown generosity by not disowning me, publicly announcing my collaboration with you in writing a number of works, which has brought me fame. Haven’t you already settled with me fully for all the works we wrote together?”
Portrait of Auguste Maquet
The “Collective” Dumas
However, later the relationship between the co-authors soured, and Maquet admitted that he wrote that letter under pressure. He even sued Dumas in 1858, demanding recognition of his co-authorship in the creation of 18 novels, but lost three consecutive trials. Before his death, Alexandre Dumas told his son about the “secret settlements” between the co-authors, and later Dumas fils inquired with Maquet whether they had made any confidential agreement with his father. Maquet replied to him in 1871: “You, dear Alexandre, know better than anyone how much talent, work, and dedication I devoted to your father over the many years of our collaboration, which consumed my name and fortune. I invested even more of my generosity and delicacy into this matter. So know that there were never any financial misunderstandings between us.”
Alexandre Dumas fils
Besides Maquet, other writers offered their services to Alexandre Dumas, who needed money. It has been established that with their help, “Two Dianas,” “Ascanio,” “The Castle of Epstein,” and other works were written. In total, researchers have identified over fifty occasional or permanent collaborators, assistants, and idea suppliers for the writer. This “collective mind” created 37,267 characters, including 4,056 main characters, 8,872 secondary characters, and 24,339 minor figures. Yet none of the collaborators in the “artel” achieved comparable popularity in their independent work: only the remarkable Alexandre Dumas remains in literary history. After the coup of 1851, the writer fell into disfavor and was forced to flee from creditors to Brussels, where he wrote memoirs on par with his best fictional works. It is known that in 1860 he joined Garibaldi’s movement for the unification of Italy, was appointed director of museums and archaeology in Naples, and founded the newspaper L’Independente. A Knight of the Legion of Honor, he died on April 15, 1872, at his son’s estate and was ceremoniously reburied in the Pantheon in Paris in 2002.