Birth of Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas was born on 24 July 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts. A French writer and dramatist, known as Dumas père to distinguish him from his son of the same name, Dumas was the grandson of a Haitian slave woman and the son of a general in Napoleon's armies. He first achieved success writing historical plays and then became enormously popular with serialized adventure novels, many written with the assistance of collaborators such as Auguste Maquet. The best known are The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, both published in the 1840s. A flamboyant, generous man, he earned large sums and spent them freely, building a lavish chateau near Paris. In 2002 his remains were transferred to the Panthéon.

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