Dumas, Alexandre
(1824-1895),
French playwright and
novelist.
He was born in
Paris, the natural son
of the writer
Alexandre Dumas
père.
Dumas fils, as
he was known, had an
unhappy childhood
because his schoolmates
constantly taunted him
about his illegitimacy.
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His first literary work
was a volume of poetry,
Péchés de Jeunesse
(Sins of Youth, 1847).
The following year his
first novel, La Dame
aux Camélias (1848;
trans. 1856), appeared,
and his subsequent
dramatization of this
work (known outside
France as Camille),
produced in 1852,
established him as a
success in the theatre.
The play, about a
courtesan who sacrifices
her happiness for her
lover’s good, has served
as a vehicle for many
great actresses,
including
Sarah Bernhardt
and, in a film version,
Greta Garbo.
The story was
immortalized by
Giuseppe Verdi
in his opera La
Traviata.
Dumas continued to write
novels, but he was far
more successful as a
dramatist. He was one of
the founders of the
“problem
play”—middle-class
realistic drama dealing
with contemporary ills
and possible solutions.
In his view the
playwright’s function is
essentially moralistic,
and nearly all of his
plays are concerned with
social and moral
problems (some inspired
by his own illegitimacy
and the bohemian society
of his childhood), such
as marital infidelity
and prostitution.
Despite his dramatic
ingenuity and his gift
for dialogue, some
consider his plays
marred by their tendency
to preach. Dumas was
elected to the Académie
Française in 1874. Among
his other plays are
Le Demi-Monde
(1855), Le Fils
Naturel (1858), and
Un Père Prodigue
(A Prodigal Father,
1859).