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50-415: The fictional Aramis is loosely based on the historical musketeer Henri d'Aramitz . Aramis loves and courts women, which fits well with the opinions of the time regarding Jesuits and abbots . He is portrayed as constantly ambitious and unsatisfied; as a musketeer, he yearns to become an abbé ; but as an abbé, he wishes for the life of the soldier. In The Three Musketeers , it is revealed that he became

100-484: A New Zealand pharmacist who never visited France, amassed the greatest collection of books and manuscripts relating to Dumas outside France. The collection contains about 3,350 volumes, including some 2,000 sheets in Dumas's handwriting and dozens of French, Belgian and English first editions. The collection was donated to Auckland Libraries after his death. Reed wrote the most comprehensive bibliography of Dumas. In 2002, for

150-412: A few years and then to Italy. In 1861, he founded and published the newspaper L'Indépendent , which supported Italian unification . He returned to Paris in 1864. English playwright Watts Phillips , who knew Dumas in his later life, described him as "the most generous, large-hearted being in the world. He also was the most delightfully amusing and egotistical creature on the face of the earth. His tongue

200-549: A gourmet and an expert cook. An abridged version (the Petit Dictionnaire de cuisine , or Small Dictionary of Cuisine ) was published in 1883. He was also known for his travel writing. These books included: French historian Alain Decaux founded the "Société des Amis d'Alexandre Dumas" (The Society of Friends of Alexandre Dumas) in 1971. As of August 2017 its president is Claude Schopp. The purpose in creating this society

250-510: A great deal of money, but he was frequently insolvent, as he spent lavishly on women and sumptuous living. (Scholars have found that he had a total of 40 mistresses. ) In 1846, he had built a country house outside Paris at Le Port-Marly , the large Château de Monte-Cristo , with an additional building for his writing studio. It often was filled with strangers and acquaintances who stayed for lengthy visits and took advantage of his generosity. Two years later, faced with financial difficulties, he sold

300-468: A marriage licence, that his mother's name was "Marie-Cessette Dumas". Some scholars have suggested that Thomas-Alexandre devised the surname "Dumas" for himself when he felt the need for one, and that he attributed it to his mother when convenient. "Dumas" means "of the farm" ( du mas ), perhaps signifying only that Marie-Cessette belonged to the farm property. While working for Louis-Philippe, Alexandre Dumas began writing articles for magazines and plays for

350-493: A musketeer because of a woman and his arrogance; as a young man in training for the priesthood, he had the misfortune to be caught (innocently or not) reading to a young married woman and thrown out of her house. For the next year, he studied fencing with the best swordsman in town to get his revenge. He then challenged the man who had mistreated him to a duel and thanks to his newly learned fencing skills, killed him almost at once. Because duels were forbidden by royal edict and Aramis

400-501: A previous relationship for "an exorbitant amount" and made Marie-Cessette his concubine . Thomas-Alexandre was the only son born to them, but they had two or three daughters. In 1775, following the death of both his brothers, Antoine left Saint-Domingue for France in order to claim the family estates and the title of Marquis. Shortly before his departure, he sold Marie-Cessette and their two daughters (Adolphe and Jeanette), as well as Marie-Cessette's oldest daughter Marie-Rose (whose father

450-535: A racial identity for Marie-Cessette Dumas refer to her as a " négresse " (a black woman) as opposed to a " mulâtresse " (a woman of visible mixed race). It is unknown whether Marie-Cessette was born in Saint-Domingue or in Africa, nor is it known from which African people her ancestors came. What is known is that, sometime after becoming estranged from his brothers, Antoine purchased Marie-Cessette and her daughter from

500-489: A step to climb to even greater power. Eventually, he is named Superior General of the Jesuits , which is precisely what saves his life at the end of Le Vicomte De Bragelonne , after he is betrayed by Nicolas Fouquet . Despite his ruthless personal ambition, Aramis is an extremely loyal friend: in fact, his only mistakes come when he refuses to harm or offend his friends. In Twenty Years After , he follows Athos's pleas to spare

550-674: A writer. As newspapers were publishing many serial novels, he began producing these. His first serial novel was La Comtesse de Salisbury ; Édouard III (July-September 1836). In 1838, Dumas rewrote one of his plays as a successful serial historical novel, Le Capitaine Paul ('Captain Paul'), partly based on the life of the Scottish-American naval officer John Paul Jones . He founded a production studio, staffed with writers who turned out hundreds of stories, all subject to his personal direction, editing, and additions. From 1839 to 1841, Dumas, with

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600-684: Is a Jesuit known as the Abbé d'Herblay or Chevalier d'Herblay. In The Vicomte de Bragelonne he is the Bishop of Vannes , a title given to him by Nicolas Fouquet, and later becomes the Superior General of the Jesuits . When he comes back from exile, he is a Spanish noble and ambassador known as Duke of Alameda. Actors who have played Aramis on screen include: Henri d%27Aramitz Henri, Seigneur d'Aramitz ("Lord of Aramits "; c . 1620–1655 or 1674)

650-462: Is the lover of the Duchesse de Longueville and, it is broadly implied, the father of her son. In contrast to the other musketeers, Aramis is twice referred to by his first name René. This first happens when d'Artagnan stumbles upon Aramis and his mistress in the chapter "Les Deux Gaspard" of the second book, and again when Bazin is talking about Aramis in the third book. In Twenty Years After , Aramis

700-656: Is written as Grisier's account of how he came to witness the events of the Decembrist revolt in Russia. The novel was eventually banned in Russia by Czar Nicholas I , and Dumas was prohibited from visiting the country until after the Czar's death. Dumas refers to Grisier with great respect in The Count of Monte Cristo , The Corsican Brothers , and in his memoirs. Dumas depended on numerous assistants and collaborators, of whom Auguste Maquet

750-796: The Duke of Orléans , who ruled as Louis-Philippe , the Citizen King. Until the mid-1830s, life in France remained unsettled, with sporadic riots by disgruntled Republicans and impoverished urban workers seeking change. As life slowly returned to normal, the nation began to industrialise. An improving economy combined with the end of press censorship made the times rewarding for Alexandre Dumas's literary skills. After writing additional successful plays, Dumas switched to writing novels. Although attracted to an extravagant lifestyle and always spending more than he earned, Dumas proved to be an astute marketing strategist as well as

800-671: The Musketeers of the Guard , but upon the death of Henri's grandfather, Abbé Pierre d'Aramitz, Charles returned to Béarn and took over his father's abbacy. His grandfather was indeed a Huguenot captain, though there is no proof of Henri d'Aramitz being himself a Protestant (he married a devout Catholic). Henri d'Aramitz's uncle, the Comte de Troisville , called him to Paris along with his cousins Armand d'Athos and Isaac de Porthau based on their reputation for swordsmanship . On this occasion Aramitz had

850-646: The Paris Métro named a station in his honour . His country home outside Paris, the Château de Monte-Cristo , has been restored and is open to the public as a museum. Researchers have continued to find Dumas works in archives, including the five-act play The Gold Thieves , found in 2002 by the scholar Réginald Hamel  [ fr ] in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It was published in France in 2004 by Honoré-Champion. Frank Wild Reed (1874–1953),

900-697: The kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II as its king. Dumas travelled there and for the next three years participated in the movement for Italian unification . He founded and led a newspaper, Indipendente . While there, he befriended Giuseppe Garibaldi , whom he had long admired and with whom he shared a commitment to liberal republican principles as well as membership within Freemasonry . Returning to Paris in 1864, he published travel books about Italy. Despite Dumas's aristocratic background and personal success, he had to deal with discrimination related to his mixed-race ancestry. In 1843, he wrote

950-628: The Army and was promoted to general by the age of 31, the first soldier of Afro-Antilles origin to reach that rank in the French army. The family surname ("de la Pailleterie") was never bestowed upon Thomas-Alexandre, who therefore used "Dumas" as his surname. This is often assumed to have been his mother's surname, but in fact, the surname "Dumas" occurs only once in connection with Marie-Cessette, and that happens in Europe, when Thomas-Alexandre states, while applying for

1000-405: The Guard and took over as abbé of Béarn. Sources disagree on his date of death, recorded as either 1655 or 1674. Alexandre Dumas, p%C3%A8re Alexandre Dumas (born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie , 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of

1050-474: The Sainte-Hermine saga. Schopp combined them to publish the sequel Le Salut de l'Empire in 2008. Alexandre Dumas wrote numerous stories and historical chronicles of adventure. They included the following: In addition, Dumas wrote many series of novels: The d'Artagnan Romances : The Valois were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589, and many Dumas romances cover their reign. Traditionally,

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1100-610: The assistance of several friends, compiled Celebrated Crimes , an eight-volume collection of essays on famous criminals and crimes from European history. He featured Beatrice Cenci , Martin Guerre , Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia , as well as more recent events and criminals, including the cases of the alleged murderers Karl Ludwig Sand and Antoine François Desrues , who were executed. Dumas collaborated with Augustin Grisier, his fencing master, in his 1840 novel, The Fencing Master . The story

1150-504: The bicentenary of Dumas's birth, French President Jacques Chirac held a ceremony honouring the author by having his ashes re-interred at the mausoleum of the Panthéon , where many French luminaries were buried. When Chirac ordered the transfer to the mausoleum, villagers in Dumas's hometown of Villers-Cotterets were initially opposed, arguing that Dumas laid out in his memoirs that he wanted to be buried there. The village eventually bowed to

1200-436: The chance to meet the Comte d'Artagnan . The Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan , written by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras , later served as the basis for Alexandre Dumas's novel The Three Musketeers . In May 1640 Aramitz joined the Musketeers of the Guard . Aramitz married Jeanne de Béarn-Bonnasse on February 16, 1650 and had two sons (Clément and Amant) and one daughter. Following his father's death in 1648, he resigned from

1250-441: The daughter of an innkeeper, and Thomas-Alexandre Dumas . Thomas-Alexandre had been born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), the mixed-race , natural son of the marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (Antoine), a French nobleman and général commissaire in the artillery of the colony, and Marie-Cessette Dumas , an enslaved woman of Afro-Caribbean ancestry. The two extant primary documents that state

1300-400: The entire property. Dumas wrote in a wide variety of genres and published a total of 100,000 pages in his lifetime. He made use of his experience, writing travel books after taking journeys, including those motivated by reasons other than pleasure. Dumas travelled to Spain, Italy, Germany, England and French Algeria . After King Louis-Philippe was ousted in a revolt, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte

1350-412: The first and only time in his life - after causing the death of one of his friends. Aramis' political intrigues are matched by (and usually connected with) his amorous intrigues, as Dumas casts him in the role of the lover of politically powerful women of his time. In The Three Musketeers ca. 1627, he is the lover of the Duchesse de Chevreuse , the confidante of the queen. In Twenty Years After he

1400-565: The first. He wrote numerous magazine articles and travel books; his published works totalled 100,000 pages. In the 1840s, Dumas founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris. His father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie , was born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti ) to Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman, and Marie-Cessette Dumas , an African slave. At age 14, Thomas-Alexandre

1450-519: The government's decision, and Dumas's body was exhumed from its cemetery and put into a new coffin in preparation for the transfer. The proceedings were televised: the new coffin was draped in a blue velvet cloth and carried on a caisson flanked by four mounted Republican Guards costumed as the four Musketeers . It was transported through Paris to the Panthéon. In his speech, Chirac said: With you, we were D'Artagnan, Monte Cristo, or Balsamo, riding along

1500-647: The life of the villain Mordaunt, and in Le Vicomte De Bragelonne , he refuses to suppress d'Artagnan's discovery of the truth about Belle-Île-en-Mer . Aramis even tells his friend Porthos the true identity of the Man in the Iron Mask , despite fearing that this will lead Porthos to kill him (Aramis). Friendship is so important to Aramis that, at the end of Le Vicomte De Bragelonne , it is strongly implied that he cries - for

1550-450: The most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of adventure were originally published as serials , including The Count of Monte Cristo , The Three Musketeers , Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later . Since the early 20th century, his novels have been adapted into nearly 200 films. Prolific in several genres, Dumas began his career by writing plays, which were successfully produced from

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1600-459: The peak of her success. With Victor Hugo , Charles Baudelaire , Gérard de Nerval , Eugène Delacroix and Honoré de Balzac , Dumas was a member of the Club des Hashischins , which met monthly to take hashish at a hotel in Paris. Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo contains several references to hashish. On 5 December 1870, Dumas died at the age of 68 of natural causes, possibly a heart attack. He

1650-667: The roads of France, touring battlefields, visiting palaces and castles—with you, we dream. Chirac acknowledged the racism that had existed in France and said that the re-interment in the Pantheon had been a way of correcting that wrong, as Alexandre Dumas was enshrined alongside fellow great authors Victor Hugo and Émile Zola . Chirac noted that although France has produced many great writers, none has been so widely read as Dumas. His novels have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and inspired more than 200 motion pictures. In June 2005, Dumas's last novel, The Knight of Sainte-Hermine ,

1700-499: The scholar Claude Schopp lists nearly 40 mistresses. He is known to have fathered at least four children by them: About 1866, Dumas had an affair with Adah Isaacs Menken , an American actress who was less than half his age and at the height of her career. She had performed her sensational role in Mazeppa in London. In Paris, she had a sold-out run of Les Pirates de la Savanne and was at

1750-545: The short novel Georges , which addressed some of the issues of race and the effects of colonialism. His response to a man who insulted him about his partial African ancestry has become famous. Dumas said: My father was a mulatto , my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends. On 1 February 1840, Dumas married actress Ida Ferrier (born Marguerite-Joséphine Ferrand) (1811–1859). They did not have any children together. Dumas had numerous liaisons with other women;

1800-472: The short versions (50 chapters or less) number eight in total: Although best known now as a novelist, Dumas first earned fame as a dramatist. His Henri III et sa cour (1829) was the first of the great Romantic historical dramas produced on the Paris stage, preceding Victor Hugo's more famous Hernani (1830). Produced at the Comédie-Française and starring the famous Mademoiselle Mars , Dumas's play

1850-616: The so-called "Valois Romances" are the three that portray the Reign of Queen Marguerite , the last of the Valois. Dumas, however, later wrote four more novels that cover this family and portray similar characters, starting with François or Francis I , his son Henry II , and Marguerite and François II , sons of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici . The Marie Antoinette romances comprise eight novels. The unabridged versions (normally 100 chapters or more) comprise only five books (numbers 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8);

1900-500: The theatre. As an adult, he used the surname of Dumas, as his father had done as an adult. His first play, Henry III and His Court , produced in 1829 when he was 27 years old, met with acclaim. The next year, his second play, Christine , was equally popular. These successes gave him sufficient income to write full-time. In 1830, Dumas participated in the Revolution that ousted Charles X and replaced him with Dumas's former employer,

1950-491: The unfinished work. It took him years to research it, edit the completed portions, and decide how to treat the unfinished part. Schopp finally wrote the final two-and-a-half chapters, based on the author's notes, to complete the story. Published by Éditions Phébus , it sold 60,000 copies, making it a best seller. Translated into English, it was released in 2006 as The Last Cavalier, and has been translated into other languages. Schopp has since found additional material related to

2000-629: Was a Gascon abbé , and black musketeer of the Maison du Roi in 17th century France . In addition, he was the nephew of the Comte de Troisville , captain of the Musketeers of the Guard . Aramitz served as the inspiration for Alexandre Dumas 's character " Aramis " in the d'Artagnan Romances . Aramitz was born of noble ancestry to Charles d'Aramitz and Catherine d'Espalungue de Rague in Béarn , France . His father lived in Paris as maréchal-des-logis for

2050-516: Was a different man) to a baron who had recently come from Nantes to settle in Saint Domingue. Antoine however retained ownership of Thomas-Alexandre (his only natural son) and took the boy with him to France. There, Thomas-Alexandre received his freedom and a sparse education at a military school, adequate to enable him to join the French army, there being no question of the mixed-race boy being accepted as his father's heir. Thomas-Alexandre did well in

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2100-537: Was a novice, he had to disappear and adopt a very low profile. He enlisted in the Musketeers under the assumed name of "Aramis". There he met Athos, Porthos and later d'Artagnan. Together, they worked to protect the king and to keep the queen's affair with the Duke of Buckingham from being revealed by Cardinal Richelieu . Aramis meets with great success, thanks to his Machiavellian plans and his audacity. He sees every victory as

2150-525: Was an enormous success and launched him on his career. It had 50 performances over the next year, extraordinary at the time. Dumas's works included: Dumas wrote many plays and adapted several of his novels as dramas. In the 1840s, he founded the Théâtre Historique , located on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. The building was used after 1852 by the Opéra National (established by Adolphe Adam in 1847). It

2200-468: Was buried at his birthplace of Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne. His death was overshadowed by the Franco-Prussian War . Changing literary fashions decreased his popularity. In the late 20th century, scholars such as Reginald Hamel and Claude Schopp have caused a critical reappraisal and new appreciation of his art, as well as finding lost works. In 1970, upon the centenary of his death,

2250-444: Was elected president. As Bonaparte disapproved of the author, Dumas fled in 1851 to Brussels, Belgium, which was also an effort to escape his creditors. In about 1859, he moved to Russia , where French was the second language of the elite and his writings were enormously popular. Dumas spent two years in Russia and visited St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Astrakhan, Baku, and Tbilisi. He published travel books about Russia. In March 1861,

2300-530: Was like a windmill – once set in motion, you would never know when he would stop, especially if the theme was himself." Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (later known as Alexandre Dumas) was born in 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne , in Picardy , France. He had two older sisters, Marie-Alexandrine (born 1794) and Louise-Alexandrine (1796–1797). Their parents were Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret,

2350-466: Was published in France featuring the Battle of Trafalgar . Dumas described a fictional character killing Lord Nelson (Nelson was shot and killed by an unknown sniper). Writing and publishing the novel serially in 1869, Dumas had nearly finished it before his death. It was the third part of the Sainte-Hermine trilogy. Claude Schopp, a Dumas scholar, noticed a letter in an archive in 1990 that led him to discover

2400-473: Was renamed the Théâtre Lyrique in 1851. Dumas was a prolific writer of nonfiction. He wrote journal articles on politics and culture and books on French history. His lengthy Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine ( Great Dictionary of Cuisine ) was published posthumously in 1873, and several editions of it are still in print today. A combination of encyclopaedia and cookbook, it reflects Dumas's interests as both

2450-449: Was taken by his father to France, where he was educated in a military academy and entered the military for what became an illustrious career. Alexandre acquired work with Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans , then as a writer, a career that led to his early success. Decades later, after the election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in 1851, Dumas fell from favour and left France for Belgium, where he stayed for several years. He moved to Russia for

2500-562: Was the best known. It was not until the late twentieth century that his role was fully understood. Dumas wrote the short novel Georges (1843), which uses ideas and plots later repeated in The Count of Monte Cristo . Maquet took Dumas to court to try to get authorial recognition and a higher rate of payment for his work. He was successful in getting more money, but not a by-line. Dumas's novels were so popular that they were soon translated into English and other languages. His writing earned him

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