Alexandre Dumas, known as Dumas père, (born July 24, 1802, Villers-Cotterêts, Aisne, France—died Dec. 5, 1870, Puys, near Dieppe), French playwright and novelist. Dumas’s first success was as a writer of melodramatic plays, including Napoléon Bonaparte (1831) and Antony (1831). His immensely popular novels, set in colourful historical backgrounds, include The Three Musketeers (1844), a romance about four swashbuckling heroes in the age of Cardinal Richelieu, and its sequel Twenty Years After (1845); The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–45); and The Black Tulip (1850). His illegitimate son Alexandre Dumas (1824–95), called Dumas fils, is best known for his play La Dame aux camélias (1848), the basis of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata and later of several films titled Camille.
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