Alexandre Dumas and what he knew
Alexandre Dumas (pére) was the Alexander Hamilton of his time. He produced 45 books, 6 plays, and 12 travel guides between 1831 and 1867. Granted, some of them started off as outlines written by collaborators, but he often stayed up very late, reading and writing by candlelight. Though in his time he never attained the measure of success he dreamed of, he is now widely regarded as one of the most famous and prolific French writers to date, and one of the founders of the Romantic movement.
He wrote The Three Musketeers as a serial novel in 1844, aided greatly by the work of his collaborator Auguste Maquet, who would outline the plots of each chapter. Dumas would then write the chapter out, adding spice and flash. It is worth mentioning that Dumas wrote the entire manuscript of The Three Musketeers out in his own handwriting- Maquet was a close collaborator, but it was definitely Dumas who wrote his own books.
A few things are unique about The Three Musketeers. The book is based loosely on The Memoirs of M. D'Artagnan (in themselves a fictionalized version of d'Artagnan's life) and brings in elements of the Memoirs of Madame de Motteville and the Histoirettess of Tallemant de Reaux. He took all of the exciting elements of each source and made them more bombastic and scandalous. He moved d'Artagnan back in time to the reign of Louis XIII (Dumas did not like Louis XIV at all) and made up the character of Milady almost from whole cloth. It is a very imaginative history of the Musketeers.
Dumas as a person was a Porthos. He was jovial, generous to a fault (to the point that he was almost always in debt), and enjoyed swordfighting. He was also witty. Upon facing a racist remark (he was a quarter African), Dumas retorted: “My father was a Creole, his father a Negro, and his father a monkey; my family, it seems, begins where yours left off."
He regarded The Three Musketeers as his best work, better even than The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas died peacefully of old age at the age of 68.
He wrote The Three Musketeers as a serial novel in 1844, aided greatly by the work of his collaborator Auguste Maquet, who would outline the plots of each chapter. Dumas would then write the chapter out, adding spice and flash. It is worth mentioning that Dumas wrote the entire manuscript of The Three Musketeers out in his own handwriting- Maquet was a close collaborator, but it was definitely Dumas who wrote his own books.
A few things are unique about The Three Musketeers. The book is based loosely on The Memoirs of M. D'Artagnan (in themselves a fictionalized version of d'Artagnan's life) and brings in elements of the Memoirs of Madame de Motteville and the Histoirettess of Tallemant de Reaux. He took all of the exciting elements of each source and made them more bombastic and scandalous. He moved d'Artagnan back in time to the reign of Louis XIII (Dumas did not like Louis XIV at all) and made up the character of Milady almost from whole cloth. It is a very imaginative history of the Musketeers.
Dumas as a person was a Porthos. He was jovial, generous to a fault (to the point that he was almost always in debt), and enjoyed swordfighting. He was also witty. Upon facing a racist remark (he was a quarter African), Dumas retorted: “My father was a Creole, his father a Negro, and his father a monkey; my family, it seems, begins where yours left off."
He regarded The Three Musketeers as his best work, better even than The Count of Monte Cristo. Dumas died peacefully of old age at the age of 68.