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Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas (father) was a French writer, playwright, and journalist. He is the author of numerous novels, including "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Musketeers." His works are considered world classics.

Alexandre Dumas was born on July 24, 1802, into the family of a cavalry general of Napoleon's army. His grandmother was a black slave from the island of Haiti, so Alexandre was considered a quadroon. When the boy was three and a half years old, his father died, and the family fell into dire straits. His mother had no money for his education, so the young man read a lot and was self-taught from an early age. At the age of twenty, he left his hometown of Villers-Cotterêts for Paris, where, thanks to his father's friends, he got a job in the office of the Palais-Royal. There he began working on his first plays.

Initially, Alexandre Dumas worked on plays, vaudevilles, and magazine articles. His first play, "The Hunt for Love," was successfully staged, which inspired the author to write more works. His next drama, "Henry III and His Court," was also warmly received by the public. Dumas began working on more serious works, which became popular with readers and started to bring the writer a decent income. His best books include:

the "Three Musketeers" cycle;

the historical adventure novel "Gabriel Lambert";

the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo";

the "Henry of Navarre" cycle;

the novel "Memoirs of a Police Officer."

All of the author's works have a unique ability to keep the reader in suspense until the very end. Due to the incredible productivity of the writer, there were rumors of numerous "ghostwriters" who supposedly created works in Dumas' name.

Alexandre Dumas was incredibly amorous, so the number of his mistresses was in the hundreds. It is not precisely known how many illegitimate children the writer had, as he officially acknowledged only his firstborn son, who was named after him. By the end of his life, the great writer was on the brink of poverty and was forced to hide from creditors.

His son continued his literary career.