Alexandre Dumas Click to enlarge

(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.