Dumas, Alexandre, << doo MAH, a lehk SAHN druh, >> fils (1824-1895), was a French writer. His father was the French author Alexandre Dumas père (father). Fils is the French word for son. See Dumas, Alexandre, père.
Dumas was born on July 27, 1824, in Paris, the illegitimate son of Dumas père. The shame of illegitimacy caused the younger Dumas much suffering. It helps to explain his concern with the victims of society and his emphasis on stable family life in his works.
Dumas wrote both novels and plays, but his fame rests chiefly on his plays. His first play, The Lady of the Camellias (often called Camille), was a great success when performed in 1852. The tragic love story is set in the fashionable Parisian society of Dumas’s time. The author based the play on his novel of the same name, which was published in 1848. Giuseppe Verdi used the story for his opera La Traviata.
Dumas came to believe that plays should teach social and moral lessons. He defended the family in The Wife of Claude (1873), Denise (1885), and Francillon (1887). Although he attacked wickedness, he also asked forgiveness for those who repent, as in The Ideas of Madame Aubray (1867). His plays, therefore, have a preaching tone. Nevertheless, they are well-constructed and often witty and give a good picture of French upper-class society of the time. Dumas died on Nov. 27, 1895.
