50 Fun Facts About Alexandre Dumas

Besides novels, what did Dumas write from the very start of his career?

His first play was produced in 1829 and he founded his own theatre in the 1840s.

Who is the hero of The Count of Monte Cristo?

The young sailor is loosely based on a real shoemaker named Pierre Picaud.

In which prison is the hero of Monte Cristo locked up?

The real fortress sits on an island in the bay of Marseille.

Which fellow prisoner educates Dantès and reveals the treasure?

A real Abbé Faria existed, though he did not die in prison or leave a fortune.

What were the names of the three musketeers who befriend d'Artagnan?

They called themselves the three inseparables.

From which region of France does d'Artagnan set out for Paris?

He is loosely based on the real soldier Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan.

Who is the villainous spy working for Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers?

She is branded with a fleur-de-lis and turns out to be Athos's former wife.

In which newspaper was The Three Musketeers first serialised in 1844?

The Count of Monte Cristo ran in the Journal des Débats the same year.

Which 1700 work by Courtilz de Sandras inspired The Three Musketeers?

Dumas pretended he had found the musketeers' story in a recovered manuscript.

Which siege do d'Artagnan and his friends fight at in The Three Musketeers?

They hold the St. Gervais bastion for an hour and a half on a bet.

Which English duke does Milady have assassinated?

She seduces her Puritan guard John Felton into doing the deed.

What is the best-known third part of The Vicomte de Bragelonne called in English?

English editions usually split the huge novel into three volumes.

Which novel is the direct sequel to The Three Musketeers?

The trilogy finishes with The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.

Who was Dumas's best-known ghostwriting collaborator?

Maquet sued for recognition and won more money but never a by-line.

What did Maquet win when he took Dumas to court?

His role in the novels was not fully understood until the late 20th century.

In which French colony was Dumas's father born?

The colony is present-day Haiti; his mother Marie-Cessette was an enslaved African woman.

What nickname did Austrian troops give General Dumas in 1797?

Napoleon called him the Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol for holding a bridge alone.

Where was General Dumas imprisoned for two years after leaving Egypt in 1799?

His unsound ship ran aground and he was thrown into a dungeon until 1801.

What does the surname Dumas probably mean?

It may simply have signified that Marie-Cessette belonged to the farm property.

In which town was Dumas born and first buried?

Villagers there objected when his remains were moved to the Panthéon in 2002.

For which future king did the young Dumas work before becoming a writer?

The 1830 Revolution put his old employer on the throne as the Citizen King.

What was Dumas's first play, produced to acclaim in 1829?

It was the first great Romantic historical drama on the Paris stage, a year before Hugo's Hernani.

Which English actor's life inspired an 1836 Dumas play that bears his name?

Frédérick Lemaître played the English tragedian in the production.

What was Dumas's first serial novel, published in 1836?

Le Capitaine Paul, partly based on John Paul Jones, followed in 1838.

Which Scottish-American naval officer inspired a Dumas serial novel of 1838?

Dumas rewrote one of his own plays as the serial novel.

Dumas's 1840 novel about the Decembrist revolt was banned in which country?

It depicted the Decembrist revolt; Tsar Nicholas I barred Dumas from visiting until after his death.

Augustin Grisier, co-author of the novel Le Maître d'armes, was Dumas's what?

Dumas refers to him respectfully in The Count of Monte Cristo and The Corsican Brothers.

Roughly how many pages did Dumas publish in his lifetime?

He also ran a studio of writers who turned out stories under his direction.

What was the name of the country house Dumas built outside Paris in 1846?

He sold the whole property two years later to pay his debts; today it is a museum.

About how many mistresses have scholars attributed to Dumas?

He fathered at least four children by them, including Alexandre Dumas fils.

To which country did Dumas flee in 1851 after Louis-Napoléon's election?

Brussels also put some distance between him and his creditors.

Which Italian hero did Dumas befriend while supporting unification?

Both men were Freemasons and committed republicans.

What newspaper did Dumas found in Italy in 1861?

It supported Italian unification; he returned to Paris in 1864.

Dumas's famous retort to a racist insult ended with what line?

He had said his father was a mulatto, his grandfather a Negro and his great-grandfather a monkey.

Which Parisian society did Dumas share with Hugo, Baudelaire and Balzac?

Its members met monthly to take hashish at a Paris hotel, a drug Monte Cristo mentions.

Which American actress, 26 years his junior, had an affair with Dumas around 1866?

She was at the height of her fame after her sensational role in Mazeppa.

Which war overshadowed Dumas's death in December 1870?

He died at 68, possibly of a heart attack.

In which year were Dumas's remains moved to the Panthéon?

Jacques Chirac ordered the transfer for the bicentenary of his birth.

Dumas's coffin was escorted to the Panthéon by Republican Guards dressed as what?

Chirac's speech invoked D'Artagnan, Monte Cristo and Balsamo.

Dumas's last, unfinished novel, published in 2005, features which battle?

A fictional character kills Lord Nelson in The Knight of Sainte-Hermine.

Which scholar completed The Knight of Sainte-Hermine from Dumas's notes?

He wrote the final two and a half chapters; the English edition is called The Last Cavalier.

Dumas's posthumous Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine was a combination of what?

Published in 1873, it reflected his life as a gourmet and expert cook.

Dumas's 1844 tale Histoire d'un casse-noisette was a revision of which author's story?

Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker draws on the Dumas version.

Dumas's 1857 novel The Wolf Leader is an early example of which genre?

His 1849 tale The Pale Lady had already tackled vampires.

Which theatre did Dumas found in Paris in the 1840s?

The building on the Boulevard du Temple later became the Théâtre Lyrique.

Which New Zealand pharmacist amassed the largest Dumas collection outside France?

His 3,350 volumes went to Auckland Libraries after his death in 1953.

Which real shoemaker's story of revenge partly inspired The Count of Monte Cristo?

Picaud was falsely accused by three jealous friends in Nîmes in 1807.

The Count of Monte Cristo first appeared in which publication, in 18 parts?

Early editions misspelled the title as Monte Christo.

What number did the governor of the Château d'If call Dantès instead of his name?

He found it too tedious to learn the prisoner's real name.

When was a Paris Metro station named after Dumas?

It marked the centenary of his death.