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In honour of one of the most revered French authors of the 19th century, today’s Doodle slideshow celebrates Alexandre Dumas. Perhaps best known for swashbuckling adventure novels, Dumas produced a prolific body of work that continues to thrill readers around the world today. An abbreviated version of one of his most famous novels, “Le Comte de Monte Cristo” (“The Count of Monte Cristo,” 1844-’45), is included (spoiler-free!) in today’s Doodle artwork. On this day in 1884, the Parisian newspaper Les Journal des Débats (The Journal of Debates) published the first instalment of the novel, which appeared serially in the publication through 1846.
Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was born in 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts, France. He later took the name Alexandre Dumas, assuming the surname of his paternal grandmother Marie-Césette Dumas who was a woman of African descent and a slave in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti). As a child, Dumas was regaled with stories of his late father’s exploits as a general, elements of which later found their way into some of the writer’s most famous works.
Dumas moved to Paris in 1822 and became an accomplished playwright before he hit upon monumental success with his action-packed serialized novels of the 1840s, including “Les Troi Mousquetaires” (“The Three Musketeers,” 1844). Today these works have made him one of the most popular French authors in the world, and his books have been translated into over 100 languages.
In the late 1980s, a long-lost Dumas novel was uncovered in Paris’ National Library of France. Titled “Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine” (“The Last Cavalier”), the book was finally published in 2005.
Merci, Alexandre Dumas, for all the excitement you’ve given to so many readers!