Others followed, with Henri III et sa cour (1829) bringing him great success and recognition. Historical themes, as well as the use of a collaborator, were to be permanent aspects of Dumas's style throughout his career.Īfter reading William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Friedrich von Schiller, and Lord Byron, and while employed as a secretary to the Duke of Orléans (later King Louis Philippe), Dumas wrote his first plays in 18. While still young, he began to write 'vaudeville' plays (light musical comedies) and then historical plays in collaboration with a friend, Adolphe de Leuven. In straitened circumstances after his father's death. The son of a Creole general of the French Revolutionary armies, Dumas was brought up by his mother
Alexandre Dumas is generally called Dumas pèreto distinguish him from his illustrious son Alexandre (known as Dumas fils), who was also a dramatist and novelist.
