What do you think?
Rate this book
Works of Alexandre Dumas
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
698 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1870
253 people are currently reading
431 people want to read
About the author
Alexandre Dumas
7,014 books12.4k followersThis note regards Alexandre Dumas, père, the father of Alexandre Dumas, fils (son). For the son, see Alexandre Dumas fils.
Alexandre Dumas père, born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was a towering figure of 19th-century French literature whose historical novels and adventure tales earned global renown. Best known for The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and other swashbuckling epics, Dumas crafted stories filled with daring heroes, dramatic twists, and vivid historical backdrops. His works, often serialized and immensely popular with the public, helped shape the modern adventure genre and remain enduring staples of world literature.
Dumas was the son of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a celebrated general in Revolutionary France and the highest-ranking man of African descent in a European army at the time. His father’s early death left the family in poverty, but Dumas’s upbringing was nonetheless marked by strong personal ambition and a deep admiration for his father’s achievements. He moved to Paris as a young man and began his literary career writing for the theatre, quickly rising to prominence in the Romantic movement with successful plays like Henri III et sa cour and Antony.
In the 1840s, Dumas turned increasingly toward prose fiction, particularly serialized novels, which reached vast audiences through French newspapers. His collaboration with Auguste Maquet, a skilled plotter and historian, proved fruitful. While Maquet drafted outlines and conducted research, Dumas infused the narratives with flair, dialogue, and color. The result was a string of literary triumphs, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, both published in 1844. These novels exemplified Dumas’s flair for suspenseful pacing, memorable characters, and grand themes of justice, loyalty, and revenge.
The D’Artagnan Romances—The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne—cemented his fame. They follow the adventures of the titular Gascon hero and his comrades Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, blending historical fact and fiction into richly imagined narratives. The Count of Monte Cristo offered a darker, more introspective tale of betrayal and retribution, with intricate plotting and a deeply philosophical core.
Dumas was also active in journalism and theater. He founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris, which staged dramatizations of his own novels. A prolific and energetic writer, he is estimated to have written or co-written over 100,000 pages of fiction, plays, memoirs, travel books, and essays. He also had a strong interest in food and published a massive culinary encyclopedia, Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, filled with recipes, anecdotes, and reflections on gastronomy.
Despite his enormous success, Dumas was frequently plagued by financial troubles. He led a lavish lifestyle, building the ornate Château de Monte-Cristo near Paris, employing large staffs, and supporting many friends and relatives. His generosity and appetite for life often outpaced his income, leading to mounting debts. Still, his creative drive rarely waned.
Dumas’s mixed-race background was a source of both pride and tension in his life. He was outspoken about his heritage and used his platform to address race and injustice. In his novel Georges, he explored issues of colonialism and identity through a Creole protagonist. Though he encountered racism, he refused to be silenced, famously replying to a racial insult by pointing to his ancestry and achievements with dignity and wit.
Later in life, Dumas continued writing and traveling, spending time in Belgium, Italy, and Russia. He supported nationalist causes, particularly Italian unification, and even founded a newspaper to advocate for Giuseppe Garibaldi. Though his popularity waned somewhat in his final years, his literary legacy grew steadily. He wrote in a style that was accessible, entertaining, and emotionally reso
Alexandre Dumas père, born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was a towering figure of 19th-century French literature whose historical novels and adventure tales earned global renown. Best known for The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and other swashbuckling epics, Dumas crafted stories filled with daring heroes, dramatic twists, and vivid historical backdrops. His works, often serialized and immensely popular with the public, helped shape the modern adventure genre and remain enduring staples of world literature.
Dumas was the son of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a celebrated general in Revolutionary France and the highest-ranking man of African descent in a European army at the time. His father’s early death left the family in poverty, but Dumas’s upbringing was nonetheless marked by strong personal ambition and a deep admiration for his father’s achievements. He moved to Paris as a young man and began his literary career writing for the theatre, quickly rising to prominence in the Romantic movement with successful plays like Henri III et sa cour and Antony.
In the 1840s, Dumas turned increasingly toward prose fiction, particularly serialized novels, which reached vast audiences through French newspapers. His collaboration with Auguste Maquet, a skilled plotter and historian, proved fruitful. While Maquet drafted outlines and conducted research, Dumas infused the narratives with flair, dialogue, and color. The result was a string of literary triumphs, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, both published in 1844. These novels exemplified Dumas’s flair for suspenseful pacing, memorable characters, and grand themes of justice, loyalty, and revenge.
The D’Artagnan Romances—The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne—cemented his fame. They follow the adventures of the titular Gascon hero and his comrades Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, blending historical fact and fiction into richly imagined narratives. The Count of Monte Cristo offered a darker, more introspective tale of betrayal and retribution, with intricate plotting and a deeply philosophical core.
Dumas was also active in journalism and theater. He founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris, which staged dramatizations of his own novels. A prolific and energetic writer, he is estimated to have written or co-written over 100,000 pages of fiction, plays, memoirs, travel books, and essays. He also had a strong interest in food and published a massive culinary encyclopedia, Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, filled with recipes, anecdotes, and reflections on gastronomy.
Despite his enormous success, Dumas was frequently plagued by financial troubles. He led a lavish lifestyle, building the ornate Château de Monte-Cristo near Paris, employing large staffs, and supporting many friends and relatives. His generosity and appetite for life often outpaced his income, leading to mounting debts. Still, his creative drive rarely waned.
Dumas’s mixed-race background was a source of both pride and tension in his life. He was outspoken about his heritage and used his platform to address race and injustice. In his novel Georges, he explored issues of colonialism and identity through a Creole protagonist. Though he encountered racism, he refused to be silenced, famously replying to a racial insult by pointing to his ancestry and achievements with dignity and wit.
Later in life, Dumas continued writing and traveling, spending time in Belgium, Italy, and Russia. He supported nationalist causes, particularly Italian unification, and even founded a newspaper to advocate for Giuseppe Garibaldi. Though his popularity waned somewhat in his final years, his literary legacy grew steadily. He wrote in a style that was accessible, entertaining, and emotionally reso
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 7, 2018
As you can see from the dates in this post it did take me a while to read this complete collection of Dumas. I'm glad I did though he is/was one of the best writers (I think). I enjoyed this collection.
February 17, 2025
Произведение «Яд ревности» с довольно-таки предсказуемым сюжетом, однако отдохнуть, отвлечься от сессии и других дел данная повесть помогает. Читала как маленькая наивная девочка, наматывала прядь волос на указательный палец и хихикала. Без каких-то смысловых нагрузок и тягостных дум, просто маленькое легкое чтиво с счастливым завершением. (история как судьбы двух персонажей пересеклись, никто не смог помешать им быть вместе, даже самые гнусные люди. вот бы так в жизни было))
«Корсиканское семейство», 1841. Эта повесть строится на корсиканском обычае- вендетте. Рассказчик- сам Александр Дюма- путешествует по Корсике, где знакомиться с семьёй Де Франчи, а именно с матерью и её сыном Люсьеном. У этой семьи необычайный дар провидения- мужская половина видит надвигающуюся смерть. Месье Дюма наблюдает проявление мужества, отваги и чести молодых братьев, которые не страшатся смерти ради доброго имени. Опять же, произведение неплохое, не замысловатое, без нагрузки на мозг. Интересное, читается легко.
«Верность до гроба». Действия происходят в Португалии 13 века. Исторический контекст: Дон Санчо 2, король Кастилии, и его брат Альфонс 3- сыновья Санчи Кастильской и Альфонса 2 Целомудренного.
Основная идея- преданность дона Мартинса де Фрейтаса своему королю, вопреки всему народу.
Неторопливое чтение на часик-два поможет погрузиться (не полностью, но слегка) в реалии Португалии того времени. Этот рассказ за счёт мистики кажется немного интереснее двух первых.
В целом, неплохие рассказы в спокойном умеренном темпе с довольно интересным сюжетом и историческими личностями. Для изучения истории Португалии, Испании и Франции, безусловно, полезно. Не сравнится с рассказами Чехова или Куприна по нравственным ценностям, но тоже закрепляет остановнве моральные принципы, такие как преданность, гордость, честолюбие, самопожертвование, любовь.
«Корсиканское семейство», 1841. Эта повесть строится на корсиканском обычае- вендетте. Рассказчик- сам Александр Дюма- путешествует по Корсике, где знакомиться с семьёй Де Франчи, а именно с матерью и её сыном Люсьеном. У этой семьи необычайный дар провидения- мужская половина видит надвигающуюся смерть. Месье Дюма наблюдает проявление мужества, отваги и чести молодых братьев, которые не страшатся смерти ради доброго имени. Опять же, произведение неплохое, не замысловатое, без нагрузки на мозг. Интересное, читается легко.
«Верность до гроба». Действия происходят в Португалии 13 века. Исторический контекст: Дон Санчо 2, король Кастилии, и его брат Альфонс 3- сыновья Санчи Кастильской и Альфонса 2 Целомудренного.
Основная идея- преданность дона Мартинса де Фрейтаса своему королю, вопреки всему народу.
Неторопливое чтение на часик-два поможет погрузиться (не полностью, но слегка) в реалии Португалии того времени. Этот рассказ за счёт мистики кажется немного интереснее двух первых.
В целом, неплохие рассказы в спокойном умеренном темпе с довольно интересным сюжетом и историческими личностями. Для изучения истории Португалии, Испании и Франции, безусловно, полезно. Не сравнится с рассказами Чехова или Куприна по нравственным ценностям, но тоже закрепляет остановнве моральные принципы, такие как преданность, гордость, честолюбие, самопожертвование, любовь.
October 13, 2025
Few writers possess a style as fluid and engaging as Alexandre Dumas. His stories sweep effortlessly between adventure, intrigue, and history — yet beneath the duels and disguises, he writes with striking insight into human nature and the cruelty that so often governs the world we build.
Even a single line can reveal his brilliance:
“The king! I thought he was philosopher enough to allow that there was no murder in politics. In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas — no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.”
It’s a chilling truth, spoken with clarity that transcends centuries — Dumas reminding us that power, politics, and morality rarely travel together.
Even a single line can reveal his brilliance:
“The king! I thought he was philosopher enough to allow that there was no murder in politics. In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas — no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.”
It’s a chilling truth, spoken with clarity that transcends centuries — Dumas reminding us that power, politics, and morality rarely travel together.
Read
February 22, 2019I read “Les Trois Mousquetaires”, “Vingt Ans Apres”, and “Le Comte de Monte-Cristo” as a child, although I suspect these may have been abridged versions for young readers. I really must rediscover the works of this celebrated author.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews