Dumas

DUMAS, Alexandre, THE YOUNGER, French dramatist and novelist : b. Paris, 28 July 1824; d. there, 27 Nov. 1895. He was the natural son of Dumas the Elder (q.v.), and while a young man shared his father's life in Paris and ac companied him on his travels. In 1847 there ap peared a collection of his poems under the title (Pieties de Jeunesse' ; his first novel (Aven tures de quatre femmes et d'un perroquet,' was published in the same year; others of his novels are (Cesarine (1848) ; (La Dame aux Camelias' (1848) ; (Le Docteur Servans' (1849) ; and (L'affaire Clemenceau> (1867). 'La Dame aux Camelias' was dramatized in 1852, and marked an important event in the history of the drama — the introduction of –realism in the treating of social and moral problems on the stage. His other dramas include: 'Diane de Lys' (1853) ' • 'Le Demimonde'' (1855) ; 'La Question d'Argent' (1857) ; (Le Fils NatureP (1858) ; (Le Pere Prodigue) (1859) ; (L'Arni des Femmes> (1864) ; 'La Femme de Claude' (1873) ; 'La Princesse de Bagdad> (1881) ; 'Denise' (1885) ; and (Francillon) (1 :•:7). He

has also written a few essays, discussing social problems; these are : (1871) ; (L'Homme-Femme) (1872) ; 'Question du Divorce' (1880) ; (Recherche de la patemite) (1883). Dumas was made a member of the French Academy in 1874. Dumas brought the drama back from the exalted realms of poetry and romance to prose and sober realities and he was the chief creator of the modern °comedy of manners?' Beginning as a realist, he ended as moralist and sermonizer and in a series of what would now be called °problem plays.'" His wit is sparkling and brilliant but acidulated, his dialogue clear and incisive; his view of woman is somewhat ignoble; the hus band, the wife and the lover form a trinity of types that are repeated in his works with a disagreeable and persistent iteration. See LADY OF THE. CAMELLIAS, LA; DEMI-MONDE, LE.