Alexandre Dumas: Google doodle on 19th century’s famous French author

Google today honours Alexandre Dumas by dedicating a beautiful doodle to him. Alexandre Dumas was one of the most revered French authors of the 19th century, whose works have been translated into many languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors.

Alexandre Dumas was born on July 24, 1802 in Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne, in Picardy, France. Their parents were Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret, the daughter of an innkeeper, and Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (a French general who played a pivotal role in the French Revolutionary Wars).

Alexandre 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.

Alexandre Dumas wrote in a wide variety of genres and published a total of 100,000 pages in his lifetime. He also made use of his experience, writing travel books after taking journeys, including those motivated by reasons other than pleasure. He travelled to Spain, Italy, Germany, England and French Algeria. After King Louis-Philippe was ousted in a revolt, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was elected president.

Alexandre Dumas fled in 1851 to Brussels, Belgium, which was also an effort to escape his creditors as Bonaparte disapproved him as an author. He moved to Russia in around 1859, where French was the second language of the elite and his writings were enormously popular.

Although Alexandre Dumas married actress Ida Ferrier in 1840, he had numerous connections with other women and was known to have fathered at least four children by them. His dramas include The Hunter and the Lover (1825), The Wedding and the Funeral (1826), Henry III and his court (1829), Christine - Stockholm, Fontainebleau, and Rome (1830), Napoleon Bonaparte or Thirty Years of the History of France (1831) to name a few.

Alexandre Dumas died on December 5, 1870 at the age of 68. His corpse was buried at his birthplace of Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne. His death was overshadowed by the Franco-Prussian War. Google today pays tribute to him by a magnificent doodle.

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