Alexandre Dumas began writing his memoirs in 1847, when he was at the
height of his fame and wealth. He continued to work on the memoirs
off-and-on for the rest of his life, eventually accumulating an immense
manuscript. Like Dumas' books on travel, he incorporated chunks of
history, biography, book and play reviews, political commentary,
correspondence with friends and enemies, and the occasional short story
(Le Curé de Boulogne) into his narrative. The result, while
interesting, would make a publisher quail. Notwithstanding the length of
the narrative, it covers only the first 32 years of Dumas' life, up through
his abrupt departure for Switzerland in 1834.
Dumas recounts his birth and parentage, his earliest memories of his
father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (who died in 1807, when Dumas was
5), his upbringing and education in Villers-Cotterêts, his first love,
Adele, his departure for Paris, his employment (on the recommendation of
General Foy) in the offices of Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans and later
King. He also describes his authorship of his earliest plays, and the
publication of his first prose work
Nouvelles Contemporaines. He writes
at length about the creation of the plays that made his reputation:
Henri III et sa Cour,
Christine, and
Antony, and some early flops,
Napoléon Bonaparte,
Caligula,
Charles VII Chez ses Grands Vassaux, and
Le Fils de l’Émigré, and some middling works, such as
Richard Darlington and
Catherine Howard.
Dumas participated in two duels, in which the total casualties were a
scratch inflicted by Dumas' rapier, against an opponent who had never
before picked up a sword. The victim had laughed at Dumas' clothes. In
the second duel, which was conducted after a rancorous debate in the press
over the authorship of
La Tour de Nesle, the duelists proved unwilling
or unable to shoot each other at a distance of thirty paces.
On the political front, Dumas provides a vivid description of the July
Revolution, and particularly his feat of seizing the powder magazine at
Soissons on behalf of the revolutionary Government, as well his
half-hearted participation in the aborted republican uprising in 1834 that
led an aide-de-camp of his former employer, King Louis-Philippe, to call on
Dumas and advise Dumas that, as his arrest was being considered, a trip
abroad would be beneficial to his health.
There are also some notable omissions. Dumas generally omits his
complicated love life and any mention of his children. He makes an
exception for his adulterous affair with a lady that inspired
Antony,
and a smallish exception for the actress Marie Dorval, who had died before
Dumas began writing.
There are two heavily abridged recent translations of Dumas' memoirs
available in English.
The Road to Monte Cristo, published in 1957,
translated by the American playwright
Jules Eckert Goodman, and a
translation by
A. Craig Bell published by Chilton in about 1960.
