Alexandre Dumas fils

Alexandre Dumas fils was born 27 July 1824, carrying a surname already famous: his father, Alexandre Dumas père, had written The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. The son turned to writing himself and published La Dame aux Camélias in 1848, a romantic novel that caught fire. Five years later Giuseppe Verdi adapted it into the opera La traviata, and the story went on to stage and film again and again. Dumas fils built a career as both novelist and playwright, though that one early work remained his calling card. The Académie française admitted him in 1874; twenty years later he re…