Alexandre Dumas (1824-1895), French playwright and novelist, who wrote realistic plays about the problems of the middle class. He was born in Paris, the natural son of the writer Alexandre Dumas père. Dumas fils, as he was known, had an unhappy childhood because his schoolmates constantly taunted him about his illegitimacy. His first literary work was a volume of poetry, Péchés de jeunesse (Sins of Youth, 1847). The following year his first novel, Camille (1848; trans. 1856), appeared, and his subsequent dramatization of this work, produced in 1852, established him as a success in the theater. The play, about a courtesan who sacrifices her happiness for her lover's good, has served as a vehicle for many great actors, including Sarah Bernhardt and, in a film version, Greta Garbo. The story was immortalized by Giuseppe Verdi in his opera La Traviata.

Dumas continued to write novels, but he was far more successful as a dramatist. In his view the playwright's function is essentially moralistic, and nearly all of his plays are concerned with social and moral problems, such as marital infidelity and prostitution. Despite his dramatic ingenuity and his gift for dialogue, his plays are somewhat marred for the modern spectator by their tendency to preach. Dumas was elected to the French Academy in 1874. Among his other plays are Le demi-monde (1855), The Money Question (1857; trans. 1915), and Un père prodigue (A Prodigal Father, 1859).