His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Since the early 20th century, his novels have been adapted into nearly films. Prolific in several genres, Dumas began his career by writing plays, which were successfully produced from the first. He wrote numerous magazine articles and travel books; his published works totalled , pages. He moved to Russia for a few years and then to Italy. He returned to Paris in English playwright Watts Phillips , who knew Dumas in his later life, described him as "the most generous, large-hearted being in the world.
He also was the most delightfully amusing and egotistical creature on the face of the earth. His tongue was like a windmill β once set in motion, you would never know when he would stop, especially if the theme was himself. He had two older sisters, Marie-Alexandrine born and Louise-Alexandrine β Thomas-Alexandre was the only son born to them, but they had two or three daughters.
In , following the death of both his brothers, Antoine left Saint-Domingue for France in order to claim the family estates and the title of Marquis. Shortly before his departure, he sold Marie-Cessette and their two daughters Adolphe and Jeanette , as well as Marie-Cessette's oldest daughter Marie-Rose whose father was a different man to a baron who had recently come from Nantes to settle in Saint Domingue.
Antoine however retained ownership of Thomas-Alexandre his only natural son and took the boy with him to France. There, Thomas-Alexandre received his freedom and a sparse education at a military school, adequate to enable him to join the French army, there being no question of the mixed-race boy being accepted as his father's heir.
Thomas-Alexandre did well in the Army and was promoted to general by the age of 31, the first soldier of Afro-Antilles origin to reach that rank in the French army. The family surname "de la Pailleterie" was never bestowed upon Thomas-Alexandre, who therefore used "Dumas" as his surname. This is often assumed to have been his mother's surname, but in fact, the surname "Dumas" occurs only once in connection with Marie-Cessette, and that happens in Europe, when Thomas-Alexandre states, while applying for a marriage licence, that his mother's name was "Marie-Cessette Dumas".
