My Memoirs

Alexandre Dumas's memoirs plunge from the glittering backstage world of Parisian theater into the smoke and uncertainty of the July Revolution. He sketches actresses, critics, censors, and fellow writers with the same brisk wit he brings to salons, rehearsals, and first-night triumphs, while his portraits of Mademoiselle Georges, her eccentric household, and the comic miseries of "young Tom," Popol, Harel, and Piaff-Piaff give the book its intimate, farcical charm. But the laughter sharpens into history as Dumas confronts censorship over Christine, exposing the vanity and fear that govern official culture. From there he moves into the July Days of 1830, amid barricades, newspaper offices, revolutionary meetings, and the collapse of royal authority. He records the desperate signing of the Ordinances, the scramble for power, and the Republicans' efforts to enlist La Fayette, all while recounting proclamations that demand liberty, elected representation, and an end to kingship. In the aftermath, Dumas follows France into political uncertainty, theatrical battles, and his own travels to the Vendée, remaining both eyewitness and participant in a nation being remade. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

Né en 1802 à Villers-Cotterêts, et orphelin de son père à quatre ans, Alexandre Dumas doit très tôt gagner sa vie. À vingt ans, il part à Paris et, en autodidacte, il publie très rapidement poèmes et nouvelles. L'immense succès de son drame Henri III et sa cour en 1829 en fait un des chefs de file du mouvement romantique. Ses romans paraissent souvent en feuilletons et connaissent aussi un grand succès populaire. Mais d'énormes investissements théâtraux ou journalistiques disperseront sa fortune. C'est presque dans la misère que meurt Alexandre Dumas, en 1870.