Alexandre Dumas, filsnote (27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was a French novelist and playwright, best remembered for a romantic novel, La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), which he also adapted for the stage, and which was subsequently the basis of Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata.
He was the son of Alexandre Dumas, père, the author of historical novels such as The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo.
Tropes in his works include:
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Marguerite Gautier, the protagonist of La Dame aux Camélias, is a courtesan who sacrifices her own happiness so as not to bring her young lover to ruin.
- Incurable Cough of Death: The coughing tragic consumptive heroine of La Dame aux Camélias.
- Roman à Clef: La Dame aux Camélias is based on the tragically short life of the famous courtesan Marie Duplessis, whom Dumas had an affair with. Armand Duval, the male lead, is based on Dumas himself.
- Victorian Novel Disease: Marguerite Gautier, the protagonist of La Dame aux Camélias, dies of this.
