Alexandre Dumas: Adventure, Scandal, and 100,000 Pages

Annie Sargent and Elyse Rivin dig into the life of Alexandre Dumas Père — and it's a wild ride. His grandmother was a slave. His father was the French army's first non-white general. Napoleon destroyed that father, and Dumas never forgot it. He wrote over 100 novels, went broke twice, helped unify Italy, and ran the museums of Naples — including Pompeii. Oh, and he wrote a cookbook. Elyse brings the research, Annie brings the questions, and together they make French history genuinely fun. Hit play. And if you enjoy this, subscribe — a new episode drops every Sunday.

Table of Contents for this Episode

• Today on the podcast: Alexandre Dumas
• Podcast supporters
• Magazine segment
• Meet Dumas
• A Larger Than Life Figure
• His Father the General
• Napoleon and Injustice
• Racism and Early Schooling
• Dreaming of Stories
• Paris and The Stage
• Fame Money and Excess
• Translations and Travels
• Serialized Novels Begin
• Collaborators and Style
• Breakout Novels
• Travel Writing Begins
• Debt and Coauthor Fight
• Theater Gamble and Backlash
• Exile Trips and Hugo