Ten Years Later (Annotated)

Chapter 2

His fiction

When Dumas returned to Paris, he began writing a new series of historical plays. By 1851 he had written alone, or in collaboration with others, more than twenty plays. He also began writing fiction at this time, first short stories and then novels. In collaboration with Auguste Maquet he wrote Les Trois Mousquetaires (1844; The Three Musketeers ), Vingt Ans après (1845; Twenty Years After ), and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne (1850). Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (1846; The Count of Monte Cristo ) was also a product of this period.

Dumas worked with many collaborators who helped him with the outlines of his romances. The scale of his "fiction factory" has often been exaggerated. Although at least a thousand works were published under his own name, most were due to his own hard work and amazing imagination. Dumas's works were received with enthusiasm by his loyal readers, and he earned a lot of money. He could never earn enough to keep up with his spending habits, however. Among his problems was his estate of Monte-Cristo in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, which attracted many hangers-on and female admirers who Dumas ended up supporting.