Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/316

308 DUMAS tive village. The science of gastronomy was one of his favorite pursuits, and his Grand dictionnaire de cuisine was published in 1873. The English translations of his principal novels have attained an immense circulation in the United States. The most popular are "The Count of Monte Cristo," " The Three Guards- men," "Twenty Years After," "The Vicomte de Bragelone," "Margaret of Anjou," and "The Memoirs of a Physician" and its con- tinuations. " The Life and Adventures of Alexandre Dumas," by Percy Fitzgerald (London, 1873), contains some characteristic anecdotes. III. Alexandre, a French novelist and dramatist, natural son of the preceding, born in Paris, July 28, 1824. At 17 he pub- lished a volume of light poems under the title of Peches de jeunesse ; then he took to novel writing, and produced Aventures de quatre femmes et d'un perroquet, Le roman d'une femme, Le docteur Servans, Trois hommes forts, and La vie d vingtans, which indicated neither extraordinary talent nor originality. But the Dame aux camelias (1848) showed him under a new aspect. This was the history, slight- ly embellished, of a woman of the town, Marie Duplessis, with whom he had been on in- timate terms, and who had lately died of con- sumption. His following novels, Diane de Lys, La dame aux perles, &c., attracted no particular attention, and he then dramatized the Dame aux camelias. It drew crowded houses at Paris and all over France, and was set to music by Verdi in his Traviata. In the United States several versions were pre- sented at once on the stage. Diane de Lys underwent a similar transformation, but not with the same success ; and then Dumas wrote original pieces. Le demi-monde, performed in 1855, gave new evidence of acuteness of ob- servation, dramatic power, and cutting wit. The same merits are perceptible in Le fils na- turel and La question d'argent, the former a mere drama of the imagination, the latter a satire on the worship of money. Le pere pro- digue appeared in 1859, L*ami des femmes in 1864, Le supplice d'une femme (with M. de Girardin) in 1865, Les idees de Mme. Aubray in 1867, and a complete edition of his dramatic works in 1868. He has also published addi- tional novels. His drama La femme de Claude was produced in 1872, and his Homme-femme has been translated by George Vandenhoff ("Man-Woman, or the Temple, the Hearth, and the Street," 1873). His new play Monsieur Alphonse (1873) was very successful. He was elected to the French academy Jan. 29, 1874. DIMAS, Jean Baptlste, a French chemist and politician, born in Alais, July 14, 1800. Under the patronage of De Cnndolle, at Geneva, he early acquired considerable proficiency as a botanist and a chemist. In 1821 he went to Paris, married the daughter of Alexandre Bron- gniart, and was professor of chemistry in the polytechnic school, in the faculty of science, and in the school of medicine. After the revo- lution of 1848 he was elected to the legislative assembly, and on Oct. 31, 1849, became min- ister of agriculture and commerce. After the coup d'etat of Dec. 2, 1851, he was appointed a senator. In 1868 he was elected perpetual secretary of the academy; and in 1869 the London society of chemistry gave him the Far- aday medal. He has published Traite de chimie appliquee aux arts (8 vols. 8vo, with 4to atlas, 1828-'45), Lecons sur la philosophic chimique (1837), Essai sur la statique chimique des etres organises (1841), Enquete sur les engrais (1867), and other works. DUMAS. I. Blatthieu, count, a French soldier and historian, born in Montpellier, Nov. 23, 1753, died in Paris, Oct. 16, 1837. In 1780 he sailed from Brest as aide-de-camp to Rocham- beau, commander of the French troops sent to assist the Americans, and participated in nearly all the important actions of the war, including the victory of Yorktown. He was afterward for two years employed in the ex- ploration of the seacoasts and islands of Tur- key. At the beginning of the revolution he sided with Lafayette and the constitutional party. When Louis XVI. was arrested at Va- rennes he commanded the troops who accom- panied him to Paris. As a member of the legislative assembly he evinced wisdom, firm- ness of opinion, and considerable oratorical power. During the reign of terror he was sentenced to death, but escaped to Switzer- land. After the 9th Thermidor he returned to France, and was afterward elected to tho council of 500. Being proscribed as a mon- archist on the 18th Fructidor, he fled to Ger- many, where he commenced his annals of mil- itary events. Returning to his country under the consulate, he was intrusted with several important missions. In 1806 he followed Jo- seph Bonaparte to Naples, was appointed by him minister of war, and organized the Neapol- itan army. On the removal of Joseph to Spain he reentered the French army, and actively participated in the campaigns of 1808 in Spain and 1809 in Germany. He was superinten- dent of the administrative service of the Rus- sian expedition in 1812, escaped the dangers of the disastrous retreat, was made prisoner in Germany in 1813, was liberated on the peace of 1814, and served the Bourbons during the first restoration. On the return of Napoleon from Elba he refused to join him; but yield- ing to the entreaties of Joseph Bonaparte, he superintended the organization of the national guards. For this he was placed on the retired list when Louis XVIII. resumed the crown. He now continued his Precis des evenements militaires, giving a copious and lucid account of military operations from 1799 (19 vols., Paris, 1816-'26). The almost total loss of his sight disabled him from completing his work, but did not prevent him from transla- ting a portion of Napier's "History of the Peninsular War" as a supplement to it. Ho was elected to the chamber of deputies in 1827,