Defining the Scope of Alexandre Dumas’s La Drame De La France: Problems, Considerations, and Debates

Alexandre Dumas’s interment in the Panthéon in 2002 prompted a steady reevaluation of his literary reputation, resulting in his increased prominence among his nineteenth-century peers. Several studies have resurrected Dumas’s 1857 argument that his works comprise a vast series entitled La Drame de la France. This argument has become so ubiquitous that it has become an uncontested fact. However, there are certain challenges in studying Dumas’s La Drame de la France. Dumas did not repeatedly make this assertion, which was announced toward the latter portion of his life, and whether it was something that consciously and continuously drove his plans when developing future ideas and concepts for his historical fiction novels is debatable. Therefore, while not disputing the existence of La Drame de la France, its nature (and the nature of its creation) nevertheless makes it so that which novels specifically comprise it has never been definitively established. Coming to some degree of consensus on this point is needed as a first step to advance studies of Dumas in this area. This article seeks to initiate this literary discussion by presenting Dumas’s 36 major historical fiction novels set in France, briefly examining the problems, considerations, and debates that exist in whether each could be accepted as part of the series.


Introduction
Alexandre Dumas's interment in the Panthéon in 2002 prompted a steady reevaluation of his literary reputation, resulting in his increased prominence among his nineteenth-century peers. 1 Such high reevaluations, spurred by changing conceptions of French identity and culture, would have surprised critics just half a century earlier. 1 As Dumas's biographer A. Craig Bell noted in 1950, "Dumas is a river which academicians, critics and literary snobs have been fouling for half a century" (ix). However, such a view was not new. As early as 1848, literary critics in Dumas's lifetime, like Charles Robin, declared that Dumas "a été, a lui seul, l'objet de plus d'interprétations de toute nature et de discussions littéraire que tous les écrivains du XIXe siècle" (137). 2 The situation had not changed much by 1885, when Henri Blaze de Bury confessed, "Dumas est populaire, il n'est pas connu. Son genre de vie, ici et là quelques méchants volumes qu'il eût mieux fait de ne pas écrire, ont beaucoup nui à sa considération littéraire. On le prend généralement pour un simple amuseur, et cependant, toute comme un autre et plus qu'un autre, il a ses heures d'élévation et de philosophie" (47; original emphasis). 3 During his lifetime, Dumas faced opposition from certain intellectuals because of his interest in pursuing commercial literary ambitions, accusations of establishing a "writing factory" in which he placed his name on works composed by others, and his status as an individual of mixed racial descent. 4 Following Dumas's death in 1870, literary scholars have put forward several reasons to account for the lack of studies of Dumas, despite his popularity. In the 1990s, for example, Dorothy Trench-Bonett described several common reasons to account for this during the twentieth century. She placed particular emphasis on Dumas's voluminous literary output, which makes him difficult to study. 5 Nineteenth-century critic Joseph Marie Quérard was overly critical of Dumas, particularly in his five-volume Les Supercheries littéraires dévoilées, largely for this reason. As journalist Philibert Audebrand wrote satirically in 1888, Dumas had written so much that "quand le vieux Quérard, ce bénédictin de notre âge, essayant de dresser l'inventaire des richesses bibliographiques du pays," reached Dumas's name, "il ne put se défendre d'un léger frisson d'effroi. La seule nomenclature des oeuvres de ce géant faisant vaciller ses regards. Comment un tel homme avait-il pu venir à bout d'une telle tâche? A la vérité, il expliquait que quatre-vingt-douze collaborateurs avaient coopéré à l'éclosion de tant de choses" (3)(4). 6 universitaires de Limoges, 2013); Eric Martone, ed., Alexandre Dumas as a French Symbol since 1870: All for One and One for All in a Global France (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2020). 1 For Dumas's shifting status as a symbol of contemporary France, see: Roxane Petit-Rasselle, "From the Literary Myth to the Lieu de Mémoire-Alexandre Dumas and French National Identity(ies)," in Alexandre Dumas as a French Symbol since 1870: All for One and One for All in a Global France, 89-117; Eric Martone, Finding Monte Cristo: Alexandre Dumas and the French Atlantic World (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018), 111-149. 2 English translation: Dumas "has been the subject of more interpretations, true and false, and of more literary battles than any other writer of the nineteenth century." 3 English translation: "Dumas is popular, but he is not recognized. His method of life and his occasional worthless books greatly damaged his literary position. He is usually looked upon simply as an 'amuser,' and yet… more than many others, he had his moments of lofty thought and philosophy." 4 See: Martone, Finding Monte Cristo, 13-49. 5 Other reasons include Dumas's popularity, which has been held against him as a serious writer; Dumas's colorful life, which often sidetracks those attempting to study him; and Dumas's status as a writer for young people, which had led critics to underestimate the complexity of his works. See: Dorothy Trench-Bonett, "Alexandre Dumas: Black French Writer," in Alexandre Dumas, Charles VII at the Home of His Vassals, trans. Dorothy Trench-Bonett (New York: Noble Press, 1991), 26-27. 6 English translation: "when old Quérard, that benedictine of our age, tried to take an inventory of the rich bibliography of the country, when he arrived at... [Dumas's] name, he could barely refrain from a To help make Dumas's work more manageable for study, and in particular his historical fiction novels, many recent literary scholars have resurrected Dumas's argument that his works comprise a vast series entitled La Drame de la France. Dumas made this claim in 1857 in chapter XLIV in his historical novel, Les Compagnons de Jéhu: Peut-être ceux qui lisent chacun de nos livres isolément s'étonnent-ils que nous appuyions parfois sur certains détails qui semblent un peu étendus pour le livre même dans lequel ils se trouvent. C'est que nous ne faisons pas un livre isolé; mais… nous remplissons ou nous essayons de remplir un cadre immense. Pour nous, la présence de nos personnages n'est point limitée à l'apparition qu'ils font dans un livre : celui que vous voyez aide de camp dans cet ouvrage, vous le retrouverez roi dans une second, proscrit et fusillé dans un troisième. Balzac a fait une grande et belle oeuvre à cent faces, intitulée La Comédie humaine. Notre oeuvre à nous, commencée en même temps que la sienne, mais que nous ne qualifions pas, bien entendu, peut s'intituler La Drame de la France (III, 83-84). 1 Indeed, in the decades after Dumas's death in 1870, many French intellectuals commented on how Dumas's novels taught generations of Frenchmen the history of the nation. 2 In La Comédie littéraire (1895), for example, Adolphe Brisson devoted a chapter to Dumas and history, presenting the writer as a great chronicler of the dramatic story of "France" (213-226). In 1902, the critic Georges Pellissier declared there was an entire classroom contained within Dumas's works (232). Consequently, as French intellectual André Maurois declared in the 1950s, "it should be added that the world at large-and France in particular-has learned French history in the pages of Dumas" (183).
However, there are certain obstacles in studying Dumas's La Drame de la France, the most significant of which is its ill-defined scope, sequence, and unifying themes. Claude Schopp, possibly the most influential contemporary French scholar on Dumas, has been one of the chief advocates that Dumas's novels comprise such a series, which has been positioned as serving as a prequel series to that of Honoré de Balzac's La Comédie humaine, set during the Restoration (1815-1830) and July Monarchy (1830-1848) and Émile Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart, set during the final days of the Second Republic (1848-1852) and the span of the Second French Empire (1852-1870). 3 Such an association in itself elevates Dumas's literary slight shudder of fear. The very name on the works of this giant weakened his resolve. How could one man undertake such a task? In truth, he explained that 92 collaborators had cooperated to the realization of so many works." 1 English translation: "Perhaps those who read our books singly are surprised that we sometimes dwell on certain details which seem somewhat long drawn for the book in which they appear. The fact is, we are not writing isolated books, but, as we have already said, we are filling, or trying to fill, an immense frame. To us, the presence of our characters is not limited to their appearance in one book. The man you meet in one book may be a king in a second volume, and exiled or shot in a third. Balzac did a great and noble work with a hundred aspects, and he called it the Comédie Humaine. Our work, begun at the same time as his…may fitly be called The Drama of France. See: Alexandre Dumas, "Chapter XLIV: Change of Residence," The Companions of Jehu, trans. (New York: P.F. Collier and Son, n.d.), 482. status, as both Balzac and Zola remain among the most studied and highly-regarded figures in nineteenth-century French literature. 1 Dumas's reevaluation, and Schopp's influence in particular, has made this argument so ubiquitous that it has become an uncontested fact.
Yet Dumas did not repeatedly make this assertion, announced toward the latter portion of his life, and whether it was something that consciously and continuously drove his plans when developing future ideas and concepts for his historical fiction novels is debatable. Dumas did not always flesh out beforehand the events within his individual novels, never mind a whole "series" composed over decades. He is infamous for changing character's names or details midtory, as he generally published his novels initially in serial form, often composing several novels at once. 2 As a result, the critic Ferdinand Brunetière wrote that Dumas's dramatic works "ne sont pas littéraires. Ils n'ont pas de style, et la forme y reste indécise, imprécise, banale. La psychologie y est sans profondeur. Ils sont mal composés. La vie de l'homme explique ce caractère de son oeuvre" (IV, 247). Dumas's novels, he argued, possess "certaines qualités littéraires," but they are "romans industriels" hastily composed (IV, 261). 3 Consequently, Dumas's conception of his historical fiction novels forming a composite and collective series was at best a loose, retrospective reflection on his body of work. Therefore, while I do not wish to dispute the existence of La Drame de la France, its nature (and nature of its creation) makes it so that the novels that specifically comprise it has never been definitively established. Coming to some degree of consensus on this point is needed as a first step to advance studies of Dumas in this area, as well as make comparatives studies between Dumas and other writers and series. This article seeks to initiate this literary discussion by presenting Dumas's 36 major historical fiction novels set in France, briefly examining the problems, considerations, and debates that exist in whether each should be accepted as part of the series  1 For example, Nineteenth-Century French Studies published barely a dozen articles on Dumas from 1972 to 2010. In comparison, during the same period, Zola was the subject about 80 articles; Balzac was the subject of nearly 90 articles. 2 For example, in Le Château d'Eppstein (1843), the character Maximilian states that his wife's name was Thecla in the beginning of the novel, but later states her name was Bertha. Another example occurs in Le Volontaire de '92 (1862) when the main protagonist, René, references an event toward the end of the novel in which he helped Sophie and the Viscount de Malmy escape that was never described previously. 3 English translation: Brunetière wrote that Dumas's dramatic works "are not literature. They have no style and the form remains indecisive, imprecise, and banal. The psychology found in his work is without depth. They are poorly composed. The life of the man explains the character of his work." Dumas's novels, he argued, possess "literary qualities," but they are "industrial novels" hastily composed. 4 Major novels set during Dumas's present-day France (predominantly during the July Monarchy) lacking a strong historical focus-and thus omitted from consideration-include: Amaury (1843) history, the significance of specific historical figures within the novel's plots, shared characters among multiple novels, and the significance the novel has traditionally held within studies on Dumas's work.

Dumas's Conception of French History
For a sequence books to comprise a series, there must be some common characteristics or unifying threads that can formally unite them. In nineteenth-century France, the rise of the extended serial novel, published in cliffhanger installments in newspapers, encouraged the practice of a novel sequence. A novel sequence is a specific type of series in which the novels it includes may contain some common elements (such as themes, setting, or characters), but each individual novel can stand of its own (i.e., it has its own title, unique plot, etc.). As such, each novel can be read in, or out, of the sequence. Consequently, a novel sequence may encompass multiple story arcs or themes that span several books instead of including one or more common characters. The novel sequence had been popularized earlier in the century through the works of such writers as Fenimore Cooper in the 1820s. In French literature, the previously mentioned series by Balzac (La Comédie humaine) and Zola (Les Rougon-Macquart) are also nineteenth-century novel sequences, although there are many others. Dumas's work and conception of a series of historical novels was also likely influenced by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Scott's major series (The Waverley Novels), as in the case of Dumas, include subseries (Tales of my Landlord, Tales of the Crusaders, Chronicles of the Canongate) that span broad historical epochs and are largely independent of each other, and thus only loosely connected. 1 Around 1822, when Dumas was only about 20 years old, he demonstrated his fascination with the British writer's work by drafting a three-act dramatization of Scott's Ivanhoe as one of his earliest literary efforts. Balzac's pragmatic series, which was also conceived after the publication of several of its novels, is more open and extendable than Zola's predetermined series, organized around an extended family group. Dumas's conception of a series is thus theoretically closer to Balzac's than Zola's. However, both Balzac's and Zola's series focused on shorter historical periods and are joined through the reappearance of several fictional characters. Scott's novels, on the other hand, span an extended chronological spectrum and are largely independent of each other, and therefore not associated with each other in any strict sense.
Dumas's conception of history is largely the unifying, overarching theme of La Drame de la France, which, as a novel sequence, covers an extended chronological spectrum. Dumas's view of history is revealed in his Gaul et France (1833), which regarded the spreading of democracy as synonymous with progress. Among the first of Dumas's many historical works, the original edition included an epilogue, omitted from later printings, in which Dumas foretold the reestablishment of the Republic. However, a prologue from his novel The Comtesse de Salisbury Following a brief introduction, Gaule et France is divided into three parts tracing French history from ancient time to 1328 (the Franco-Roman monarchy, covering events up to Pepin the Short; the Frank monarchy, covering events from Pepin the Short to Hugh Capet; and the French monarchy, covering events from Hugh Capet to Philippe de Valois) and a conclusion. The conclusion not only summarizes the first three parts, but also serves as an epilogue following French history from the medieval period to Dumas's present. Based on the different kinds of territorial properties that existed through centuries (like feudalism, seigneury, aristocracy, and private property), Dumas separates history into four periods and perceives events as part of a divinely guided mission toward a republic, which was viewed as France's destiny.
Some have argued that such a theme unites Dumas's historical fiction, which sought to map this progress to his nineteenth-century present. Regardless of whether Dumas intentionally sought to establish a sweeping La Drame de la France from the beginning of his literary efforts, the conceptions of history he articulated before and near the beginning of his efforts writing historical fiction novels inevitably created a loose, overarching framework for how he viewed the past and how the past culminated in his present; such conceptions thus form the unifying theme of Dumas's larger novel sequence. Further, the concept of creating La Drame de la France likely did influence the works he wrote from 1857 until his death in 1870. Dumas did compose various smaller cycles of novels, or subseries, covering more compact sequences of historical events. As a result, these well-known cycles have been incorporated into La Drame de la France. These cycles can be more tightly united through the reappearance of fictional characters (as the case in his Musketeers cycle and Saint-Hermine cycle), by the reappearance of historical figures (such as in his Valois cycle and Regency cycle), or both.
The Mémoires d'un médecin pentalogy is united uniquely by reappearing fictional and historical characters in the first four novels, whereas the fifth novel in the series-Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge-is connected only through the reappearance of historical characters. Further, all novels in a cycle are typically united by the historical period in which events occur (such as sixteenth-century France). However, within the broader novel sequence of La  An adventure set in the later years of Napoléon's reign and Waterloo (circa 1810-1815)

French Renaissance (circa 1521-1580)
The earliest setting for Dumas's major French historical fiction novels is during the reign of François I and the birth of the French Renaissance. The first of these novels, Ascanio (1843), depicts artist Benvenuto Cellini's residence at the court of François I during the years 1539 to 1545. Ultimately, the novel provides a reflection on the relationship between the aristocracy of talent and that of birth, which helps set up Dumas's conceptions of French history and its destiny to become a republic that serve to unify La Drame de la France. Several minor characters who appear in Ascanio (1843) (Natta,. Due to the prominence these novels hold within Dumas's oeuvre, the lack of other novels covering this period, and the fact that they relate to Dumas's conception of historical progress, these three novels are unchallenged inclusions in La Drame de la France.

Reigns of Louis XIII and XIV (circa 1625-1715)
Just as Dumas's coverage of French history during the late Valois dynasty is covered in a noted series of novels, so too is his coverage of the reign of Louis XIII and the early reign of his son, Louis XIV. Largely skimming over the rise of the Bourbon dynasty in the personage of Henri IV (who was featured as king of Navarre Colombe picks up events almost exactly where they ended in Le Sphinx Rouge, it is often regarded as its an unofficial "conclusion." As a result, French and English editions typically publish both novels together as a unified entity. 1 To overcome the challenge of the two often being perceived as outside the Musketeers cycle, some publishers have attempted to bill it as a "sequel" to Les Trois Mousquetaires since the former picks up chronologically where the latter ends and features many of the same historical characters, even though the famous musketeer protagonists themselves do not. Its events also occur well before those of Vingt Ans après. 2 The third novel, La Guerre des femmes (1844-1846), is focused on the Fronde during Louis XIV's early reign. Vingt Ans après is also set during the interim between Louis XIII's death and Louis XIV's ascension in which Anne of Austria, aided by Cardinal Mazarin, ruled as regent.
Consequently, it also features the Fronde. Dumas and Maquet wrote both novels at roughly the same time and the two complement each other in terms of their coverage of historical events. As a result, La Guerre des femmes relates events between Vingt Ans après and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. Including this novel in Dumas's Drame de la France thus breaks up the traditional Musketeers cycle. Unlike Le Comte de Moret (Le Sphinx Rouge)/La Colombe, it has never been presented as part of this cycle. In terms of historical coverage, the Fronde is also featured in Vingt Ans après. However, La Guerre des femmes is among Dumas and Maquet's stronger efforts and theoretically could be connected through its common historical setting and historical characters.
Finally, Dumas's Sylvandire (1843), his earliest major historical novel depicting the reign of Louis XIV, is focused on the final years of the monarch's long reign. Also written in collaboration with Maquet, this novel helps connect the historical events and themes covered in the Musketeers cycle to his Regency cycle and helps flesh out Dumas's portrait of Louis XIV and his era.

Early Reign of Louis XV (circa 1718-1729)
Picking up with events shortly after those related in Sylvandire, although written about a year earlier, Le Chevalier d'Harmental (1842) relates the Cellamare Conspiracy against Philippe d'Orléans, who served as regent for the young Louis XV. The novel marked the first collaboration between Dumas and Maquet, and the duo followed with a direct sequel, Une Fille du Régent (1844), shortly afterward. The two novels are often known as the Regency cycle. Meanwhile, Olympe de Clèves (1852) picks up with Louis XV's reign almost a decade later during the 1727 to 1729 era. This historical novel, although not customarily part of a series with the previous two, nevertheless helps bridge the long gap in coverage of French history between 1719 and 1770, fleshes out Dumas's portrait of Louis XV and his reign, and since it features a common historical setting and characters, could be regarded as loosely connected to an expanded Regency cycle (as could Sylvandire as well).

French Revolutionary Era (circa 1770-1793)
Dumas's longest series of novels-known as the Mémoires d'un médecin cycle-focuses on the events leading up to the French Revolution and those of the Revolution itself up to 1793. Along with the Valois cycle and Musketeers cycle, it is arguably among Dumas's most famous group of historical fiction novels. Like these two cycles, Maquet was Dumas's main collaborator (as he was involved with four of the five novels in the Mémoires d'un médecin cycle). Consequently, there is not much debate among Dumas scholars as to whether they should be included in La Drame de la France. The remaining two novels can perhaps be seen as falling more in line with Dumas's works in which he collaborated with others (or was credited with collaborating with others) on real or quasi-fictitious memoirs rather than his works of historical fiction. 1

Rise of Napoléon and the First French Empire (circa 1793-1815)
Dumas's primary historical fiction novels set during the rise of Napoléon and the First French Empire are those comprising his Sainte-Hermine cycle, which were generally written toward the end of his life and career. While the novels in his earlier series were generally written during the 1840s and 1850s, Dumas did not start his Sainte-Hermine cycle until the late 1850s. As a result, this is the one cycle in which Dumas in all probability did intend at the time of its composition for it to comprise part of his larger La Drame de la France. The only other major historical novel set during the era of Napoléon worth considering for inclusion in La Drame de la France is Conscience l'innocent (1853), which focuses on the exploits of a conscript in the years 1810 to 1815. The historical period is covered elsewhere, and historical figures, events, and themes play a lesser role in this novel than they do in others.

Restoration Era and July Monarchy
As The first of these is Georges (1843), written with Félicien Mallefille. A short backstory connects the novel to the Napoleonic era (circa 1810), while the novel's main story unfolds in 1824. As this novel is set in the French colonies, it is not usually perceived as part of Dumas's La Drame de la France. However, if one expands the concept of "France" to extend beyond the metropole, it becomes a possibility. Moreover, since it concerns the issues of race and slavery, it has become one of Dumas's most studied and significant novels. 2 However, it also includes his novel sequence's larger themes relating to merit based on ability rather than birth and republican sentiments.
The next novel to be considered is Les Mohicans de Paris (1854-1859), set between 1820 to 1830 during the Restoration. The novel, not typically regarded as one of Dumas's historical romances, has become widely praised as a pioneer of the detective novel. 1 However, it also deals with all classes and characters of Paris at the time, thereby providing an illuminating study of the Restoration arguably on par with those in the novels in Balzac's La Comédie humaine, and allows Dumas to reflect on the developing epoch of private property that he sees as developing in the post-French Revolutionary era. Further, without a novel such as Les Mohicans de Paris to bridge events between the end of Napoléon and the demise of the July Monarchy, it is more difficult to include in La Drame de la France the final novel to be considered, Les Louves de Machecoul (1859).
Although Les Louves de Machecoul relates episodes from 1793 to 1843, its focus is on the July Revolution of 1830 and especially the subsequent royalist uprising in the Vendée led by the Duchesse de Berry in 1832 to place her son on the throne. In terms of coverage of historical events, it addresses and fleshes out the transition from the Restoration to the July Monarchy. Moreover, this historical novel emphasizes many of the overarching themes within Dumas's conception of history and his Drame de la France. Dumas constructs his tale based on the Duchesse's failed uprising to represent allegorically a broader struggle between Counterrevolutionary and Revolutionary France that came to a head in the post-revolutionary era. In Dumas's view, the fate of the uprising determined the fate of the nation. Thus, to Dumas, the 1832 defeat of the Duchesse and her Legitimist supporters marked a decisive turning point on France's road to realizing its republican destiny as outlined during the French Revolution. The narrative thus presents a strong republican polemic to argue unmistakably that France is destined to be a republic and is conceptually one of Dumas's most significant historical novels. 2

Conclusion
Dumas's historical romances may or may not have been written intentionally from the beginning as forming a larger collective known as La Drame de la France, first declared by the writer in the 1850s. Although the scope of Dumas's La Drame de la France is undefined, French literary scholars have generally agreed on the inclusion of his smaller cycles of historical romances as being crucial components of it. Moreover, Dumas's early work, Gaule et France, has been cited as the theoretical foundation for much of the thematic threads regarding progress and historical change in these novels. However, the vastness of Dumas's body of work leads to the possibility of various other inclusions to La Drame de La France. Agreeing on a full scope of novels for this collective series is necessary to advance studies of Dumas in this area. By briefly examining these other possibilities, there are 31 novels that have a strong case for inclusion in La Drame de la France, which can be seen in broader nineteenth-century French literature as complementing Balzac's La Comédie humaine and Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart. Such defined series have been subject to many studies, but without the establishment of which books comprise Dumas's La Drame de la France, to study Dumas's work in a similar fashion, or compare it to other nineteenth-century literacy series, is not possible. 1 As a result, there have been no comparable monographs to date published on Dumas's La Drame de la France.