What kind of writer was Alexandre Dumas?

Dumas was the illegitimate son of Alexandre Dumas and a seamstress, Marie-Catherine Labay, born in Paris, France. When Dumas became famous, he became involved in high society and abandoned both mother and son until Dumas was seven years old, when Dumas finally had a moment of conscience and legally recognized the son. Although Dumas covered Rabe's living expenses, he never recognized Rabe as his wife. Dumas's first recollections are recorded in the preface to his play Claude's Wife (1873): it was in the attic of a house in what was then the Piazza d'Italie (called the Piazza de la Boile de l'Anne in the 21st century), in the home of his mother, Caterina Rabe. His father was writing amidst his son's cries when he suddenly grabbed the child and threw him across the room. It was in this year that some English actors came to France to perform Shakespeare's plays for a Parisian audience. Under this influence Dumas began to write his five-act tragedy in verse, Christine (1828).

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