Dumas photographed by Nadar, November 1855. Alexandre Dumas (July 24, 1802 - December 5, 1870) was a French writer. His works have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later were originally published as serials. Prolific in several genres, Dumas began his career by writing plays, which were successfully produced from the first. He also wrote magazine articles and travel books; his published works totaled 100,000 pages. He died in 1870 at the age of 68. In 2002 for the bicentennial of Dumas' birth, the French President, Jacques Chirac, had a ceremony honoring the author by having his ashes reinterred at the mausoleum of the Panth矇on of Paris, where he was enshrined alongside fellow great authors Victor Hugo and ?mile Zola. The proceedings were televised: the new coffin was draped in a blue velvet cloth and carried on a caisson flanked by four mounted Republican Guards costumed as the four Musketeers.