t say much about the life of Alexandre Dumas the younger.
The history of a great writer is the history of his works. He was born
in Paris, on July 27th, 1824. His name on the register of births
appears as "Alexandre, son of Marie Catherine Lebay, seamstress." He
was not acknowledged by his father until he had reached his sixth
year, March 7th, 1830. I emphasize this particular because it had
great influence on the bent of his genius. During all his life Dumas
was haunted by a desire of rehabilitating illegitimate children, of
creating a reaction against their treatment by the Civil Code and the
prejudice which makes of them something little better than outcasts in
society.

"When seven years old," he himself says, "I entered as a boarder the
school of Monsieur Vauthier, on Rue Montagne Saint-Genevieve. Thence I
passed, about two years later, to the Saint-Victor School; the
principal was Monsieur Goubaux, a friend of my father, with whom he
collaborated under the _nom de plume_ of Dinaux. This school, which
numbered two hundred and fifty boarding pupils, and with the rather
strange habits which I tried to depict in 'The Clemenceau Case,'
occupied all the ground covered to-day by the Casino de Paris and the
'Pole-Nord' establishment. When about fifteen I left the Saint-Victor
School for Monsieur Henon's school, which was situated in the Rue de
Courcelles and has now disappeared. It is in the College Bourbon (now
the Lycee Condorcet) that I received all my instruction, as the pupils
of the two schools where I lived attended the college classes. I never
belonged to any of the higher State schools,--I have not even the
degree of bachelor."

At the end of his years of study he returned to his father. He did not
stay there more than six months. The rather tumultuous life which he
saw in the house disturbed his proud mind, already filled with serious
yearnings.

"You have debts," his father said to him. "Do as I do: work, and you
will pay them."

Such was indeed the young man's intention. His first work was a
one-act play in verse, 'The Queen's Jewel,' which no one, assuredly,
would mention to-day but for his signature. The date was 1845, and the
author was then twenty-one. Other works by him were published at
various times in the Journal des Demoiselles.

"I was," he has said, "the careless, lazy, and spoilt child of all my
father's friends. I believed in the eternity of youth, of strength, of
joy. I spent the whole day