What is Alexandre Dumas, fils?
'''Alexandre Dumas, fils''' (fils is [[French language|French]] for ''son''), (27 July 1824 – 27 November 1895) was the son of [[Alexandre Dumas, père]] (père is [[French language|French]] for ''father''). Like his father, Alexandre Dumas, fils was a celebrated [[author]] and [[playwright]]. [[File:ADumas hijo 00.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Alexandre Dumas, fils.]] Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' was born in [[Paris]], [[France]], the [[Illegitimacy|illegitimate]] child of Marie-Catherine Labay, a dressmaker, and novelist [[Alexandre Dumas, père|Alexandre Dumas]]. In [[1831]] his father legally recognized him (he adopted him) and ensured the young Dumas received the best education possible at the [[Institution Goubaux]] and the [[College Bourbon]]. At that time, the law allowed the elder Dumas to take the child away from his mother. Her agony inspired Dumas ''fils'' to write about tragic female characters. In almost all of his writings, he emphasized the moral purpose of literature and in his [[1858]] play, ''Le fils naturel'' (''The Illegitimate Son''), he wrote about the belief that if a man fathers an [[illegitimate]] child, then he has an obligation to legitimize the child and marry the woman. Dumas' paternal great-grandparents were a white French nobleman and a young black [[Haiti]]an woman. In the boarding schools, Dumas ''fils'' was constantly taunted by his classmates. These issues all profoundly influenced his thoughts, behaviour, and writing. In [[1844]], Dumas ''fils'' moved to [[Saint-Germain-en-Laye]] to live with his father. There, he met [[Marie Duplessis]], a young courtesan who would be the inspiration for his romantic novel, ''[[The Lady of the Camellias|La dame aux camélias]]'' (''The Lady of the [[Camellia]]s''). Adapted into a play, it was titled in English (especially in the United States) as ''Camille'' and is the basis for [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi's]] [[1853]] opera, ''[[La Traviata]]''. Although he admitted that he had done the adaptation because he needed the money, he had a huge success with the pla