Alexandre Dumas père (1802–1870) was a bestselling French author whose works still enjoy global renown and are frequently adapted for film, TV, and other media. Dumas grew up in Picardy in northern France and, as a young man, went to Paris, where he worked for the future king, Louis-Philippe, but was quickly diverted by the theatre: his dramas, often with historical settings, were hugely popular. From the 1840s, he concentrated on fiction; his novels such as The Three Musketeers (1844, Folio 2001) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1846, Folio 1999) – romantic, exciting, and colourful – sold in large numbers in France and in translation.