“... His spirit was capable of all the miracles he performed; this he bequeathed and this survives.... Your renown but continues his glory.
“... Your father and I were young together.... He was a grand and good friend.... I had not seen him since 1857.... As I entered Paris Alexandre Dumas was leaving. I did not have even a parting shake of the hand.
“The visit which he made me in my exile I will some day return to his tomb.
“Cher confrère, fils de mon ami, je vous embrasse.
“Victor Hugo.”
Of Dumas, Charles Reade said: “He has never been properly appreciated; he is the prince of dramatists, the king of romancists, and the emperor of good fellows.”
Dumas fils he thought a “vinegar-blooded iconoclast—shrewd, clever, audacious, introspective, and mathematically logical.”
The Cimetière du Père La Chaise has a contemporary interest with the names of many who were contemporaries of Dumas in the life and letters of his day.
Of course, sentimental interest first attaches itself to the Gothic canopy—built from the fragments of the convent of Paraclet—which enshrines the remains of Abelard and Heloïse (1142-64), and this perhaps is as it should be, but for those who are conversant with the life of Paris of Dumas’ day, this most “famous resting-place” has far more interest because of its shelter given to so many of Dumas’ contemporaries and friends.