Alexandre Dumas, born in France in 1802, is one of the most widely read French authors in history. His novels of high adventure have been translated into nearly 100 languages and made into more than 200 movies. A very prolific author, Dumas's published works total more than 100,000 pages.

He died in 1870 and was buried in his birthplace of Villers-Cotterets. In 2002, the bicentennial of his birth, he was reinterred in the mausoleum of the Pantheon in Paris.

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, a classic literary tale of revenge, was first published in serial form in...