Who was Alexandre Dumas? Google Doodle celebrates author of The Three Musketeers

Dumas published over 100,000 pages during his lifetime

A sketch portrait of French author Alexandre Dumas (pere), known for 'The Three Muskateers' (Getty Images)

French author Alexandre Dumas, who wrote the iconic novels The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, is being celebrated in a Google Doodle.

To mark the anniversary of the publication of the first instalment of The Count of Monte Cristo (or: Le Comte de Monte Cristo), Google will include an visual representation of the novel’s story within the artwork.

The Count of Monte Cristo was published serially over two years, beginning on 28 August 1884, in the Parisian newspaper Les Journal des Débats (The Journal of Debates).

Dumas was born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie in Villers-Cotterêts, France, in 1802. He would later assume the surname of his paternal grandmother Marie-Césette Dumas, a woman of African descent and a slave in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti).

Before becoming a novelist, Dumas found success as a playwright when he moved to Paris in 1822. In the 1840s, he would win particular renown for his swashbuckling adventure stories, of which The Three Musketeers is the most enduringly beloved.

Acclaimed playwright and novelist Alexandre Dumas pere, photographed (Getty Images)

In writing his adventure novels, Dumas drew on the experiences of his father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, who enjoyed a prestigious career in the French military.

Dumas remains one of the most-read French authors of all time, and his books have been translated into more than 100 different languages.

While he was married, Dumas conducted a large number of extra-marital affairs, and was known to have several illegitimate children. His son, Alexandre Dumas fils, also became a successful novelist and playwright.

Dumas died on 5 December 1870, at the age of 68, leaving behind a legacy of more than 100,000 published pages.