Editing Alexandre Dumas (section)

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Alexandre Dumas and Georgia national costumes 2002.jpg|thumb|A postal stamp of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Alexandre Dumas, who visited the Caucasus in 1858–1859]]
On 5 December 1870, Dumas died at the age of 68 of natural causes, possibly a heart attack. He was buried at his birthplace of Villers-Cotterêts in the department of Aisne. His death was overshadowed by the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. Changing literary fashions decreased his popularity. In the late 20th century, scholars such as Reginald Hamel and Claude Schopp have caused a critical reappraisal and new appreciation of his art, as well as finding lost works.<ref name="Hamel"/>

[[File:Alexandre Dumas - DPLA - 860860c11933bcb37541217342611925 (page 1).jpg|alt=Photograph of Alexandre Dumas wearing a bowtie and looking slightly off camera. A typed caption at the bottom of the image reads "Ch. Reutlinger Phot." and an annotation in pencil denotes the name of the subject.|upright|thumb|Alexandre Dumas, {{Circa|1859}}–1870. Carte de Visite Collection, Boston Public Library.]]

In 1970, upon the centenary of his death, the [[Paris Métro]] named a [[Alexandre Dumas (Paris Métro)|station in his honour]]. His country home outside Paris, the [[Château de Monte-Cristo]], has been restored and is open to the public as a museum.<ref name="Chateau Museum">[https://www.chateau-monte-cristo.com/main/en/horaires-et-tarifs-en/opening-times-high-season/ Château de Monte-Cristo Museum Opening Hours], accessed 4 November 2018.</ref>

Researchers have continued to find Dumas works in archives, including the five-act play ''[[The Gold Thieves]],'' found in 2002 by the scholar {{Interlanguage link multi|Réginald Hamel|fr}} in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It was published in France in 2004 by Honoré-Champion.<ref name="Hamel">[http://www.iforum.umontreal.ca/ForumExpress/Archives/vol4no1en/article02_ang.html French Studies: "Quebecer discovers an unpublished manuscript by Alexandre Dumas"], ''iForum'', University of Montreal, 30 September 2004, accessed 11 August 2012.</ref>

Frank Wild Reed (1874–1953), a New Zealand pharmacist who never visited France, amassed the greatest collection of books and manuscripts relating to Dumas outside France. The collection contains about 3,350 volumes, including some 2,000 sheets in Dumas's handwriting and dozens of French, Belgian and English first editions. The collection was donated to Auckland Libraries after his death.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/virt-exhib/realgold/Literature/dumas.html | title=Real gold: treasures of Auckland City Libraries | publisher=Auckland University Press | author=Sharp, Iain | author-link=Iain Sharp | year=2007 | isbn=978-1-86940-396-6}}</ref> Reed wrote the most comprehensive bibliography of Dumas.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/related/bibliographies_reeds_labour_of_love.php | title=Bibliographies: Reed's 'Labour of Love' | publisher=CadyTech | work=The Alexandre Dumas père Web Site | date=1996 | access-date=25 July 2015 | author=Kerr, Donald}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.php?key=11| title=Reed, Frank Wild | publisher=CadyTech | work=The Alexandre Dumas père Web Site | access-date=25 July 2015 }}</ref>

In 2002, for the bicentenary of Dumas's birth, [[French Republic|French President]] [[Jacques Chirac]] held a ceremony honouring the author by having his ashes re-interred at the mausoleum of the [[Panthéon]], where many French luminaries were buried.<ref name="Hamel"/><ref name="Crace"/> When Chirac ordered the transfer to the mausoleum, villagers in Dumas's hometown of Villers-Cotterets were initially opposed, arguing that Dumas laid out in his memoirs that he wanted to be buried there. The village eventually bowed to the government's decision, and Dumas's body was exhumed from its cemetery and put into a new coffin in preparation for the transfer.<ref name= "AP">{{cite web | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QQezHBtcpc&ab_channel=APArchive| title="Musketeers" author's coffin arrives at the Pantheon |work=AP Archive |location=France | date=21 July 2015 | access-date=15 February 2021 | author=Jordan, Taylor}}</ref> The proceedings were televised: the new coffin was draped in a blue velvet cloth and carried on a caisson flanked by four mounted [[Republican Guard (France)|Republican Guards]] costumed as the four [[Musketeer]]s. It was transported through Paris to the Panthéon.<ref name="Webster">{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/30/paulwebster?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 | title=Lavish reburial for Three Musketeers author |work=The Guardian |location=UK | date=29 November 2002 | access-date=31 January 2012 | author=Webster, Paul}}</ref> In his speech, Chirac said:

{{blockquote|With you, we were D'Artagnan, Monte Cristo, or Balsamo, riding along the roads of France, touring battlefields, visiting palaces and castles—with you, we dream.<ref name="chirac">{{cite web |url=http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Discours_prononc%C3%A9_lors_du_transfert_des_cendres_d%E2%80%99Alexandre_Dumas_au_Panth%C3%A9on |title=Discours prononcé lors du transfert des cendres d'Alexandre Dumas au Panthéon |last=Chirac |first=Jacques |author-link=Jacques Chirac |date=30 November 2002 |access-date=19 August 2008 |language=fr}}</ref>}}

Chirac acknowledged the racism that had existed in France and said that the re-interment in the Pantheon had been a way of correcting that wrong, as Alexandre Dumas was enshrined alongside fellow great authors [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Émile Zola]].<ref name="chirac"/><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.parisphotogallery.com/Paris/photos/monuments/Pantheon/Interior_crypt_Victor_Hugo_Alexandre_Dumas_Emile_Zola_10526.htm | title=Paris Monuments Panthéon-Close up picture of the interior of the crypt of Victor Hugo (left) Alexandre Dumas (middle) Émile Zola (right) | publisher=ParisPhotoGallery | access-date=30 January 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419194137/http://www.parisphotogallery.com/Paris/photos/monuments/Pantheon/Interior_crypt_Victor_Hugo_Alexandre_Dumas_Emile_Zola_10526.htm | archive-date=19 April 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Chirac noted that although France has produced many great writers, none has been so widely read as Dumas. His novels have been translated into nearly 100 languages, and inspired more than 200 motion pictures.
[[File:Tomb of Dumas and Hugo and Zola in Panthéon, 16 April 2010.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Alexandre Dumas at the [[Panthéon]] in Paris]]

In June 2005, Dumas's last novel, ''[[The Knight of Sainte-Hermine]]'', was published in France featuring the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. Dumas described a fictional character killing [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Lord Nelson]] (Nelson was shot and killed by an unknown sniper). Writing and publishing the novel serially in 1869, Dumas had nearly finished it before his death. It was the third part of the Sainte-Hermine trilogy. Claude Schopp, a Dumas scholar, noticed a letter in an archive in 1990 that led him to discover the unfinished work. It took him years to research it, edit the completed portions, and decide how to treat the unfinished part. Schopp finally wrote the final two-and-a-half chapters, based on the author's notes, to complete the story.<ref name="Crace">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/may/06/highereducationprofile.academicexperts |title=Claude Schopp: The man who gave Dumas 40 mistresses |access-date=19 August 2008 |last=Crace |first=John |author-link=John Crace (writer)|date=6 May 2008 |work=The Guardian |location=UK | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080820091722/http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/may/06/highereducationprofile.academicexperts| archive-date= 20 August 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> Published by [[Éditions Phébus]], it sold 60,000 copies, making it a best seller. Translated into English, it was released in 2006 as ''The Last Cavalier,'' and has been translated into other languages.<ref name="Crace"/> Schopp has since found additional material related to the Sainte-Hermine saga. Schopp combined them to publish the sequel {{lang|fr|Le Salut de l'Empire}} in 2008.<ref name="Crace"/>