Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/48

 eagerly read by the men of the rising generation, had revolutionised the old ideas of romance in general, and Dumas's notions in particular; and Cooper, the now-forgotten, found in the country of Chateaubriand and Rousseau a congenial home for his poetic romances of the prairies.

All this time the young collaborators, de Leuven and Dumas, had not been idle. In spite of his content with his modest salary, young Alexandre had spent more than double that income, during the first year, and his mother's little store was almost gone. At this crisis a third person was taken into the flourishing dramatic partnership—a clever drunkard named Rousseau; and the little play which resulted—"La Chasse et l'Amour"—though rejected at the Théâtre Gymnase, was accepted at the Ambigu, and played with success in 1825. This lightened the poverty which was weighing upon the author's household, and thus emboldened, Dumas put together three little stories which he had written, and persuaded a foolish publisher to go halves with him in the risk of producing them. This little volume, "Nouvelles Contemporaines," of which we shall treat at greater length later on, was published in 1826, but was not a success. Dumas tells us variously that four and again that six copies only were sold. It was favourably reviewed, however, by Etienne Arago, and proved a species of letter-of-