Dumas became then prominent as one of the leaders of the Romantic movement. His activities were intense: he wrote hundreds of novels, hired collaborators, added material here and there to their work, changed the plot and characters, and gave the works the charm and movement that made his novels popular. Dumas earnings were fabulous, but he was a great spender too, with an intense night life and myriads of love affairs. His personal wish to be elected at the Academie Francaise was fulfilled in the person of his illigitimate son, Alexandre Dumas (fils), author of La Dame aux Camelias that inspired Verdi's Traviata.