Book Review of #1 Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Fast Paced Novel
Author: Alexandre Dumas
ISBN: 1-885326-040-1
Publisher: Wordsworth Classics
Type of Book: Young adult-adult, French classic, 16th century, Louis XIII
Year it was published: (Original in 1844 in French, this version 1993)
Part of a series: D'Artagnan Romances
Summary:
The Three Musketeers is one of the most celebrated historical romances ever written. It tells of the adventures of the hot-headed young Gascon, d’Artagnan, and his three companions Athos, Porthos and Aramis.
In their gallant defence of the Queen of France, Anne of Austria, they pit their wits and their swords against the machinations and men of that archetypal eminence grise, Cardinal Richlieu, as he schemes to hold on to his political influence over King Louis XIII.
Their swashbuckling adventures take them from the high fashion of the French Court to the murkier aspects of espionage on either side of the Channel in a thrilling story of seventeenth century international intrigue.
Characters: This novel was written from limited omniscient third point of view. The main character in the novel is D'Artagnan who is portrayed as resourceful, intelligent, unconquerable, and above all a gentleman. He descends from poor aristorcratic birth and joins the Musketeers of Louis XIII in 1625. In the novel he meets the infamous characters of Athos, Porthos and last but not least Aramis. He befriends Athos and begins to see him as someone to emulate. He also makes enemies of Cardinal Richilieu and Milady. Through it all, D'Artagnan's genius saves him time and time again and very soon the other three Musketeers begin to rely on him as well. While the characters had interesting personalities, one feels that we are seeing them on the surface rather than deep inside, their thoughts and insights on different situations.
Theme: One theme I can think of is that a person may find unexpected friends in different places, but this is more of a re-imagining than anything else. Something else is that you never know who you wrong or how you wrong them.
Plot: I feel that the novel was a tad bit too long and if a person will pick it up, it should be with plenty of time. I tried reading it three times I believe. One time I got very busy with school so I wasn't able to continue. When I tried to read it from when I stopped, I was unable to recall a lot of the story so I had to wait until I got free time. I really feel that this novel could have benefited with some parts being cut off. I feel that the beginning scene of the novel wasn't explained when it happened.
Author Information: Alexandre Dumas is a French author born in 1802 and wrote other novels such as The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask and The Three Musketeers. He died in 1870 and also wrote The Reign of Margot.
Opinion: Before reading The Three Musketeers I came across the abridged edition of The Count of Monte Cristo and managed to read it in two days. I fell in love with Count of Monte Cristo and became determined to read The Three Musketeers. Maybe because this is not abridged and there are too many details, I didn't enjoy to be honest. I also would have liked with this edition to have some sort of culture explanatory notes because the handkerchief part really confused me. I cannot admit to liking it as much as Count of Monte Cristo but this novel did surprise me a lot of times although I also felt that it was kind of dense and some parts struck me as kind of cartoon and childish. I would recommend it but again I didn't like it all that much as I hoped I would.
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
The three musketeer is about exciting adventures of heroes which includes romances. It is an inspirational book.
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