Three Musketeers

I love this story and read it first as a child, struggling through the French parts. I didn’t know that a better translation would have made it more accessible to me. I never even gave a thought to who translated it. Between the footnotes and clarity in translation, this is a wonderful read. Congratulations. I’m sure I’m years behind, but I have found you now.

The last Dumas I read was The Count of Monte Cristo, back in 2003 or so. I remember it having some long patches, some filler-material, but I also remember being enthralled by the sheer storytelling power, and finishing it in record time.The Three Musketeers, I think, is better still. There's very little padding, and the only bit that rankled a little was a section in which the exposition was handled very stagily, in the sense of old-fashioned exposition: two nonentities come onto the stage and explain all the backstory in dialogue that is as flat as a pancake. In the section in question, however, the two characters were important ones, and it seemed odd how they suddenly began to behave. It was around this section too that D'Artagnan started behaving rather strangely, more like a puppet than a man. Not only was he using one woman to get at another, (Kitty, Milady's maid, to get at Milady) and showing uncharacteristic integrity, but his apparent bedazzlement by Milady was somehow unbelievable.Apart from that, the story zips along at such a pace that you find yourself reading page after page, trying to keep up with the speed of things. The humour is wonderful, there's very little purple prose for a 19th century novel, and the characters, though occasionally inconsistent, are in general well-drawn. The villains are villains to the core; no mistaking them. The heroes will die for anything and everything that seems true. The women are wonderful, and the men passionate and energetic. And the suspense is terrific (even if you've seen one or two movie versions of the story).Certainly the morals of the the characters leave something to be desired. Dumas even comments on their behaviour a couple of times by telling us that this was how people behaved then - as if to excuse the fact that he was making them behave this way. And the way he weaves history into his story - bending it when necessary - is excellent.

Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel The Three Musketeers is the most well-known swashbuckling novel in the genre, and with good reason. This well-deserved classic is a lot of fun, and the adventures of d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are very enjoyable. There are a couple of small issues I have with the story, but it's well worth reading.Dumas takes an interesting approach in that our main protagonist, d'Artagnan, is not in fact one of the titular Three Musketeers. Travelling from Gascony to Paris in 1620's France to make his fortune, the young, arrogant, brave, and - fortunately for himself - very capable d'Artagnan ends up friends with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and caught in the web of plots surrounding Cardinal Richelieu, King Louis XIII, and the Queen, Anne of Austria. D'Artagnan and each of the Musketeers are an interesting character in their own right, with Athos serious and brooding, Porthos an amusing but deadly fop, and Aramis constantly flirting with taking up the priesthood. The friendship between the four is also very well written, and it's with good reason that "the three musketeers" is still a byword for an extremely close group of comrades.The Cardinal is the main nemesis and architect of the troubles the four friends find themselves in, but their immediate trouble largely comes from Milady de Winter. Milady perhaps the trickiest, most conniving, slippery, and vindictive character I've come across. Despite all the precautions d'Artagnan, the Musketeers, and the other allied characters take, Milady continues to find a way to cause trouble, leaving the fortunes of men, women, and nations torn asunder in her wake. She's quite the piece of work.I have two small problems with the book. First, for a swashbuckling novel, there are long stretches where there's no action. Instead the characters do a lot of boozing and schmoozing during these parts of the novel. Now, I'm all for character building and these parts are fun, but I was expecting a little more action in the most famous swashbuckling book of all time. There are even several chapters very near the end that focus entirely on Milady's dastardly schemes, and the Musketeers aren't even around. My second issue is that, since the four friends' main rival is a woman and the story is written in 1844 and takes place in the 1620's, the climactic showdown with Milady has no action, and - to keep our heroes from getting their hands dirty - a previously completely unknown character shows up right at that point with his own grudge against Milady and takes a very active roll. That seemed, frankly, like a bit of a cop out.I listened to Blackstone Audio's 2007 production of The Three Musketeers as read by Simon Vance. I'm a huge fan of Vance, and have listened to him narrate other swashbuckling works suck as Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche and Captain Blood. Vance does another excellent job here. He delivers the drama very well, and does a fantastic job of keeping it easy to track who's speaking, which is quite a feat for the large cast in this book. There are the four heroes, their four servants, the Cardinal, Milady, lots of other courtly allies and enemies, and love interests, but as soon as Vance speaks, you know who's involved. He also depicts the action in a very stirring and heart-pumping manner. The man knows how to narrate a duel, without a doubt. This unabridged recording runs approximately 23 hours. My only quibble with the production is that I was unable, either from the packaging, Blackstone's website, or anywhere else, to determine which translation was used in the recording.I recommend The Three Muskeers for anyone looking for a classic adventure tale. It's not perfect, but there is a good reason it's such a well-regarded novel. The characters are a lot of fun, the action is exciting, and the intrigue was excellent. I just wish there was a bit more action. If you're an audio book fan, definitely check out Vance's performance.

I won't comment on the text here other than to say it's a nice translation, as it's a classic novel. The chronology in the front is a nice touch. You probably have some idea if you'll like it. The Everyman's Library editions are gorgeous books as a rule, and this is no exception. Under the dustcover, it has a lovely rich red cover with a black and gold label on the spine. The paper quality is significantly higher than you find in most modern books. The ribbon bookmark could stand to be wider, but that's just me nitpicking. I would recommend ordering from a bookshop if possible though; my copy came a bit scuffed up and with several pages bent. I'm not counting that in the review, because that's an issue with Amazon not putting enough cushioning in the box and not with the edition itself.

I fell in love with this book the first time I read it, forty years ago. It’s almost like I fall in love with it for the first time, every time I have reread it since. I only remember reading the sequels once, many years ago, and seem to recall them being somewhat too tragic for me to handle at that early age. I have not reread any of the sequels since.The Three Musketeers continues to be one of my favourite classics, but do I have a favourite Musketeer? So difficult to say, each one of them is unique in his own way, yet rather similar in certain characteristics. Each one of them has personality traits that you can relate to. What is great about this book is that the supporting cast is just as good, Milady of course my first introduction to the concept of a femme fatale.A swashbuckling tale of heroism, glory, political intrigue, romance, it deserves its place in the pantheon of greatest classics of all time. Highest possible recommendation, and as a bonus, I also recommend Sebastien de Castell’s Greatcoats series, which pays homage to this classic.

Edizione economica con copertina flessibile Vintage Classics French Series. È molto leggero e i caratteri non sono troppo piccoli. In fondo al libro ci sono molte note che aiutano a comprendere aspetti storici. Rapporto qualità prezzo ottimale.

This certainly the unabridged and real translation of the original classic novel. If anybody wishes to enjoy the original novel its a must read.

This is another great looking book from the Word Cloud Classics flexibound series (from Canterbury Classics). It's like a flexible hardcover, blind and holographic foil stamped on the cover. The writing style is in old English, and Mr. Dumas often writes entire paragraphs with lots of comma's and only a period mark at the end of the paragraph, to make one nearly run out of breath merely reading the book. It's still a wonderful story, though, and I'm glad I got this book.