once upon a time (The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas)

Member Name: pontecaille

Product:	The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Date:	14/11/01 (210 review reads)
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The 67 chapters of this novel tell the history of a young man named Artagnan, who comes to seek fortune in Paris. The story is set in 1625, under the reign of Louis XIII. The young, courageous and crafty man has a letter of recommendation of his father for Mr. de Treville, Chief of the Musketeers. Very quickly Artagnan becomes the friend of three gentlemen, musketeers of the King:
Athos (count of Fere)
Porthos (of the Small valley)
Aramis (Knight of Herblay)

An old rivalry opposes the musketeers of the King to the guards of the Cardinal of Richelieu.

Athos was ruined by a tragic marriage with an adventurous woman; Porthos, a giant, whose true name is Small valley, is a companion rather debonair; Aramis oscillates, constantly between mysticism and gallant love affairs.

The four friends to the service of the royal couple will save the Queen Anne of Austria from the perfidious operations of Richelieu:
On an insinuation of the Cardinal, the King invites the Queen to carry, for the next ball of the court, the twelve tags of diamonds he offered her once. However this one gave the invaluable ornament to her lover, the Duke of Buckingham.

Artagnan will have to defy the traps of perfidious Milady of Winter, the frightening agent of the Cardinal, who is also the former wife of Athos. he will fall in love with Constance from Bonacieux, faithful chambermaid of the Queen.

Artagnan and his friends have to recover the jewels in England. They must face the agents of Richelieu, led by Rochefort and Milady.
Chased by the guards of Richelieu, at the end of a course filled with booby-traps, Artagnan and the Three Musketeers succeed in bringing back the tags to the Queen.

Whereas the Musketeers shine again with the La Rochelle head office, Milady, who financed the murder of the duke of Buckingham and poisoned Constance Bonacieux, Artagnan’s love is arrested and sentenced to death.
artagnan, reconcile
d with the Cardinal of Richelieu is promoted lieutenant.
Athos goes back to his faithful countryside.
Porthos gets married.
Aramis becomes priest.

The sequence of the scenes and the intrigue is well regulated and the jumps in time and space subtly brought.

The Three Musketeers are of two modes: the historical novel and the series novel, that directors invent to increase their number of subscribers. The conjunction of the two phenomena is not however enough to explain the success of the book, the number of adaptations or the parodies the book was the object. This success is also due to the history of the work and the collaboration of Dumas / Maquet.

Duma was the first to read the Biography of Mr Artagnan (1700). I found out the true author is named Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras but didn’t get much information.
The two novelists retain from the Bio different characters (of which Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Milady...), simple names, anecdotes and atmospheres dedicated to one single era.
In addition to this essential source, Maquet and Dumas consult other memorials. Dumas is responsible for the underlying structure of the work, it is thanks to him we have the pace of the account, its accelerations and its pauses, the spirit which animates it.

A fast paced story, simple but convincing characters and dialogues inspired by the theatrical technique: Dumas can seduce.

The readers see in the Three Musketeers The Example, The Novel, the one we refer to when reading other books.
if we pass on the many anachronisms, on the period the story is set, having sometimes twenty years in advance on the real history, what is striking, in The Three Musketeer, is the way the novel has been so well done.

I have to insist on the quality of the intrigue, on the science Dumas uses enabling him to play with his suspense and to operate with characters at first being separated, then joined together, then di
spatched in nature, and gathered again. He manipulates those aspects of the book with such professionalism and such harmony.

I see this book as a real youth epic where all is possible and nothing has really importance. More than easy to read, the Three Musketeers is suitable for anyone. It is a lively book that has to be read with high intensity.

The best in this novel is the moral and simple values we still learn today. It is full of lessons of generosity and liberty.
Myths will not extinguish but continue to enchant us and to please us.
This one is and will forever.

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