The Three Musketeers Book Review
Fact Box-The Three Musketeers ("The Modern Library" Version)
Author: Alexandre Dumas (translated by Jaques Le Clercq)
Genre(s): Adventure, Historical Fiction
Publishers: The Modern Library
Page #: 598
Recommended Reading Level: Anyone committed
General Impressions: It may have been slow in some parts and some of the plot pieces may have lacked in interest, at least to me, in other parts, but overall I enjoyed it. It had good, memorable characters, for the most part, a nice plot, and was very well-written.
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| From the 1993 film adaption: (from left) Athos (Keifer Sutherland), Aramis (Charlie Sheen), d'Artagan (Chris O' Donnell) and Porthos (Oliver Patt) |
Summary: Set in 1600's France, a young man named d'Artangan leaves his home in Gascony, a province in southwest France, to Paris, in hopes of becoming one of the Musketeers of the Guard. On his way, he stops at an inn, where a man makes fun of his horse, ticking off d'Artangan, who proceeds into challenging the mocker to a duel. Unfortunately, his opponent has companions, who beat him up, break his sword, and steal his resume he'd planned to give to the Captain of the Musketeers, Monsieur de Treville. But once d'Artangan brushes himself off, he swears he'll seek vengeance on that man if he runs across him again. He continues onto Paris, where he meets Monsieur de Treville only to remember his resume was stolen to be enlisted into the Musketeers of the Guard. Declined by de Treville, d'Artangan writes a resume in hopes of getting into a training academy, as a Plan B for becoming a musketeer, but suddenly sees the inn man again. As he rushes out to get his revenge, he runs into the three Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, who challenge him to a fight. Just as they're about to fight, Cardinal Richelieu of France's authorities attempt to arrest them for illegal fighting, but the Musketeers and d'Artangan successfully defeat them, with d'Artangan seriously injuring one of the Cardinal's best, Jussac. King Louis XIII hears of this and makes him one of the King's guards. It's not a Musketeer, but you can't complain,
What I Liked: The last book review I wrote on this blog was of The Grapes of Wrath, another classic work of literature, which I liked, but wasn't that well-written (especially in terms of plot and character development), but after finishing The Three Musketeers, I'm happy to say Dumas is better at writing than Steinbeck (author of The Grapes of Wrath), with his dialogue, his historical documentation, and every-so-often fourth wall breaks. Another great thing about the book was the characters. Obviously, my favorite's d'Artangan, the young, handsome, cocky, hot-headed brute who can both be a good and a bad guy simultaneously---and that goes to Athos, Porthos, and Aramis as well. Other characters I liked, or at least were developed and constructed well-enough for me to pay attention to them (unlike some of Steinbeck's characters in The Grapes of Wrath), such as the Captain of the Musketeers, Monsieur de Treville, the inn man and enemy of d'Artangan, which you later find out is named Rochefort, Milady de Winter, the Cardinal's beautiful yet atrocious spy, her servant, Kitty, Monsieur, a good guy who turns bad and Madame Bonacieux, a man-manipulating (insert offensive term for "lady of the night" here) who cheats on her husband for George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.
What I Disliked: Like I said in my "General Impressions," some parts seemed to drag on or go too slow to me, and other parts just weren't interesting enough to really care about,---not saying that they weren't well-written---especially parts that didn't involve d'Artangan or the Musketeers. Most of this happens in the middle, but the end makes up for just a little bits that were lost in my reading experience. Overall, it was pretty solid.
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