The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

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Hey, so reading the title (and absorbing pop culture knowledge) it would reasonable to assume that there are in fact three Musketeers in this story, right? Haha, Alexandre Dumas was just messing with you! There are actually four! Yeah, yeah, I’m late to this party but it totally threw me. Four for you, Alexandre Dumas.

So the ~main~ character, loosely speaking, d’Artagnan, a young nobleman, begins the story by journeying to Paris from his hometown with a letter of introduction given to him by his  so he can join the Musketeers. He then promptly loses the letter in a duel that is more of an ambush really. As a result, d’Artagnan is refused entry to the Musketeers but is instead recommended to join the Kings’ Guard. He meets the other three Musketeers under the most hilarious circumstances and the four quickly become inseparable. What follows is a tale full of political intrigue, love affairs, flawless female villains, and above all the bonds of friendship.

This novel is full of engaging characters. d’Artagnan, Porthos, Aramis and Athos are all interesting, although Athos quickly became my favourite out of the four because of ~reasons~. The antagonism between Treville and the Cardinal and the King lazily presiding over it all made me laugh – the tension in these scenes is always palpable without taking away from the humour in the characters’ interactions. I also enjoyed the relationship between the Queen and the Duke but I think the best aspect of this novel for me was in the character of Milady. She is one of the best female villains I’ve ever come across. Milady is a thoroughly unrepetenant, cunning, fascinating character who is one of the dominant antagonists of the novel. And because I am me I ended up loving the history between her and Athos. Because duh.

For a classic novel, the prose is actually quite readable. It is a bit long but so many things happen that you don’t really feel it. It is one of the better classic novels I’ve read in this past year and while it isn’t a favourite, The Three Musketeers was still an entertaining read that I’m glad I picked up.

 

 

 A 19th Century Classic.

 

 

 

 Page Count: 786