The Three Musketeers: a tale of four musketeers and a “lady”
The Three Musketeers (1844)- Alexander Dumas (421 pages*)
The Three Musketeers is a historical novel that follows the adventures of d’Artagnan. In many ways, it is a coming-of-age story for him and follows his maturation process. His adventures begin at his childhood home and quickly lead him to Paris where he meets Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, the original three musketeers. Once connected with this group of noblemen, d'Artagnan begins his own journey to becoming a musketeer and must prove himself with feats of valor. Along the way, he meets many friends and just as many enemies among them the Cardinal and Milady.
As I try to do with any novel that has a popular movie presence let me briefly contrast the book and a few of the film adaptations I have seen. I have seen The Three Musketeers 1993 and 2011 films, both of the same name. While they are interesting adaptations there are two main differences between the movies and the book: first, the movies cover around 1/3rd of the book. Simply put, the movie surrounds a controversy involving the earings of the queen which is only a portion of the actual book. The second point requires a little more detail, the Milady of the movies and the book are vastly different. The Milady of the movies is beautiful and cunning but has values and a heart. Without giving too much away, suffice it to say the Milady of the book is very different.
As far as classics are concerned, Alexander Dumas is not the most difficult to read, he is definitely easier than Dickens but more demanding than Stevenson. Dumas and the Three Musketeers are best described as being in a similar readability to James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. The writing style of Dumas is not very strenuous past the first couple of days but Dumas does insert a number of French words into the narrative. At least once every 10 or so pages I would have to look up a word. More often than not context clues provided enough indication to determine the meaning but other times the definition changed the sentence greatly. Overall, the readability was fair not enough to create any restrictions once you are a couple of chapters into the narrative.
The Three Musketeers is a large enough work such that many themes are mentioned but I will focus on the three I found most integral to the story: honor, vengeance, and lastly, inner conflict. The three musketeers and d'Artagnan's entire world revolves around honor. To become a musketeer, to be a nobleman, and to live in the circles they did all hinged upon their honor. As you read this work, follow the actions of Athos. Even more so than the others, Athos is the ideal virtuous musketeer yet even he has terrible secrets. Vengeance, while not apparent throughout the work as a critical theme, is potentially the most important theme by the adventure’s end. Watch out for each character's motives and most importantly their secrets.
The last theme of inner conflict is one I struggled to identify for quite some time. While I do not believe the theme of inner conflict is unique to this narrative, I do believe the level that it is pronounced is unique. D'Artagnan battles with one part headstrong courage the other leveled moderation, Aramis struggles with wanting to be a priest and his reality of being a musketeer. As you read, identify the struggles of Athos and Milady and that will provide you great insight into the broader work. Milady as my title suggests is a crucial part of the larger narrative, a character that should be studied at every appearance. Each character is defined by their inner conflict and for many characters, there is a marked victor by the novel’s end.
I feel like I am saying this with more books now but I am of two minds with this work. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, the next 1/4th I found okay, and the last 1/4th I found pretty good with the conclusion leaving a somewhat bad taste in my mouth. I understand that is pretty colloquial language but it’s the best I can explain it. I don’t believe this to be a spoiler so I will say it, the ending is not a happy ending but I would say it is a complete ending. It ties together the main plot points and leaves some more open to future expansion yet somehow feels wrong. As the book ended I wasn’t grasping for more but rather was annoyed but what was left in my hands. One note here, the Three Muskateers is one of a three-part trilogy known as the d'Artagnan Romances.
Alexander Dumas creates an enjoyable fast-paced narrative that wraps the reader quickly into the journey but I felt that this work did not meet my expectations. I highly recommend Dumas but I’m not sure I can recommend this novel as your first Dumas when the Count of Monte Cristo is available. While the Count of Monte Cristo is formidable in size I believe you get a much more enjoyable and complete conclusion than in this work. Whether this is a virtue of the Three Musketeers being simply one out of a trilogy or just the nature of the story I’m not sure.
As always, my scoring breakdown is below. Thanks for reading!
Score: 6.7- One of my lowest scores which I don’t believe to be truly accurate of the caliber of the work but I try not to alter my scores for the sake of ranking.
Readability: 6- Relatively easy, comparable to the Count of Monte Cristo or the Last of the Mohicans.
Thematic Questions: 7- Countless examples of honor and vengeance throughout with an interesting analysis of the duality of mankind.
Enjoyment: 7- An enjoyable work overall but one that left me wanting a better conclusion.
*One note here, the Three Musketeers is typically a 700-page work. My edition had two columns per page which helped to reduce the page count significantly. I only explain this so that you have a better idea of the true length of this work, it is not short.
