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The Three Musketeers, Vol. I by Alexandre Dumas, Fiction, Classics, Historical, Action & Adventure
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The Three Musketeers, Vol. I by Alexandre Dumas, Fiction, Classics, Historical, Action & Adventure
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Overview
In March 1844 the French magazine Le Siecle, printed the first installment of a story by Alexandre Dumas. It was based, Dumas claimed, on some manuscripts he had found a year earlier in the Bibliotheque Nationale while researching a history he planned to write on Louis XIV. The serial chronicled the adventures of D'Artagnan -- a young swordsman intent on joining the king's musketeers. Young D'Artagnan becomes embroiled in court intrigues, international politics, and ill-fated affairs between royal lovers. This volume of the serial -- The Three Musketeers is set in the year 1625. D'Artagnan arrives in Paris at the tender age of 18 and that very day gives offense to three musketeers -- Porthos, Aramis, and Athos. Duels are agreed -- but interrupted by five of the Cardinal's guards. Instead of dueling, the four are attacked. D'Artagnan acquits himself impressively: his youthful courage becomes apparent during the battle. The four become friends, and, when asked by D'Artagnan's landlord to find his missing wife, embark upon an adventure that takes them across both France and England in order to thwart the plans of the Cardinal Richelieu. Along the way, they encounter a beautiful young spy, whom they know at first only as Milady, who will stop at nothing to disgrace Queen Anne of Austria before her husband, Louis XIII, and take revenge upon the musketeers. (Volume I of II.)
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781592248629 |
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Publisher: | Borgo Press |
Publication date: | 11/01/2002 |
Pages: | 336 |
Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.91(d) |
About the Author
![About The Author](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
Read an Excerpt
The three gifts of monsieur d'artagnan the elder
On the first Monday of April, 1625, the market town of Meting, birthplace of the author of the Roman de Ia Rose, seemed to be in as great a turmoil as if the Huguenots had come to turn it into a second La Rochelle. A number of townsmen, seeing women running in the direction of the main street and hearing children shouting on doorsteps, hastened to put on their breastplates and, steadying their rather uncertain self-assurance with a musket or a halberd, made their way toward the inn, the Hotellerie du Franc Meunier, in front of which a noisy, dense, and curious throng was growing larger by the minute.
Panics were frequent in those times, and few days went by when an event of this kind was not recorded in the archives of one town or another. Noblemen fought among themselves; the king was at war with the cardinal; the Spanish were at war with the king. And then, besides all this secret or open warfare, there were robbers, beggars, Huguenots, wolves, and lackeys, who were at war with everyone. The townsmen always took up arms against robbers, wolves, and lackeys, often against noblemen and Huguenots, sometimes against the king, but never against the cardinal or the Spanish. It was because of these habits that the townsmen, on that first Monday of April, 1625, bearing a commotion and seeing neither a red and yellow Spanish flag nor the livery of Cardinal Richelieu, hurried toward the Franc Meunier inn.
When they arrived there, they were able to see the cause of the tumult.
A young man ... Let us sketch a rapid portrait of him. Imagine Don Quixote at eighteen, a Don Quixotewithout chain mail or thigh pieces, wearing a woolen doublet whose original blue had been transformed into an elusive shade between purple and azure. He had a long, dark face with prominent cheekbones, a mark of shrewdness; his jaw muscles were heavily developed, an infallible sign by which one can recognize a Gascon, even without a beret, and our young man wore a beret adorned with some sort of feather. His eyes were frank and intelligent; his nose was hooked, but finely drawn; he was too big for an adolescent and too small for a full-grown man. An untrained eye might have taken him for a farmer's son on a journey if it had not been for the sword that bung from a shoulder belt, slapping against his calves when he walked, and against his shaggy horse when he rode.
For the young man had a mount, one that could not fail to attract attention: a small Bearn horse twelve to fourteen years old, with a yellowish coat, an almost hairless tail and sores on his legs. He walked with his head lower than his knees, which made a martingale unnecessary, but he could still do twenty miles a day. Unfortunately his good qualities were hidden by his strange color and his outlandish gait. He had come into Meting a quarter of an hour earlier through the Beaugency gate, and since in those days everyone was a practiced judge of horses, his appearance had caused a sensation that cast disfavor on his rider.
This was all the more painful to young d'Artagnan (such was the name of the Don Quixote astride that other Rosinante) because he was well aware of how ridiculous his horse made him seem, even though he was an excellent rider. That was why he had sighed when he had accepted the horse as a gift from his father. He knew that such an animal was worth at least twenty livres; the words that had accompanied the gift, however, were priceless.
"My son," the Gascon nobleman had said in the Bearn accent that Henry IV never succeeded in losing, "this horse was born on my estate nearly thirteen years ago and has never left it. That should be enough to make you love him. Never sell him, let him die peacefully and honorably of old age, and if you go to war with him, treat him with consideration, as you would treat an old servant. At court, if you have the honor to go there, an honor to which our ancient nobility entitles you, be worthy of your noble name, worthily borne by your ancestors for over five hundred years. For yourself, your relatives, and your friends, never tolerate the slightest affront from anyone except the cardinal or the king. Remember this: it's by courage, and courage alone, that a nobleman makes his way nowadays. Anyone who trembles for even one second may lose the chance that fortune offered him precisely at that second. You're young, and you must be brave for two reasons: first, you're a Gascon; and second, you're my son. Don't be afraid of opportunities, and seek out adventures. I've taught you to use a sword. You have iron legs and a steel wrist. Fight duels at the drop of a hat, especially since duels are forbidden: that means it takes twice as much courage to fight one.
"My son, all I have to give you is fifteen ecus, my horse, and the advice You've just heard. Your mother will give you the recipe for an ointment that a Gypsy woman taught her how to make: it miraculously heals any wound that doesn't reach the heart. Make the most of all these gifts, and have a long, happy life.
"I have only one more thing to add: an example for you to follow. It's not MY own, because I've never appeared at court and I've fought only in the wars of religion as a volunteer. I'm speaking of Monsieur de Treville, who used to be my neighbor and had the honor of playing with our King Louis XIIImay God preserve him!when they were both children. Sometimes their games turned into fights, and the king didn't always win them. The drubbings be got from Monsieur de Treville made him feel great respect and . . .
Table of Contents
Introduction | XV | |
Author's Preface: Wherein It Is Proved That Despite Their Names Ending in -os and -is, the Heroes of the Story We are About to Relate Have Nothing Mythological About Them | xix | |
I | The Three Gifts of Monsieur d'Artagnan the Elder | 3 |
II | The Antechamber of Monsieur de Treville | 16 |
III | The Audience | 26 |
IV | Of Athos and His Shoulder, of Porthos and His Baldric, and of Aramis and His Handkerchief | 36 |
V | His Majesty's Musketeers and the Cardinal's Guards | 43 |
VI | His Majesty King Louis XIII | 53 |
VII | Home Life of the Musketeers | 69 |
VIII | Concerning a Court Intrigue | 76 |
IX | D'Artagnan to the Fore | 84 |
X | Concerning a Mousetrap in the Seventeenth Century | 91 |
XI | In Which the Plot Thickens | 100 |
XII | George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham | 115 |
XIII | Of Monsieur Bonacieux | 122 |
XIV | The Man of Meung | 129 |
XV | Men of Law and Men of the Sword | 138 |
XVI | Wherein Monsieur Pierre Seguier, Chancellor of France and Keeper of the Seals, Looks More Than Once for a Bell to Ring as Lustily as He Was Wont to Do of Yore | 145 |
XVII | Of Monsieur Bonacieux and His Lady | 156 |
XVIII | Lover and Husband | 167 |
XIX | Plan of Campaign | 173 |
XX | The Journey | 181 |
XXI | Lady Clark | 191 |
XXII | In Which Their Majesties Dance La Merlaison, a Favorite Ballet of the King's | 199 |
XXIII | The Rendezvous | 206 |
XXIV | The Lodge | 216 |
XXV | Of What Happened to Porthos | 225 |
XXVI | Of Aramis and His Thesis | 243 |
XXVII | Of Athos and His Wife | 259 |
XXVIII | The Return | 278 |
XXIX | Of the Hunt for Campaign Outfits | 292 |
XXX | Milady | 300 |
XXXI | Englishmen and Frenchmen | 307 |
XXXII | A Dinner at the House of an Attorney-at-Law | 313 |
XXXIII | The Soubrette and Her Mistress | 321 |
XXXIV | Concerning the Respective Outfits of Aramis and Porthos | 331 |
XXXV | At Night All Cats Are Gray | 338 |
XXXVI | Dreams of Vengeance | 345 |
XXXVII | Of Milady's Secret | 352 |
XXXVIII | How Athos Without Lifting a Finger Procured His Equipment for the Campaign | 358 |
XXXIX | A Vision | 366 |
XL | Wherein D'Artagnan Meets His Eminence and Milady Speeds Him Off to War | 374 |
XLI | The Siege of La Rochelle | 381 |
XLII | Of Anjou Wine and Its Salubrious Virtues | 392 |
XLIII | At the Sign of the Red Dovecote | 399 |
XLIV | Of the Utility of Stovepipes | 406 |
XLV | Husband and Wife | 413 |
XLVI | The Bastion Saint-Gervais | 418 |
XLVII | The Council of the Musketeers | 424 |
XLVIII | A Family Affair | 440 |
XLIX | Fatality | 453 |
L | Of an Intimate Conversation Between Brother and Sister | 460 |
LI | Of an Officer Out on a Stroll | 466 |
LII | Captivity: The First Day | 475 |
LIII | Captivity: The Second Day | 481 |
LIV | Captivity: The Third Day | 487 |
LV | Captivity: The Fourth Day | 495 |
LVI | Captivity: The Fifth Day | 502 |
LVII | How Milady Employed the Technique of Classical Tragedy to Prepare a Modern One | 515 |
LVIII | Escape | 521 |
LIX | Of What Occurred at Portsmouth on August 23, 1628 | 528 |
LX | Of What Was Happening in France | 538 |
LXI | Of What Occurred at the Convent of the Carmelite Nuns in Bethune | 543 |
LXII | Of Two Varieties of Demons | 555 |
LXIII | Of Wine and Water | 561 |
LXIV | The Man in the Red Cloak | 573 |
LXV | Day of Judgment | 577 |
LXVI | Of How Judgment Was Accomplished | 585 |
LXVII | Of the Cardinal, His Agent and a Lieutenant's Commission | 589 |
LXVIII | Epilogue | 597 |
Reading Group Guide
1. Discuss Dumas's use of historical events in the novel. Do you think a knowledge of history is necessary or unnecessary in order to enjoy the novel? Discuss the ways in which Dumas alters or takes liberties with real events in order to suit the story. Is his view of history sanitized in any way?
2. Dumas is thought of as the chief popularizer of French Romantic drama. In considering The Three Musketeers, do you think this reputation is an accurate one? How does Dumas use dramatic effect in the novel?
3. Contemporary critics were offended by the scenes depicting vice and violence in the novel. Do you find these scenes arbitrary or not?
4. Many critics have described the musketeers as well-developed stereotypes, but are there ways in which the musketeers transcend these stereotypes? Are there other, perhaps more complex ways of interpreting the four protagonists?
5. Discuss Dumas's female characters, in particular Milady. What is her role in the novel, and what does this reveal about Dumas's views of women, if anything? Does Dumas depict a war between the sexes?
6. How do the chapter endings contribute to Dumas's masterly maintenance of pace? How does this kind of device recall a play, and how does this speak to Dumas's strengths stylistically?
7. In what ways is The Three Musketeers a bildungsroman? Would you characterize the work as a youthful novel?