The Three Musketeers (Musketeers Cycle, 1) Hardcover – February 6, 2018

Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel The Three Musketeers is the most well-known swashbuckling novel in the genre, and with good reason. This well-deserved classic is a lot of fun, and the adventures of d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are very enjoyable. There are a couple of small issues I have with the story, but it's well worth reading.Dumas takes an interesting approach in that our main protagonist, d'Artagnan, is not in fact one of the titular Three Musketeers. Travelling from Gascony to Paris in 1620's France to make his fortune, the young, arrogant, brave, and - fortunately for himself - very capable d'Artagnan ends up friends with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and caught in the web of plots surrounding Cardinal Richelieu, King Louis XIII, and the Queen, Anne of Austria. D'Artagnan and each of the Musketeers are an interesting character in their own right, with Athos serious and brooding, Porthos an amusing but deadly fop, and Aramis constantly flirting with taking up the priesthood. The friendship between the four is also very well written, and it's with good reason that "the three musketeers" is still a byword for an extremely close group of comrades.The Cardinal is the main nemesis and architect of the troubles the four friends find themselves in, but their immediate trouble largely comes from Milady de Winter. Milady perhaps the trickiest, most conniving, slippery, and vindictive character I've come across. Despite all the precautions d'Artagnan, the Musketeers, and the other allied characters take, Milady continues to find a way to cause trouble, leaving the fortunes of men, women, and nations torn asunder in her wake. She's quite the piece of work.I have two small problems with the book. First, for a swashbuckling novel, there are long stretches where there's no action. Instead the characters do a lot of boozing and schmoozing during these parts of the novel. Now, I'm all for character building and these parts are fun, but I was expecting a little more action in the most famous swashbuckling book of all time. There are even several chapters very near the end that focus entirely on Milady's dastardly schemes, and the Musketeers aren't even around. My second issue is that, since the four friends' main rival is a woman and the story is written in 1844 and takes place in the 1620's, the climactic showdown with Milady has no action, and - to keep our heroes from getting their hands dirty - a previously completely unknown character shows up right at that point with his own grudge against Milady and takes a very active roll. That seemed, frankly, like a bit of a cop out.I listened to Blackstone Audio's 2007 production of The Three Musketeers as read by Simon Vance. I'm a huge fan of Vance, and have listened to him narrate other swashbuckling works suck as Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche and Captain Blood. Vance does another excellent job here. He delivers the drama very well, and does a fantastic job of keeping it easy to track who's speaking, which is quite a feat for the large cast in this book. There are the four heroes, their four servants, the Cardinal, Milady, lots of other courtly allies and enemies, and love interests, but as soon as Vance speaks, you know who's involved. He also depicts the action in a very stirring and heart-pumping manner. The man knows how to narrate a duel, without a doubt. This unabridged recording runs approximately 23 hours. My only quibble with the production is that I was unable, either from the packaging, Blackstone's website, or anywhere else, to determine which translation was used in the recording.I recommend The Three Muskeers for anyone looking for a classic adventure tale. It's not perfect, but there is a good reason it's such a well-regarded novel. The characters are a lot of fun, the action is exciting, and the intrigue was excellent. I just wish there was a bit more action. If you're an audio book fan, definitely check out Vance's performance.

All translators must struggle with two competing goals: 1) being faithful to the original author and 2) making the translated text accessible to the reader. In this translation of _The Three Musketeers_, the translator, Richard Pevear, generally gravitates towards the first goal. His vocabulary choices almost always favor the original French usage rather than modern English usage. For example, early in the book, Pevear refers to Milady as Rochefort's "interlocutrix". Now I don't know about you, but I grew up going to California public schools, and if I ever used a word like "interlocutrix", I'd get my face bashed into a locker. My background notwithstanding, I think it's clear what's going on here. The word "interlocutrix" is an uncommon yet legitimate English word with French roots. Pevear has chosen to use the uncommon word in order to remain faithful to Dumas' original French text which presumably used the French cognate for "interlocutrix" whatever that is.I could come up with literally dozens of such examples, and eventually I just started keeping a separate list of obscure words and definitions so I only needed to refer to a short list rather than slog through the dictionary every time I came upon one of those recurring obscure words. By the time I finished the book, I had a five page (12 pt. Times New Roman type, single-spaced) list of obscure words. They range from 17th century French clothing ("tabard", "doublet", "jerkin") to horse-related terminology ("caparison", "sorrel", "croup") to 17th century military terminology ("counterscarp", "revetments", "circumvallation") and many others. In all these cases, I'm convinced that Pevear chose to use the English cognates of original French words rather than more modern English equivalents.In fairness to Pevear, he does provide extensive notes explaining the historical references made by Dumas, which is extremely reader-friendly, and I profited from them greatly. Even in these notes, however, he leaves out some obvious choices such as "Rosinante" and "Circe".In short, if you're an English speaker with no knowledge of French but would like to get a feel for Dumas' prose style and usage, this is the book for you. It is a remarkably faithful translation that really gives you a feel for the nuances of the original text. If you're unfamiliar with the obscure words chosen for the translation but are willing to make repeated trips to the dictionary (or keep a side list as I did), you'll be richly rewarded with keener understanding of life in 17th century France as well as a greater appreciation of Dumas' prose style.For what it's worth, a doublet is close fitting jacket worn by European men in the 16th and 17th centuries; a jerken is a hip-length collarless and sleeveless jacket worn over a doublet, and a tabard is a tunic or cape-like garment emblazoned with a coat of arms. A caparison is an ornamental covering for a horse or for its saddle or harness; a sorrel is a brownish-orange colored horse, and a croup is the rump of a beast of burden, especially a horse. A counterscarp is the outer side of a ditch used in fortifications; revetments is a barricade against explosives, and circumvallation is the act of surrounding with a rampart. Rosinante is the name of Don Quixote's horse, and Circe is the goddess of Greek mythology who turned Odysseus's men temporarily into pigs but later gave him directions for their journey home. And an interlocutrix is simply a woman who is participating in a conversation.I'll close with my favorite quote from the book, spoken by Cardinal Richelieu. He was musing about finding someone to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham, but Milady argued that potential assassins would be afraid to proceed for fear of "torture and death". Le Cardinal replied, "In all times and in all countries, especially if those countries are divided by religion, there will always be fanatics who ask for nothing better than to be made martyrs." It's as true today as it was when Dumas' wrote it more than 160 years ago.

Wow. What a fun book. Definitely fun to listen to the audio book. It’s hilarious and they definitely do not like prostitutes.

This book is a journey, literally. Not only did it take me around Europe, it's also gave me the highs, lows, exhaustion and jubilation that only a journey can produce.I'm glad I've read this, it's taken me almost two months as while some parts were interesting and readable, other parts were an uphill struggle.Talking of struggles, I do find translations of classics pretty hard going. While the actual dialogue came across quite campy and amusing, the narrative was dense and dry.Would i read the rest of this series? No, I've had my fill of Musketeers, reading this one was an achievement and I'm happy to leave things there.Two stars, I feel the only thing that will prove memorable for me with this book is the pain and length of time of reading it.

What can one say that hasn't been said about this superb story! One of the best swashbucklers ever, one of my top 10 favourite books (I rate this writer's Count of Monte Cristo as 2nd best book ever....), and always worth rereads. For sure everyone will have their favourite of the four heroes, and perhaps most go for young hotheaded d'Artagnan just come up from Gascony and desperate to become a musketeer, and his confused passions for dangerous Milady and his landlord's wife Constance, but I always adored Aramis, the second youngest of the four. Handsome, elegant, much loved by women, continually talking of wanting to become a priest yet a doughty, cool-headed and fine fighter, and by far the most mysterious and has influential friends and is the lover of the Queen's confidante, the Duchesse de Chevreuse, which leads to some of the adventures in the book whilst giving only hints of the important mover and shaker he'll become in the later books. Or you may be passionate about mysteriously morose Athos, the oldest of the four, who never seems to show any interest in women and has a "past" he won't talk about. Or perhaps Porthos is your favourite - bombastic, vain, and huge, a great lovable bear of a man based apparently on the writer's own father.

This is the first time I've read the whole book. I started it once as a teenager and didn't finish but always loved the story and watched every adaptation, film, TV and even graphic novel. A great book, beautifully written and es funny as it is exciting

This modern translation has do e wonders for this book. I loved every, jagged, page of this and have since ordered the follow ups by the same translator.

Read this after reading The Count of Monte Christo and it is equally a very good read and also paints a very interesting picture of the times it is set in.