Introduction

(A major new translation of one of the most enduring works of literature from the award- winning, bestselling translator of Anna Karenina

First published in 1844, The Three Musketeers is the most famous of Alexandre Dumas's historical novels and one of the most popular adventure novels ever written. Dumas's swashbuckling epic chronicles the adventures of d'Artagnan, a brash young man from the countryside who journeys to Paris in 1625 hoping to become a musketeer and guard to King Louis XIII. Before long, he finds treachery and court intrigue—and also three boon companions, the daring swordsmen Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Together the four strive heroically to defend the honor of their queen against the powerful Cardinal Richelieu and the seductive spy Milady.

Richard Pevear, part of the husband/wife team responsible for award-winning translations of classic Russian literature, provides a flavorful and faithful rendition that conveys all of the wit, romance, and rollicking pace of the original French. Pevear also includes an edifying introduction to Dumas, his world, and his take on history, as well as explanatory notes, making this the edition par excellence for a new generation of readers.

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Excerpt

I start by devising a story. I try to make it romantic, moving, dramatic, and when scope has been found for the emotions and the imagination, I search through the annals of the past to find a frame in which to set it; and it has never happened that history has failed to provide this frame, so exactly adjusted to the subject that it seemed it was not a case of the frame being made for the picture, but that the picture had been made to fit the frame. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

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?

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