The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas about D’Artagnan’s adventures with three musketeers against Cardinal Richelieu’s guards. The book is based on an autobiography and contains humor, action, and swordplay. The film adaptations are numerous, but the most faithful version is the two-part film directed by Richard Lester in 1973 and 1974.
The Three Musketeers is an 1844 novel, first published in serialized form, written by Alexandre Dumas (the father). It tells the adventures of the young and idealistic character D’Artagnan, a young man from Gascony, who desperately wants to become one of the king’s musketeers. The book is based on an autobiography Memoirs of Mister D’Artagnan, Lieutenant Captain of the 1st Company of the King’s Musketeers, published in 1700. An interesting fact is that Dumas took the book from the Marseille library, and never returned it .
The action of the three musketeers covers a period of three years, from 1625 to 1628, when D’Artagnan enters Paris for the first time and lives during the siege of the Huguenots in La Rochelle. In the early chapters, the young hero meets three musketeers, Porthos, Athos and Aramis, and the four become devoted friends. Musketeers in general are depicted as allies against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, who is always trying to gain power over King Louis XIII. D’Artagnan at first unwittingly gets involved in this power struggle, supporting the king against the cardinal, and then doing various things to save the queen’s lover, the English Duke of Buckingham.
D’Artagnan’s friends are also soon involved in this struggle, helping the young man in his various and dangerous missions. The last of these concerns the attempt to capture Milady, an evil woman in the service of the cardinal, who successfully manages to kill the Duke of Buckingham and who also causes the death of D’artagnan’s lover, Constance. Midway through the book, Milady’s existence first perplexes and then deeply saddens Athos, whose real name is the Comte de la Fere. Milady, it turns out that she is her wife, that she believed he killed her after discovering that she had been branded a prostitute.
Although the plot appears to be just a political plot, the novel’s appeal lies in the intensely funny and sometimes heartwarming scenes depicted by Dumas. There are moments of great humor, as well as remarkable action and swordplay, which together with the plot have transformed the novel into one of the most beloved of all time. Although written in French, there are numerous English translations, and it is difficult to count the number of film versions, including a musical, of The Three Musketeers. Although the book contains some references to the sexual adventures of D’Artagnan and his friends, these are treated with great delicacy and many children of about 10 years of age or older adore the book, especially if they are early readers.
Despite the many great elements of The Three Musketeers, Dumas was by and large not a careful writer. In particular, he makes d’Artagnan a musketeer twice. This can be attributed to the speed with which Dumas wrote, the serial form in which The Three Musketeers was published, or the fact that Dumas regularly employed ghostwriters. In fact, the latter fact remains highly controversial regarding the authorship of the novel. Many believe that Dumas wrote only or at least this book. Later sequels to the novel may have been ghostwritten.
As for the film versions of The Three Musketeers, to date, the most faithful to the book have divided the film into two parts released in 1973 and 1974, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, and were directed by Richard Lester. The two films are much more comprehensive in covering the material than the book and the cast is top notch. Michael York plays D’Artagnan and other cast members include Faye Dunaway as Milady, Richard Chamberlain as Aramis, Oliver Reed as Porthos, Charlton Heston as the scheming Cardinal and Raquel Welch as Constance. These two films have stood the test of time well and while some may like other adaptations better, if you’re a particular fan of the book, this is probably the best version to see.
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