The Three Musketeers!

 

Yall...

It's been a month, sorry. School is hard, life is busy.

Anyway! Here we are, back in business. 

Without further ado I present to you my newest post: THE THREE MUSKETEERS (plus or minus D'Artagnan)

The Three Musketeers written by Alexander Dumas has been, for a few years now, one of my favorite books, and it still is today! Up until this summer I had only read a children's version of this novel, but I finally decided to finally read the actual version.

A Surprising Discovery 

So, to head towards my goal, I went to the library a few months ago and I discovered something that truly blew my mind.

There is more than one book.

I had forever lived up to this point with the thought that there was only ONE book about the three musketeers plus D'Artagnan. But then I discovered that there were TWO more books. After Twenty Years and The Man in the Iron Mask. I have yet to read After Twenty Years but I did get The Man in the Iron Mask. I had heard about the book previously, and I didn't really know what it was about except for a guy being held captive in the Bastille for years.

But then I got into the car and flipped to the back cover and guess what?

It had the word D'Artagnan on it. And that could only mean one thing.

It was a continuation. 

The Man in the Iron Mask wasn't my favorite book, and I probably won't read it again, mostly because it kind of ruined all the characters. 

It turns out that it is about a man who was in prison who comes up with a plan and with the help of Aramis the try to dethrone the king. D'Artagnan is now a captain and tries to clear up the problem. Porthos is drug into the plan by accident. Athos is a miserable guy. Everyone has their share of problems, but the actual guy with the mask is barely in the book so... 

I'm not sure why it's called The Man in the Iron Mask. Maybe it's because helping him ruined all their lives. 

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure why The Three Musketeers is one of my favorites, but it is. 😅

When I got the book from the library, I opened it up to read it and I barely understood what it was saying. The language is very florid, and their speech is complicated. Then finally after a few pages I began to understand what was going on. Thankfully I have read older books before so I'm sort of used to the wording but if I had never read anything like it before I wouldn't know what was going on. EVER. 

Introducing... 

D'artagnan is a young man of about nineteen years of age. He is ambitious, reckless, and dashing to some (he was getting really annoying). He is fast to trust and finds it easy to hold a grudge. He constantly wants revenge for his love(s?) and against those who wronged him such as Rochefort, a forty-year-old man with a scar and an eyepatch. 

His friends include Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Contance, the Queen (I think but idk), and Monsieur de Treville.

His enemies include just about everyone else. 

A Brief Synopsis of The Three Musketeers 

D'artagnan is a young man who wants to be a musketeer. With a letter from his father, he sets off on his journey, his letter is stolen, and an enemy is created. D'artagnan arrives and meets Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. They become best friends and do everything together. Constance appears and causes problems. Milady arrives and causes even more problems. The musketeers race against the clock to save the queen's honor and continue to hate their enemy: the Cardinal. People die and they save the day. 

Literary Characters Beware!

The Three Musketeers has one of the worst (as in evil) literary villains of all time (at least in my opinion): Milady de Winter. She is very, very, very good at doing her job, which happens to be a lot of different things. I won't spoil anything (I slightly kind of already did, but oh well) but she has an interesting past full of deception. She lies, she kills, she steals, and she does everything in between.  

One way or another she manages to trick almost every she comes across in the book. The consequences the characters receive after trusting her can be deadly. Shes like the ultimate assassin spy of the medieval era.

My Personal Favorite

My favorite character is Athos. He is an interesting character. One moment he acts like a gentleman and the next moment he's gone insane and get drunk. He is mostly quiet but has some moments of wisdom. He was known to gain a lot of money just to lose it all in gambling. Athos has a mysterious past, known too virtually no one. He trusts few people and is a person who is trusted by those near him. Athos is a close friend to D'artagnan and looks out for him when he is in trouble. 

Just a Brief Warning

I wouldn't say this book is for everyone. 

To start off it is a bit hard to read and it can take a while to get used to.

Secondly there are some heavier topics that a lot of books written during this time and about similar topics have. To give an example A 'Dartagnan falls in love with a woman who is already married and then falls in love is someone else. It's confusing. There are other things similar to this throughout the book.

The is some language but it isn't a lot.

In Conclusion

GO READ THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!

Or not. It's just a suggestion but you should read it if you really want to. I would recommend it. 

*Photo credit goes to  freestocks on unsplash.com

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