Three Musketeers

Three Musketeers

Original title: Les trois mousquetaires

Author Name: Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (Alexandre Dumas Father)

ISBN: 1681776146

Original Language: French

Genre: Cloak and sword novel

Year of reading: 2017

Additional Information:

Personally, I think it's very wrong that they do not report that this book is part of a trilogy called D'Artagnan's novels and that the third book, The Viscount of Bragelonne, is divided into 3 different volumes with the name The Viscount of Bragelonne, Louise de La Valliere and the Man in the Iron Mask. Giving to understand that they are different books, when in fact they are only one The viscount of Bragelonne.

One thing that fascinates me is the fact that according to Dumas, he has been inspired by the book he found in the public library Marseille, which has proved in his records. The book in question is "Mémoires de Monsieur d'Artagnan, Capitaine lieutenant of the première Compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi". Written by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras who is a former musketeer who finished his days as an essayist he recounted the memories of a real character with the name Charles de Batz-Castelmore, count of Artagnan.

Even though they are historical novels Dumas took some chronological liberties.

Summary of the work:

The book is going to introduce each of the characters gradually and the first is the protagonist D'Artagnan, tells us his journey from his homeland in Gascony, to Paris to join the company of Musketeers of the King. D'Artagnan, he spends a night in the town of Meung, where he has his first duel with a character whose identity is not reported, in the D'Artagnan duel, he is unconscious when he recovers, he realizes that this character he has stolen the letter of introduction from his father, Lord de Tréville, who is the Captain of the company of Musketeers and an old friend of arms of his father.

Summary of the work:

The book is going to introduce each of the characters gradually and the first is the protagonist D'Artagnan, tells us his journey from his homeland in Gascony, to Paris to join the company of Musketeers of the King. D'Artagnan, he spends a night in the town of Meung, where he has his first duel with a character whose identity is not reported, in the D'Artagnan duel, he is unconscious when he recovers, he realizes that this character he has stolen the letter of introduction from his father, Lord de Tréville, who is the Captain of the company of Musketeers and an old friend of arms of his father.

When he arrives in Paris his first objective is to meet with the captain of Tréville, to interview for the position of a real musketeer, already in the barracks he can see the musketeers training and he is surprised to see that they do it in an aggressive way and with real swords. Tréville receives him cold and distant but gives him the time to tell him what happened in Meung.

On his first day in Paris, D'Artagnan has been ruled to have 3 duels to death and all in the same place, when he arrives to face his duels is where we are introduced to Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, which are three Famous musketeers.

When he was going to start the duel they are interrupted by the Cardinal's Guards, who are going to arrest them because they are breaking the law that prohibits duels. This all he does is that the Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan meet to find the Cardinals Guards being these defeated by the new inseparable friends. This victory grants the blessing of Captain Tréville and the permission of King Louis XIII to enter as a cadet of a regiment of the Royal Guard, under the command of Mr. des Essarts.

Our protagonist finds an accommodation and takes Planchet, as a servant. It happens that the wife of the owner of the house is Constance Bonacieux, of whom D'Artagnan, falls in love and helps him in a secret mission to save Queen Anne of Austria, from an intrigue that Cardinal Richelieu, has formulated with the intention of revealing the relationship that the Queen has with the Duke of Buckingham. The adventure unfolds after Mr. Bonacieux, convinced by Cardinal Richelieu, that he refuses to help Constance and also betrays her to the Count of Rochefort. D'Artagnan and his friends decide to take on the mission. The four friends left with their lackeys and after a series of adventures and of remaining Porthos, Aramis and Athos out of combat and injured by the road in ambushes of the cardinal's agents, D'Artagnan manages to reach England. When Buckingham noticed that he had stolen two of the twelve, and having the certainty that it was the work of the Countess de Winter, he closed the English ports to prevent the stolen aglet from reaching the cardinal and ordered his jeweler to make two replicas of the missing ones. , and delivers them to D'Artagnan along with the originals, who leaves for France and manages to return them to Queen Anne, just in time to save their honor and to the cardinal's shame, which is brought to the fore before the King.

While they prepare the acquisition of the equipment they will need in the La Rochelle site campaign, D'Artagnan resumes relations with Lord de Winter, who introduces him to his sister-in-law, Milady de Winter. D'Artagnan quickly falls in love with the beautiful noble, but soon learns that she does not love him, being, in fact, an agent of the cardinal. With the help of a maid named Ketty (whom he has previously seduced), he manages to spend a night with Milady, posing in the dark for his mistress, the Count of Wardes. But shortly after and having had sex with her (this time without disguises), D'Artagnan learns of a terrible secret: Milady has a fleur-de-lis engraved on fire on her shoulder, marking her as a delinquent. Milady reacts trying to kill D'Artagnan, who manages to escape from his home and goes to Athos, where he tells him that Milady has a fleur-de-lis on her shoulder, so the musketeer is certain that it is the same woman which he had allegedly killed years before. D'Artagnan is relieved when all the king's guards are sent to La Rochelle, where the siege of the Protestant city is taking place.

After a warlike feat, the cardinal allows D'Artagnan to finally enter the Musketeers. Due to the war between France and England, any attempt on the part of the Musketeers to warn the Duke of Buckingham about Milady would be considered a crime of treason, but they are able to send Planchet with a letter to Milady's brother-in-law (Lord Winter ), who for his part has always suspected that Milady killed his brother.

Milady is imprisoned by Lord Winter upon learning of her past and plans for Buckingham upon her arrival in England. But soon he seduces his puritanical jailer John Felton and convinces him, not only to help her escape but also to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham, whom he hates for many years. While the ingenuous Felton assassinates with a knife the prime minister in Portsmouth, Milady manages to embark for France. After informing the cardinal of what happened, he hides in the monastery of Béthune, in northern France. To his surprise, he finds Constance there, which had been sent by the Queen. Pretending to be a friend of Constance, Milady finds out that her enemy D'Artagnan will arrive at the monastery at any moment to rescue her. He manages to escape just before the arrival of the four musketeers, but not before taking his revenge: to poison Constance, who dies minutes later in the arms of his beloved D'Artagnan.

At that moment Lord de Winter appears, and all together decide to find Milady and judge her. The expedition is in charge of Athos, who reveals Lord de Winter who is the husband of Milady, composing the expedition of the four musketeers, his four lackeys, Lord de Winter and a mysterious masked man, with a red cloak. After finding Milady, they organize a mock trial against her in which they accuse her of the poisoning of Madame Bonacieux; the attempts to assassinate D'Artagnan; the instigation and complicity in the murder of the Duke of Buckingham (of which they are informed at that time by Lord de Winter); the corruption, betrayal and subsequent death of Felton, the servant of Lord de Winter; the murder of her late husband, Lord de Winter (Count, elder brother of the Baron). The final charge comes when Athos claims that Milady, his wife, is a criminal marked with a fleur-de-lis on his shoulder. When the Countess demands that Athos present the executioner who marked her, the man in the red cloak advances and discovers himself. She immediately recognizes him as the executioner of Lille, which narrates the first misdeeds of Milady that led to his brand, after seducing and corrupting a priest, his brother, who later hanged himself for remorse when Milady left him for the Count of the Fère (Athos). After being condemned to death by the improvised judges, Porthos and Aramis are executed (decapitated by the sword) on the other side of the Lys, outside the territory of France (in modern Belgium).

After the execution of Milady, the four musketeers return to La Rochelle. On the way, they meet the Count de Rochefort, the chief agent of the cardinal and old nemesis of D'Artagnan, who traveled to Armentieres to meet Milady. Rochefort also has an order to arrest D'Artagnan for high treason and espionage. When the Gascon appears before Richelieu, he tells him the whole truth about Milady and admits that he and his friends have already judged, condemned and executed that wicked woman. He then introduces Richelieu to the paper with total forgiveness written by the cardinal's own hand, which Athos had given him weeks before taking it from Milady. Richelieu, impressed by the wit of D'Artagnan and since he has got what he wanted from Milady, offers the young musketeer an office as a lieutenant of musketeers, with the name blank. The cardinal enters Rochefort and asks the men to be on good terms and to become friends.

The book ends with D'Artagnan offering the lieutenant's office to each of his friends, but none accepts and Athos writes D'Artagnan's name on him. Athos will continue being Musketeer, to the orders of D'Artagnan, until it enters possession of an inheritance and retires to its properties. Porthos has decided to marry Madame Coquenard, the widow of a rich procurator, and leaves the service and Aramis fulfills his dream of becoming a priest, so he also leaves the service and enters a monastery.

D'Artagnan beat three times with Rochefort, wounding the three, but after that and tell him that he will surely kill the fourth, they definitely make peace and embrace each other with all their heart and forever.

Their lives, however, will cross one more time, in Twenty years later.

Main characters:

    D'Artagnan (not one of the "Three Musketeers", the novel is based on how a musketeer is made)

    Athos (Count of La Fère)

    Porthos

    Aramis

    Planchet (servant of D'Artagnan)

    Grimaud (servant of Athos)

    Carabiner (servant of Porthos)

    Bazin (servant of Aramis)

    Milady de Winter. She has been the wife of Athos under another name.

    Cardinal Richelieu: Prime minister of France, antagonist of D'Artagnan, who, nevertheless, ends up surrendering before the talent of this one.

    Queen Anne of Austria

    King Louis XIII of France

    George Villiers, I Duke of Buckingham: English Prime Minister and lover of Queen Anne of Austria.

    Lord of Tréville: Captain of the Musketeers.

    Count of Rochefort: Agent of Cardinal Richelieu, D'Artagnan will seek revenge on him throughout the novel.

    Constance Bonacieux: Wife of D'Artagnan's landlord, who will fall in love with her.

    Mr. Bonacieux: Homemaker of D'Artagnan, whom Richelieu turns into his spy.

    Lord de Winter, Baron of Sheffield, is the brother-in-law of Milady de Winter and suspects that she ordered the murder of her husband.

    Ketty: Maid of Milady, D'Artagnan seduces her to get to her.

    John Felton: assassin of the Duke of Buckingham, although the events that in the novel lead to it, are pure invention of the novelist.

    Executioner of Lille.