Aug 11, 2003 09:29 PM
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(Updated Aug 11, 2003 09:37 PM)
My tryst with Dumas began on a rainy afternoon at my my grandfathers place when I was told to empty his dustladen shelfload of books, as we were in the process of shifting.All it took was one look at the cover and I was captivated ,it showed four soldiers in full battle gear with their swords doing a high five with the background showing a castle.
The story is set in France circa 1400's ,the age of wine ,women and naked opulence and pageantry. Although it involves four musketeers ,the end leads to one joining the king's guard .The main characters of the story are Athos,Porthos and Aramis (the three 'main' musketeers) who are joined by a fourth swordsman ,the young and swashbuckling D'artagnan(pronounced dartanian).The story is an amalgamation of 3-4 stories each involving the musketeers own lives which are totally correlated with France's history.The racy romance,the swordfights,the dirty politics of the rulers and their ministers ,the sudden twists in the plot all account for the fact that the book was meant to be simply superb.
Although a little knowledge of French came in handy for me, it does in no way rob the book of its sheen.This book is recommended for all the persons who have a particular taste of adventure of the non-'enid blyton' kind .The unabridged version (in english) is the best , as the abridged version involves sudden chinks in the storyline. Reading the book literally transported me to historical France and the descriptions of Paris(Pronounced pahree) are enough to make you wonder.
Of course,the grand finale(pronounced gron finaley) is provided for in the second book of the three musketeers series 'The Man in the iron mask' which is as intriguing and as racy as the first and involves the main characters all over again.That will be , of course , a different review at a different time.
Merci Beaucoup!(Thank 's a lot!)
