The Three Musketeers (BOOKReview #5)

THE THREE MUSKETEERS!! By: Muhammad Iqbal

Originally written in French as Les Trois Mousquetaires, and written by Alexandre Dumas. The Three Musketeers is set in 17th century France and recounts the tale of d’Artagnan, who left home to go to Paris to join the Musketeers of the Guard. That being said, d’Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title; the honor belongs to his comrades Athos, Aramis and Porthos. The three inseparable friends live and die by the motto “all for one, one for all”. The story starts off to a very sluggish start, taking the span of about 10 chapters to establish the major characters, setting and plot. It does get boring at first, but once the characters and main plot is established, the story drives itself well.

Although the book bears the title “the Three Musketeers”, it did take a while before the aforementioned characters make their presence known and felt throughout this book. My peeves are that it suffers a bit from too much lesser characters making too frequent appearance or mentions, and the exposition, not to mention too little fancy sword-duels despite being a book about swordsman. The setting and the tone of this book, in my opinion, is what makes this a classic. Political themes involving the cardinal, Richelieu , Milady de Winter and the “scandal” involving the Queen, Anne of Austria are the driving force of the story. The book captures the corrupt political agendas and tug-of-war of power and influence of the late 17th century France. These dark themes are well supported by backstories of the Three musketeers. As is the title, the gray past of the musketeers connects the dots and links up the story, making it whole. The dark aspect of the book is balanced well with the vibrant youth of the protagonist d’Artagnan and the colourful personas of the brave Athos, gentle Aramis and the gleeful Porthos. This book was originally in French, but the English adaptation does well to capture the uniqueness of the French language. This book is a tough read to digest since it is mainly in mid-18th century English and the grammatical structures and syntaxes maybe difficult for those who are uninitiated or not used to it. I highly recommend this book for those who are interested in the behind the curtains view of how 17th century government work (not much different from today), swashbuckling action or have a lot of spare time, since it may take a while to finish. ANOTHER GREAT REVIEW FROM A TRUE BOOK LOVER, There's more to come!