The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Original Title:  Les Trois Mousquetaires

Year Published: 2014 (my copy), first published in 1844.

Published by: BBC books.

Number of Pages: 698 (not including additional notes)

First sentence: "On the first monday in the month of April 1625, the little market town of Meung, birthplace of the author of The Romance of the Rose, appeared to be in the throes of as full-blown a revolution as if the Huguenots had come to make it a second La Rochelle."

Goodreads rating: 5/5

Plot:

The young Gascon d'Artagnan and the legendary musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis are ready to sacrifice everything for love, glory and the common good. The wicked machinations of Cardinal Richeieu and his accomplice, the magnetic Milady de Winter, propel the devoted friends across seas and battlefields from masked balls to a remote convent, in order to defend the honour of the Queen and the life of Constance Bonacieux, d'Artagnan's true love.

My thoughts:

I figured early this summer that it was about time that I actually read this book and since it was really cheap I bought it and started reading it. It didn't go to well at first. I have to be honest and say it wasn't the books fault, but I gave up nonetheless. About two weeks ago I picked it back up and dove right back into it. I am so glad I did. I never thought that I would love this books as much as I do. I've always loved the story of  the Three Musketeers but for some reason I didn't think I'd like the book. Possibly because it was written so many years ago.

However, the story is really great. There is so much more to the Three Musketeers than what is mentioned in the films, and they of course have a lot more depth in the book. I always thought that d'Artagnan was a reckless hothead, when he in the book is described as such, but also as loyal, clever, generous, and an overall gentleman. Things that are overshadowed by his youth in the films but are highlighted by his youth in the book. Even the bad guys, the Cardinal and Rochefort, have more layers in the book, layers that are actually quite important. Milady de Winter is more evil than you might think. It's not just the characters that have more depth, the actual story has more depth as well. The films usually focus on the retrieval of the diamond tags given from the Queen to the Duke of Buckingham. That is just one short story in the book, not the main plot. 

Some parts however were quite dreary. I really dislike Milady de Winter and there are some chapters in the book that are dedicated to only her and they were a little hard to get through, mostly because I wasn't interested. The few parts describing ordinary life were also slow but still managed to be interesting.

Do I recommend it?

Yes I really do. It was really interesting and captivating.