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MarkTaiwan
, March 17, 2012
On a plane ride while I had the book in my hand, a gentlemen banker had commented how I was reading a children's book. Knowing Disney and other film studios popularize the musketeers in often a comical sense, I took the comment with a grain of salt - also considering that he carried himself as a goldman sachs banker. We must have forgiveness.....
To read The Three Musketeers as purely an adventure model is missing a point - while not historically accurate (and not pretending to be) it gives the modern day reader some what of a starting point in learning the days of the Kings and Cardinals in French history, the societies, and the historical battles and famous characters. The book will lead you to research further into French history (something I didn't study and wasnt much interested at first) and look up Richeliu (whose name is on our post offices) and Louis XIV... etc.
The Adventures are, of course, a big part of it. The first journey of D'Artagnon brings you the most creative beginning of how friendship can be made in the most inconceivable way. Each of the Musketeers are in 3D, each with its own strength, weakness, history, and skills. The combination of their characteristics makes for subsequent campaigns and missions exciting and unpredictable.
To appreciate The Three Musketeer in its full glory, I suggest the readers to march onto at least 2 more Musketeer books - 20 Years Later, and 10 Years After. After you finish at least the 3 books, take a look back to the first volume - The Three Musketeers - you see the author sets perfectly the beginning of friendship, the daring adventures, the heroics, the principles, the romance - all in a very "Young" setting. And the characters then mature through more complicated circumstance invovling their own ambitions, family, romance, and the lives as shaped by the struggles between the kings and the cardinals. Through the three books, you will see values not seen in modern days (for good or for worse), heartbreaking romances (viscount de bragellone), acceptance of circumstances (the man in the iron mask), and most of all, a renewed respect and rememberance of the best of your own friendships. To this day, I have trouble going through some of the chapters as Dumas masterfully portraits impending heart breaks and the very human end to the make-believe hero Musketeers.
I have 3 different editions, but read 2 only. The 3rd being a picture version. Penguin class is good for all 3 Musketeer books (for the other musketeer books, you will need to search on rare books sites). Penguin is also very good for the un-abridged edition of The Count of Monte Christo - though the prints are quite small in that 1000+ page paperback.
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