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The Three Musketeers
D'Artagnan comes to Paris to join the King's Musketeers and soon, with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, must risk his life in service of the Queen.
Hardcover
First published January 29, 1981
34 people want to read
About the author
Alexandre Dumas
5,838 books12.6k followersThis note regards Alexandre Dumas, père, the father of Alexandre Dumas, fils (son). For the son, see Alexandre Dumas fils.
Alexandre Dumas père, born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was a towering figure of 19th-century French literature whose historical novels and adventure tales earned global renown. Best known for The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and other swashbuckling epics, Dumas crafted stories filled with daring heroes, dramatic twists, and vivid historical backdrops. His works, often serialized and immensely popular with the public, helped shape the modern adventure genre and remain enduring staples of world literature.
Dumas was the son of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a celebrated general in Revolutionary France and the highest-ranking man of African descent in a European army at the time. His father’s early death left the family in poverty, but Dumas’s upbringing was nonetheless marked by strong personal ambition and a deep admiration for his father’s achievements. He moved to Paris as a young man and began his literary career writing for the theatre, quickly rising to prominence in the Romantic movement with successful plays like Henri III et sa cour and Antony.
In the 1840s, Dumas turned increasingly toward prose fiction, particularly serialized novels, which reached vast audiences through French newspapers. His collaboration with Auguste Maquet, a skilled plotter and historian, proved fruitful. While Maquet drafted outlines and conducted research, Dumas infused the narratives with flair, dialogue, and color. The result was a string of literary triumphs, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, both published in 1844. These novels exemplified Dumas’s flair for suspenseful pacing, memorable characters, and grand themes of justice, loyalty, and revenge.
The D’Artagnan Romances—The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne—cemented his fame. They follow the adventures of the titular Gascon hero and his comrades Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, blending historical fact and fiction into richly imagined narratives. The Count of Monte Cristo offered a darker, more introspective tale of betrayal and retribution, with intricate plotting and a deeply philosophical core.
Dumas was also active in journalism and theater. He founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris, which staged dramatizations of his own novels. A prolific and energetic writer, he is estimated to have written or co-written over 100,000 pages of fiction, plays, memoirs, travel books, and essays. He also had a strong interest in food and published a massive culinary encyclopedia, Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, filled with recipes, anecdotes, and reflections on gastronomy.
Despite his enormous success, Dumas was frequently plagued by financial troubles. He led a lavish lifestyle, building the ornate Château de Monte-Cristo near Paris, employing large staffs, and supporting many friends and relatives. His generosity and appetite for life often outpaced his income, leading to mounting debts. Still, his creative drive rarely waned.
Dumas’s mixed-race background was a source of both pride and tension in his life. He was outspoken about his heritage and used his platform to address race and injustice. In his novel Georges, he explored issues of colonialism and identity through a Creole protagonist. Though he encountered racism, he refused to be silenced, famously replying to a racial insult by pointing to his ancestry and achievements with dignity and wit.
Later in life, Dumas continued writing and traveling, spending time in Belgium, Italy, and Russia. He supported nationalist causes, particularly Italian unification, and even founded a newspaper to advocate for Giuseppe Garibaldi. Though his popularity waned somewhat in his final years, his literary legacy grew steadily. He wrote in a style that was accessible, entertaining, and emotionally reso
Alexandre Dumas père, born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was a towering figure of 19th-century French literature whose historical novels and adventure tales earned global renown. Best known for The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and other swashbuckling epics, Dumas crafted stories filled with daring heroes, dramatic twists, and vivid historical backdrops. His works, often serialized and immensely popular with the public, helped shape the modern adventure genre and remain enduring staples of world literature.
Dumas was the son of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, a celebrated general in Revolutionary France and the highest-ranking man of African descent in a European army at the time. His father’s early death left the family in poverty, but Dumas’s upbringing was nonetheless marked by strong personal ambition and a deep admiration for his father’s achievements. He moved to Paris as a young man and began his literary career writing for the theatre, quickly rising to prominence in the Romantic movement with successful plays like Henri III et sa cour and Antony.
In the 1840s, Dumas turned increasingly toward prose fiction, particularly serialized novels, which reached vast audiences through French newspapers. His collaboration with Auguste Maquet, a skilled plotter and historian, proved fruitful. While Maquet drafted outlines and conducted research, Dumas infused the narratives with flair, dialogue, and color. The result was a string of literary triumphs, including The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, both published in 1844. These novels exemplified Dumas’s flair for suspenseful pacing, memorable characters, and grand themes of justice, loyalty, and revenge.
The D’Artagnan Romances—The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte of Bragelonne—cemented his fame. They follow the adventures of the titular Gascon hero and his comrades Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, blending historical fact and fiction into richly imagined narratives. The Count of Monte Cristo offered a darker, more introspective tale of betrayal and retribution, with intricate plotting and a deeply philosophical core.
Dumas was also active in journalism and theater. He founded the Théâtre Historique in Paris, which staged dramatizations of his own novels. A prolific and energetic writer, he is estimated to have written or co-written over 100,000 pages of fiction, plays, memoirs, travel books, and essays. He also had a strong interest in food and published a massive culinary encyclopedia, Le Grand Dictionnaire de cuisine, filled with recipes, anecdotes, and reflections on gastronomy.
Despite his enormous success, Dumas was frequently plagued by financial troubles. He led a lavish lifestyle, building the ornate Château de Monte-Cristo near Paris, employing large staffs, and supporting many friends and relatives. His generosity and appetite for life often outpaced his income, leading to mounting debts. Still, his creative drive rarely waned.
Dumas’s mixed-race background was a source of both pride and tension in his life. He was outspoken about his heritage and used his platform to address race and injustice. In his novel Georges, he explored issues of colonialism and identity through a Creole protagonist. Though he encountered racism, he refused to be silenced, famously replying to a racial insult by pointing to his ancestry and achievements with dignity and wit.
Later in life, Dumas continued writing and traveling, spending time in Belgium, Italy, and Russia. He supported nationalist causes, particularly Italian unification, and even founded a newspaper to advocate for Giuseppe Garibaldi. Though his popularity waned somewhat in his final years, his literary legacy grew steadily. He wrote in a style that was accessible, entertaining, and emotionally reso
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 9, 2025
I have always been a fan of Alexandre Dumas since a youngster so this Ladybird retelling of the three musketeers was a must.
Joan Cameron has done a very good job of retelling it in 52 pages without losing any feeling of the dramatic actions that d'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos and Athos go through in their attempts to outwit Cardinal Richelieu and the seductive spy Milady who are trying to destroy the King Louis XIII.
That action all comes after d'Artagnan's attempt to become a musketeer when he meets, and ultimately befriends Aramis, Porthos and Athos as they fight a company of the Cardinal's guards. The foursome eventually sail to England to sort out a problem that had developed for the Duke of Buckingham and successfully return to France to enable the Queen to get the better of Richelieu.
Thereafter d'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos and Athos were friends forever ... 'All for one and one for all!'
Joan Cameron has done a very good job of retelling it in 52 pages without losing any feeling of the dramatic actions that d'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos and Athos go through in their attempts to outwit Cardinal Richelieu and the seductive spy Milady who are trying to destroy the King Louis XIII.
That action all comes after d'Artagnan's attempt to become a musketeer when he meets, and ultimately befriends Aramis, Porthos and Athos as they fight a company of the Cardinal's guards. The foursome eventually sail to England to sort out a problem that had developed for the Duke of Buckingham and successfully return to France to enable the Queen to get the better of Richelieu.
Thereafter d'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos and Athos were friends forever ... 'All for one and one for all!'
February 21, 2018
(1995 edition with purple cover/spine) Abridging a 626 page classic French tome into barely 50 pages of Ladybird must've taken some doing. Joan Cameron has done this very well indeed and the accompanying watercolour illustrations are rather brilliant, especially the cover one, albeit less frequent than is usual with Ladybird books. Obviously, the story has had to be simplified somewhat and a lot of the French-ness is missing, but even so, I think this would be very enjoyable to proficient readers around the age of 10yrs who aren't already familiar with the films/series. 5/5
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August 10, 20231981
February 25, 2026
I had high hopes for this one seeing that Count of Monte Cristo is one of my all time favorite books and was written by the same author, Alexandre Dumas. However, this one seemed to fall short for me.
I had a hard time keeping interest in it even while reading it. At times I would catch myself reading several paragraphs and suddenly not remember what was happening in the story and have to go back and re-read it. The author spent more time describing emotions or thoughts rather than writing scenes. There could be a whole paragraph describing the reasoning behind a characters action meanwhile the scene itself would play out in a single sentence.
I struggled through this one but will still read another Alexandre Dumas book in the future.
I had a hard time keeping interest in it even while reading it. At times I would catch myself reading several paragraphs and suddenly not remember what was happening in the story and have to go back and re-read it. The author spent more time describing emotions or thoughts rather than writing scenes. There could be a whole paragraph describing the reasoning behind a characters action meanwhile the scene itself would play out in a single sentence.
I struggled through this one but will still read another Alexandre Dumas book in the future.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews