The Three Musketeers

by Alexandre Dumas

“All for one, one for all”! Presenting the action-packed adventure from Alexandre Dumas in a special longer-format CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE. Alexandre Dumas’s novel is one of the most celebrated literary works of the last 200 years, making it a great fit for CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE. Veteran writer and editor Jean David Morvan worked closely with breakout artist Rubén to capture the excitement and action of the story of D’Argatan and the Musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, which took three years to complete. The longer length and depth of this CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED DELUXE volume matches the epic proportions of Dumas’s historic novel.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Classics, Comics, Historical Fiction

Library Binding

Published October 1, 1999

About the author

This 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

Reviews

[Jason Holtzman]

(TW: Sexual Assault Mentioned in Review)

I'm forgoing a rating on this book because I don't quite know how fair mine is. I haven't read the original Three Musketeers!

With that being said, I did read Robin Buss's unabridged translation of the Count of Monte Cristo and absolutely loved it, so I figured I'd enjoy more Dumas.

This was not the case. The story at times was hard to keep track of, through the art was good, so I'm willing to attribute this more to the difficulty of keeping track of French names and titles rather than the pitfalls of the book. There were some funny moments, and good action, but wow these characters just felt flat, and not heroic at all.

I want to be clear in that I have no problem with protagonists and supporting characters with questionable actions and motives (see my love for Monte Cristo), but I left this feeling like the Musketeers were prideful, selfish a**holes that really were just looking out for themselves. I mean, the main character quite literally impersonates someone else so he can have sex with their lover! That is rape!

I closed this book feeling somewhat baffled and really am surprised at its enduring popularity. Perhaps I need to give the text in full a look, as again I don't know if my problem lies squarely with this adaption or just with the overall story itself. This tale lacked the depth of Monte Cristo, and its adventuring plot was not enough to make up for the shallow characters.

[Izzati · Rating 3 out of 5]

In one word: dramatic.

I only bought this because I love the Classics Illustrated series and because of the nostalgic feeling of watching The Man In The Iron Mask as a kid. Although I don't remember anything of the movie now, it's hard to forget names like d'Artagnan and Aramis.

To be honest, I don't really care for historical stories, and the illustration style isn't my preference at all. Although, it does make sense to use this style because of how action-packed the story is and the art style delivers the movements perfectly.

But this graphic novel seems to be good enough to stand on its own. I felt like I was reading the novel itself, it was that detailed. So it's unlikely that I'll be picking up Alexandre Dumas' book in the future.

[Reihane · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is faaaaar different from the experience of reading the actual story if you haven’t read the original one.
If you have, however, it’s like going through the highlights having the plot come back to you as you go through the illustrations which is I think nice.
The story wasn’t as coherent as I expected it to be though but I’d assume it’s not possible to draft something that is committed enough to the original text when you are summarizing it to fit it into this many pages!!!