The Three Musketeers in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Feb 16, 2014 Darren rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lost-in-translation, swashed-buckles-shivered-timbers

This is another one I both read and attempted to translate from the original language. Failed in this case. The manuscript is too long and my French insufficient. I always enjoy the exercise, though. Comparing the sentence you would write with the one you see written in someone else's hand. The shape of the paragraphs. Translation is a callously underrated art. ...more

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Sep 30, 2021 J.W. Wright rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-adventure, owned

As the Wars of Religion rage across 17th Century Europe, the young Gaskin Frenchman D’Artagnan has great ambition to enlist in King Louis XIII’s royal musketeers. But a mysterious, shadowy figure disrupts his plans, who is part of a much larger plot to deliver France into diabolical hands….

Growing up, one of my favorite films was the Disney adaptation of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, starring Oliver Platt, Kieffer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Chris O’Donnell, and Tim Curry. I enjoyed the adventur As the Wars of Religion rage across 17th Century Europe, the young Gaskin Frenchman D’Artagnan has great ambition to enlist in King Louis XIII’s royal musketeers. But a mysterious, shadowy figure disrupts his plans, who is part of a much larger plot to deliver France into diabolical hands….

Growing up, one of my favorite films was the Disney adaptation of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, starring Oliver Platt, Kieffer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Chris O’Donnell, and Tim Curry. I enjoyed the adventure and swashbuckling of the whole film. Recently, I decided to read the classic novel the adaptation was based on, only to find that the adaptation had almost nothing to do with the original novel.
Now for centuries, Dumas’ Musketeers has been lauded as the historical swashbuckler by which all other swashbucklers should be judged. But to tell you honestly, this work isn’t much of a swashbuckler. Yes, there are some action scenes/duels here and there, but the Disney adaptation gets it completely wrong that this story is a rip-roaring, action-packed swashbuckler, as do many other adaptations that have been made of it through the years.
In fact, I found this work to probably be the most plodding, notoriously tedious piece of literature I have actually read all the way through. Yes, interesting characters abound, such as the eponymous three musketeers of the title, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, the brash D’Artagnan, the scheming and nefarious Cardinal Richelieu, the viciously evil Milady Dewinter, among many others. The religious and political intrigue is engaging, as is the historical setting and backstory, but for the love of God, Dumas is so obsessed and concerned with the mannerisms and details of everyday life in 17th Century France that his fetish for such minutiae makes J.R.R. Tolkien look like the most accessible of pulp authors. Don’t even get me started on all the needless, mind-numbing attention that is paid to the lackeys of the Musketeers, my God! Have those guys ever been portrayed in any of the adaptations that have been made over the years?
I kept at it to the end because I was hoping for a dynamite ending; something that would make me want to continue with the D’Artagnan Romances in which The Three Musketeers is only the first episode, but alas, it fell flatter than a pancake. And honestly, I’m not surprised, seeing as how I absolutely loathed trying to read Dumas’ other work, The Count of Monte Christo years ago and could not make it through the torturous, convoluted passages. Suffice it to say, I despise Dumas’ prose with a passion, and when I want historical swashbucklers from now on, I’ll stick to the likes of Robert E. Howard, Rafael Sabatini, and those that have been inspired by them. Dumas is about as entertaining as watching paint dry.
I give The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas a 2 out of 5. ...more

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