The Three Musketeers in Pick-a-Shelf

Dec 23, 2009 Gaijinmama rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics

It has taken me weeks to post this! Meanwhile, I've been grumbling about this book in my groups. I finished it, and didn't hate it, but it bothered me. In fact I nearly chucked it across the room a few times, but as a rule I do not finish books that I don't believe are worth my time. This one was. My rating is sort of an average between a 5 for the book's literary merit and just barely a 2 for my enjoyment (or lack thereof).

First the good stuff: it's a classic and deservedly so. I'm glad to say ...more

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Jan 05, 2014 Rebekah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rating-4, e-book, genre-classics, genre-classics-classic-literatu, genre-historical-fiction, genre-literature, genre-adventure, genre-novels, genre-literature-19th-century, genre-romance

I'm trying to put together a coherent review.

First of all, the thing that struck me the most reading this book is how wildly different it was than my preconceived notions about it. I guess through primarily pop culture references, I viewed this book as a harmless heroic action story. It is definitely more than that, and NOT that.

The Musketeers are vivid and interesting. At the beginning they seem like 17th-century French "Bros." Hard drinking, womanizing, arrogant, picking fights for no reason, I'm trying to put together a coherent review.

First of all, the thing that struck me the most reading this book is how wildly different it was than my preconceived notions about it. I guess through primarily pop culture references, I viewed this book as a harmless heroic action story. It is definitely more than that, and NOT that.

The Musketeers are vivid and interesting. At the beginning they seem like 17th-century French "Bros." Hard drinking, womanizing, arrogant, picking fights for no reason, immature, money hungry, Bros in this frat called the King's Musketeers. Dumas writes them so elegantly and vividly that I began to view them as satirical characters, and had many laugh out loud moments. I was beginning to think this was a social satire of the French aristocracy and the French wannabes.

The plot moves quickly and is entertaining but did have that "to be continued..." moment at the end of almost every chapter, which made me wonder if Dumas was writing this in a serial like Dickens or getting paid by the word.

Then things start to take a darker turn, with the Musketeers themselves moving from somewhat annoying bros to something darker, sadder, and sociopathic. The Musketeer we are supposed to admire the most, Athos, abuses his servant and does not let him speak. D'Artagnan falls in love with a married woman, Milady, and Milady's servant girl at the same time and treats them all horrendously, and he's for all purposes, a rapist. They kill people fairly indiscriminately and feel little remorse about it.

Then things finally start to get really interesting towards the last third of the book, which I could not put down. We move from the Musketeers to Milady, who has to be one of the most interesting and powerful female characters ever written. Dang!

It ended in a way that to me felt quite melancholy and disturbing. So overall I cannot tell you what this book is. I'm not sure if Dumas was writing a scathing social satire, a dumb action/romance story full of misogynistic characters, or something in between, a condemnation of our love and worship of people who are wealthy and powerful and adventurous. In the end, the lives of the Musketeers did not seem that glamorous or happy and had taken its toil on all the characters.

Overall, VERY DIFFERENT from how the Musketeers have been portrayed in movies and tv! Right? As happy, heroic, loyal, loveable, swashbuckling, harmless little ragamuffins?

...more

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Aug 14, 2013 emily rated it liked it

Shelves: classics, fiction-nongenre, the-movie-is-pretty-good-actually, 2011-to-2015, owned-physical

3.5 stars, this was a riot and really enjoyable. time-appropriate sexism, not so fun, but it made me want to rewatch the 90s movie real bad. glad i read this, and looking forward to reading count of monte cristo too!

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Mar 09, 2008 Southernbelle0326 marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

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Jun 17, 2008 Julianne marked it as 1001-books-to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: own, classics

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Aug 16, 2008 Slayermel marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 1001-books, kobo

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Jul 15, 2009 Jennifer Eklund marked it as to-read

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Aug 02, 2009 Leigh Ann marked it as to-read

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Aug 20, 2009 Vesra (When She Reads) added it · review of another edition

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Aug 27, 2009 Katie marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, classics, group-read

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Nov 02, 2009 Betty marked it as to-read

Shelves: __classics

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Apr 16, 2010 Lauren⁷ 💜 marked it as to-read

Shelves: classic-literature-the-classics

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Jun 27, 2010 Deedee rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: french-literature, historical-fiction, classics, translation, world-europe-france, challenge-2011-winter, historical-fiction-17th-century, classic-gr-7-and-8

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Oct 29, 2010 Rebekah rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, books-to-have-on-that-deserted-isl, setting-continental-europe, romance, fiction, my-5-stars, classic-authors, historical, war, adventure

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