Twenty Years After - Week 15 - thru Brawn and Brains

[Robin P, Moderator]

The titles vary for the last chapter, but you want to stop just before "The Oubliettes of M. Mazarin."

We are in cinematic territory here with some detective work and an escape plan. There is a pun in the name of the inn Paon et Couronne, which means Peacock and Crown. But the inn owner took the first word as Pan, as in the god with the flute. Many taverns and inns in England and France have similar twisting of the original name.

What do you think of the various ways the four friends approach their situation? To me they seem characteristic. Athos wants to go to the top and appeal to the noble nature of the Queen. Aramis wants to lie low and lay plans, showing up incognito. Porthos wants to break down doors and bash everyone's head in. D'Artagnan comes up with a multi-part scheme.

Has your opinion of either Anne or Mazarin changed since the beginning of the book?

Both Athos and d'Artagnan are assisted by Comminges, grateful for d'Artagnan's help earlier in the book. This kind of return of character, which is so common in Dickens, doesn't happen as much in Dumas. Dumas didn't do the kind of careful plotting that Dickens did. But the connection here is logical.

There's a fair amount of humor from d'Artagnan and Porthos, with Porthos complaining about the food and, as always, slow to understand the plan. I chuckled when Comminges said he had good news and Porthos asks, "Is Mazarin dead?" And when Porthos talks about the feats of strength he has accomplished, the only one he couldn't do was break a rope with his temples. D'Artagnan replies, "your strength has never been in your head."

Next week we will finish the book! Those who replied to my post about the next book were in favor of continuing soon after. So we can start Ten Years Later/The Vicomte de Bragelonne on May 2. I plan to continue with 6 chapters per week. I have posted a thread with chapter titles because there are multiple editions and the volumes are cut up in various ways. I hope everyone will stay with us for the rest of the journey!

[Hedi]

These were really very cinematic scenes with humorous moments as the one by Porthos.
I am almost inclined to want to make a movie out of this book. Has this ever been attempted? I only know the first book and the last book of the series having been turned into movies.
I read these chapters pretty quickly trying to move on with the plot.
I agree with you, Robin, that the typical individual characteristic of the four comes through in the way they approach the current situation, and probably each characteristic/ character will tribute to their escape.
Porthos and d’Artagnan have already started 😉.

I found Queen Anne again a heartless in these scenes. Of Mazarin I had not been expected anything different, but of her. Again to het defense her position was most probably not the easiest as I mentioned in another thread previously.

[Robin P, Moderator]

Good question, I will have to ask my brother the film buff if he knows of any films of this part of the series. It's a bit tricky with the various French and English plots. It could make a good miniseries.

[Ana]

There are several adaptations of the book. In my opinion they are all pretty bad.

There is the Richard Lester one from 1989 called the Return of the Musketeers. It takes multiple liberties with the plot and it’s more of a mockery of the book than an actual adaptation. Athos is portrayed as a drunken fool and there’s always some type of silly slapstick comedy. Mordaunt is actually a female character - the daughter of Milady and Rochefort. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Then, there’s the Russian musical one (Musketeers Twenty Years After made in 1993) which is fairly close to the plot but very low budget and super theatrical.

And the only one I haven’t seen because it’s impossible to find is a British one - The Further Adventures of the Musketeers (made by BBC back in 1967) - it’s black and white. I think that one is actually true to the plot - at least that’s what the reviews say.

[Hedi]

Interesting Ana. I think I found the Russian one on YouTube, but it was in combination with the first book and in Russian, which I despite knowing and speaking several languages do not understand besides da and njet. 😉

I have not been able to find anything else. Do you know where they might be found? Unfortunately, Netflix here in Sweden and other streaming services focus more on modern, popular series and not so much on e.g. BBC adaptions of classic novels.

[Ana]

The Return of the Musketeers is also on YouTube.

This is the link:

https://youtu.be/pAs27ZSq-R8

If you watch it let me know what you think.
I’m not a fan of slapstick comedy so I didn’t really like it.
:)

The BBC one is available on DVD from Amazon - I’m tempted buy it.

[Hedi]

Thanks, Ana. I will check them both out.
I have BBC series of Dickens and George Eliot on DVD from my time in the US. But I have not encountered Dumas yet. Then I might get tempted as well. 😊

[Hedi]

Ana, I watched the one on YouTube. Thank you so much for the link.
My review of it:
To me it seemed very incoherent, it was more a sequence of scenes instead of a flowing story. I did not like the slapstick scenes either. They were not humorous, but rather ridiculing everything, especially considering the heavy history in the back of the story.

And I am not fond of not keeping to the original plot. And this was really different. The characters of our four heroes got completely distorted and then there was Raoul, who gets infatuated with the daughter of Lady de Winter, who plays the role of Mr. Mordaunt.

I was surprised about the actors, e.g. Kim Catrall, Christopher Lee, Richard Chamberlain, who had also played the Count of Monte Cristo, Michael York, Geraldine Chaplin... some of them have definitely been in much better movies/ productions. I was also surprised that this was made in 1989. I think only about 3-4 years later The Musketeers with Kiefer Sutherland was made, which is of a different quality.

[Ana]

I agree with you. I think they could have done a much better job - they definitely had the budget.
It’s shocking that there have been so many Musketeer movies and tv shows over the years yet none of them adequately capture the spirit of the books.
I wish someone would finally make a good one that is true to the plot and with some age appropriate actors who actually look like the characters.
The only movie I kind of liked was The Man in the Iron Mask from 1998. They chose some very good actors to play the Musketeers and the soundtrack was great.

[Robin P, Moderator]

It seems like it's hard to portray heroes like this without irony these days.

[Lori, Moderator]

I have a soft spot for the one with Chris O'Donnell, even though it's incredibly different from the books. It's very much in the tradition of cheesy American 1990s period pieces in which actors don't seem to understand that people behaved differently in earlier centuries.

[Ana]

Lori,
I think everyone saw this one as a child and liked it.
Watching it as an adult is just not the same.
I can’t get over the ‘Porthos the pirate’ part. 🤦🏻‍♀️
But I really like the theme song ‘all for love’.

[Robin P, Moderator]

I have added a reading schedule for Vicomte de Bragelonne/Twenty Years After to the thread that lists all the chapters. All the response I got indicated that people would like to start soon after this book, so that discussion will begin May 2nd.

[Hedi]

Thanks for the information and schedule, Robin! 🙂