"The name of Alexandre Dumas is more than French, it is European; it is
more than European, it is universal." - Victor Hugo
" [Dumas was] the most generous, large-hearted being in the world. He
also was the most delightfully amusing and egotistical creature on the
face of the earth. His tongue was like a windmill - once set in motion,
you never knew when he would stop, especially if the theme was himself."
- Watts Phillips, playwright and artist.
"Words never failed Alexandre Dumas. In his maniacally productive
writing career, he pumped out millions and millions of them: some good,
some bad and all indifferent to any value other than propelling a story
forward at the giddiest possible pace, if not, perhaps, with optimum
fuel efficiency. Dumas's novels are shameless word-guzzlers, big and
plush and almost sinfully comfortable: ideal vehicles for the long,
scenic excursions into French history he regularly conducted for the
newspaper readers of mid-19th-century Paris." -- Terrence Rafferty, New
York Times.
The Three Musketeers has it all. Alexandre Dumas' most famous novel
and one of the most popular adventure stories of all time is filled with
fast-paced adventure, suspense, romance, and comradeship - all in a
historical setting. It was hugely popular; after being serialized in the
French newspaper Le Siècle in 1844, it appeared in no less than three
English translations within the next three years. The novel has been
translated into numerous languages and has been adapted to almost every
medium - films, stage plays, musicals, animations and even manga and
computer games. The phrases "The Three Musketeers" and "All for one and
one for all" have entered common usage.
The Three Musketeers recounts the adventures of d'Artagnan, a poor
young nobleman, who leaves home and travels to Paris to enter the elite
Musketeers of the Guard. He joins the three most formidable musketeers
of the age--Athos, Porthos and Aramis--and, together, they get involved
in affairs of the state and court. They need to employ all their valour
and swordsmanship to triumph over the machiavellian Cardinal Richelieu
and the unscrupulous seductress Countess de Winter. This swashbuckling
classic is a riveting easy read and one of the most famous historical
novels ever written.
This edition is complete and unabridged.
Alexandre Dumas was a larger-than-life character. His published
works include novels, plays and non-fiction and occupy 100,000 pages of
text. His unpublished works continue to be discovered even into the
twenty-first century. Dumas' gifts extended beyond writing. Over the
years he employed over seventy skilled assistants to help him complete
his many projects, but the storytelling and character development always
carry his stamp. In addition, he was a shrewd marketer of his work and
this ensured financial success. Always full of ideas, Dumas founded a
theatre in Paris in the 1840s and spent three years in Italy
participating in Italian unification. He was known for his generosity,
his extravagant lifestyle, and his many mistresses. Dumas' life was
further complicated by the fact that his father was a freed slave born
in Haiti. He is often known as Alexandre Dumas père, as his son
Alexandre Dumas fils was also a successful writer. Today Alexandre
Dumas is most remembered for his historical novels The Three
Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Man in an Iron
Mask.
