The Vicomte de Bragelonne

If you are reading this review, you have probably already read the Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After. You are wondering if it is worth it to continue with the series. If you decide to go on, you have three more 600+ page novels ahead of you. That is a lot of time and energy. If you are foremost into the swashbuckling aspect of the Musketeer stories, I would not go forward. The Musketeers are now in their late 50's. They are still vital characters but they are no longer young men looking for any excuse to duel with the Cardinal's Guard. From this point on, there is a lot less sword play and campaigning. The focus of the story moves to the intrigues of Louis XIV court. I am continuing with the series because I like the characters. I want to find out what happens to the four friends. In this novel, D'Artagnan and Athos are the principal characters. Aramis and Porthos do not show up for the first few hundred pages. Dumas has kept me entertained for the first two thousand pages of this saga and I am counting on him to keep me entertained for the next 1500 pages.

Before I begin reviewing this book I'd like to comment on it's place in the total D'Artagnan Romances. The D'Artagnan romances are a trilogy started with the Three Musketeers, followed by Twenty Years After. The last of these stories is broken up into three volumes which are The Vicomte De Bragelonne (part 1), Louise de la Valliere (part 2), The Man in the Iron Mask (part 3). If you are like me and reading library copies you may even find The Vicomte De Bragelonne broken up into four volumes either all titled The Vicomte De Bragelonne, or titled the same as the three volumes with Ten Years Later added as the first volume of the story. With that being said, on to the review... This story take place around ten years after the events of Twenty Years After. We find Luis XIV now king, but hardly so sense Mazarin holds all the power. D'Artagnan is still a Musketeer, but is losing faith as what he had earned in the previous book has been taken away from him. Seeing that his friends have prospered out side of the Kings service, while he has made no progress, and being dissapointed with the useless king who allows himself to be overshadowed by Mazarin, he leaves the king's service with a bold plan to make his fortune. This leads to a reunion with an old friend, and one of the best of a series of adventures that takes place in this, the last of the Musketeer series. This volume brings back the great four musketeers, all of whom have gone their seperate ways. This volume is dominated by the charaters of D'Artagnan and Athos. A fine begining to a wonderful but long story. Review continued with Louise de la Valliere...

First of all, the most common way to get the whole series is with 5 separate and distinct books. They are (in order): The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte De Bragelonne, Louise De LA Valliere, and The Man in the Iron Mask.I don't think I need to tell people about the story, but I will. The action and dialogue in the Dumas' stories rivals anything written since. Especially the dialogue. If Dumas were alive today he'd be writing for TV and movies, his dialogue is as fast and witty as anything around.There are many different printed versions of these stories around. If you pick and choose at random from different publishers, you may miss parts of the stories, have overlaps, or run into major editing. Just look at the versions of the 'Man in the Iron Mask' and see the different page count. At my local library I found two books that said 'Complete and Unabridged,' only one had 10 less chapters than the other.So, sticking to one publisher increases your chances of getting the whole story. These Oxford World Classic editions are excellent. They do have all five books. They don't cut anything out. They use one of the standard translations (I'm not sure if there has been a new translation in the last 100 years). And they are newly printed. Some publishers versions look like photocopies of old printings and are pathetic.

This somewhat humerous book is Dumas' work all over. When I first read The Three Musketeers, I got so hooked onto Alexandre Dumas' works and I just had to read all of its sequels. This book, of course, takes place about 10 years after the other sequel, Twenty Years After, ends. This book is originally part of a huge book called Le Vicomte de Bragellone, but publishers balked at the 1500-2000 pg book and chopped it up to three pieces. This is the first of the three. D'Artagnan is still serving as a musketeer and Louis XIV is ruling over France. In "Twenty Years After," one scene (I can't give away which scene it is) ends quite mysteriously. Athos goes out to give the finishing touches to the scene. D'Artagnan although almost 45 by now, is still witty, charming, and daring. He goes about carrying out plans you can't even think of. One of the new 'main' characters, Raoul acts with the nobleness and honor he bequeathed from his father. Towards the end, the Aramis starts behaving very mysteriously (which is explained in "Man in the Iron Mask.") It has several parts which will just make you fall out of your seat laughing. This book (and all of Alexandre Dumas' books) is Dumas at his prime.

This book, like all of Dumas' other works, is excellent and should be read by all. It's not as action packed, I admit, as the other Musketeer books, however, I find it equally captivating. I think the interaction of the four friends(d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis),and how they deal and act with one another at this point in their lives is very interesting. If you get this book, you better make sure you have close on hand the next two(Louise de Valliere and The Man in the Iron Mask)because it ends abbrutly, leading you in to the next book. But it's definately a must have.