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?

The Three Musketeers - Likewise Book Reviews

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