Book Review: "The Vicomte de Bragelonne" by Alexandre Dumas

When I say I did not know that this book existed until now, I really mean it. When I was a teenager, I loved the reading experience that came with The Three Musketeers. I read that book when I was around fifteen and then, proceeded to read Twenty Years After a few years later at about eighteen, and I have just read The Vicomte de Bragelonne - currently about a month away from being twenty-six. Yes, that is how little I knew of this book. I thought there were only two books in the D'Artagnan Romances. But here we are and there are three. I was so excited to find that out and yet, I didn't really want it to end. The ending itself though is satisfying and confusing at the same time.

Unfortunately for the reader, you have to know the Musketeer background in order to understand what is going on here. So, here is a very quick rundown of who we are dealing with. Porthos, Aramis and Athos are the Three Musketeers and their leuitenant is a man called D'Artagnan (whom the entire series is actually about in my opinion). The first novel is mainly about D'Artagnan seeking out the musketeers, getting into trouble with them and ending up both in jail and getting a promotion - yet the musketeers themselves seem to break up. It is set between 1625 and 1628.

Whereas, the second novel in set in 1648 and 1649 and deals again with D'Artagnan following around the musketeers because he wants to be one of them. There is a volume in there entitled the 'four musketeers' in which he succeeds. There is a lot of travelling and duelling and then they break off again, going there separate ways.

Here comes the third book. Set between 1660 and 1673, it is the longest length of time covered in any musketeer novel out of the three, but still remains roughly the length of the first one.

It begins with D'Artagnan's resignation in order to reinstate Charles II as the King of France. Louis is a weak king and D'Artagnan wants nothing to do with him. But, there is something strange about when Charles II is reinstated on to the throne, Louis tries to get D'Artagnan to come back into his service in order to investigate a piece of land called Belle Ile that is apparently being fortified. D'Artagnan agrees after a time. Discovering that the three musketeers are behind this, D'Artagnan is shocked - but apparently not shocked enough to tell them to stop. Instead, he teams up with them for a while.

The next part is about King Louis' court and the people around. I will have to admit, there are far too many courtiers, noblemen, ladies, etc. in this novel. Seriously, there are too many. But, (and I'm not going to tell you why), the King orders the arrest of Athos with D'Artagnan trying to push for his release from prison.

The third part is about The Man in the Iron Mask (yes, I have seen the film with Leonardo DiCaprio and yes, it is pretty much the same thing that is going on here). A man that is claiming to be the twin brother to Louis is locked up in an iron mask in prison with Aramis plotting to replace the Louis with him. I'm not going to tell you how this ends because it really quite upset me even though it made perfect sense.

So I guess that is really it for the D'Artagnan Romances then. I guess it is over. It has been a lovely ten years or so and I have enjoyed the books (and discovered that there was a third one I didn't know about). It has been an incredible journey and I might take it again some time soon.