The Three Muskateers | Alexandre Dumas

Well, I can now say that I have read The Three Muskateers, in it's entirety. I guess that it's best described as a romantic novel dealing with friends and ambitions.

I must say that my favourite part of the book was the corruption of Felton at the hands of Milady. I won't go any further, but the book was worth the read for that part alone.

I found it was strange that about 3/4 of the way through the book, Dumas stopped going back and forth between plots. He focused on Milady and her captivity until about a hundred pages later where she eventually wound up in the presence of d'Artangnon, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Anyhow, I can see how Hollywood turned this story into a children's heroic tale... but I think it was slotted as such for lack of a distinct classification.

It would be interesting to note what others think the intended morale/audience was for this book. I'm still unsure of Dumas' intentions, and I doubt he's available to be asked. :)

The Idiocy of Publishers

So I'm reading the Three Musketeers, as stated, and I'm about 9 chapters in. I'm finding the writing a little difficult, which makes sense considering the book was written in the 1800's. The problem is, I'm finding it too simplistic as well.

So the story is simplistic, which may be due to the fact that it's a children's book, but I would envision the book would be something like the movie "Shrek". Kids would love it, but it's really meant for adults. In this version, that estimation does not seem to be accurate.

I decided to go over to my bookcase and pick up my leather copy of "The Three Musketeers" and see if I could notice any differences. There were 8 extra chapters or so, and the book seemed to flow a little better. There is definitely a difference in translations, but I'm not sure how much of the content is disturbed.

Anyway, now I'm trying to decide what to do. Do I continue reading the book, knowing that it's probably an inferior version? Do I pick up where I left off in the Franklin leather copy, knowing that it's around 700 pages and school is on the horizon? Do I abandon the whole thing all together? I've been back and forth and I'm not sure what I'm going to do... place your vote. What would you do?

The one thing that I must impress, is that anyone making an abridged copy of anything should STATE that the copy is abridged. I've been looking over some of my other books, and I think I may have to find other copies of them too... including The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Again, nothing stated. There should be rules against this sort of thing.