Where I get to the end of the Musketeers' story

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm sad to finish it, but it was really good.

The third novel--whether broken into 3 parts, as it often is, or 4, as I had it--is mostly good, but has long stretches that are less interesting. A lot of focus on the court and finances and secondary characters that mostly disappear. That's okay, but it's not my favorite. But the last volume is back to the musketeers, and that's the best part.

It's also the sad part.

Aramis, Athos, and Porthos are 60 something, and D'Artagnan is a little younger. They're all still powerful, brilliant (well, not Porthos, I guess), capable, energetic, and honorable (with an asterisk for Athos), but age is about to catch up to them. It is terribly melancholy to see the heroes become old men and reach the end of their careers. Still, it's beautifully done.

Dumas can bewilder me with 17th Century French politics and matters of finance, but nobody writes better action or more amazing dialogue between brilliant men (and a handful of women). Even in translation, even 170 years later, it's still a brisk read.

And even though it's 170 years later, and most people who are going to read it already have, some have not, and the best parts of the story to talk about are spoilers. I'll leave them alone and just say that I enjoyed the novel and found it very touching. And I'm glad to finally understand what "the man in the iron mask" is all about. Now I want to see if I can find some better versions of these stories as movies or series than I've found in the past.

Anyway, recommended. For most folks, it'll take time, especially slow readers like me. But I didn't mind.

View all my reviews