Twenty Years After: Alexandre Dumas

Twenty Years After: Alexandre Dumas

Warning: Spoiler Alert (because I know you all are dying to find out what happens in the sequel to the Three Musketeers, which many people only know as a candy bar. yum. or a cheesy 90's movie with Kiefer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen and Robin from Batman and Robin. actually i have never seen it but its the 90s its probably cheesy lol) (oh wow there is some new remake with Orlando Bloom and the Resident Evil girl. probably equally as cheesy). 

You have been warned!

cheesy 90's goodness. seriously. look at Charlie Sheen.

Okay, so this is long overdue! I finished this a few weeks ago, and it took me a couple months to read.  Alexandre Dumas works are always very dense.  However, every one of his works I have read I have loved! I don't know what it is about his writing; I guess maybe the fact he is French and the writing has been translated and made easier to understand (?), but I always find them to be totally engaging and quick (this summer has just been so busy).

Dumas wrote in the 19th century about 17th century topics and royalty. Key characters in the Three Musketeers series are famous royalty and politicians, such as Oliver Cromwell, Cardinal Richelieu, and Anne of Austria.  Interesting side note: I feel like he was a royalist (if you could be one at that time).  He was a child during the Napoleonic Era, and later got a position at the Palais Royal.  Side side note: His dad was from Haiti and he was bi-racial.  Back to original side note: Dumas makes the reader side with the royalty, like the revolutionaries are crazy and brutal.  Which is strange because I am American and should not agree with that. 

Anyway, there are always so many characters and subplots to talk about in Dumas' works. What I particularly love about them is that there is always some level of vengeance.  In the Count of Monte Cristo, the main character was imprisoned and sought all of his wrongdoers out.  In the Three Musketeers, the musketeers had to track down Milady for all of the crazy things she did (I mean, she did crazy things, like con people and poison and kill the main chick in the book (spoiler alert) lol). Side side side note: I feel the need for vengeance right now in my life as well.  
  
So, Twenty Years After is the sequel to the Three Musketeers, which is part of a larger series, the D'Artagnan Romances, which include:

1. The Three Musketeers (check)
2. Twenty Years After (check)
3. The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Ten Years Later, Louise de la Vallière and The Man in the Iron Mask (these are super hard to find anywhere so not check) (also I want to read this because I can picture Leonardo Dicaprio as the Man in the Iron Mask)

In order to understand Twenty Years After, you have to have read The Three Musketeers.  I already ruined the first book for you (sort of).  Basically, Milady is hunted down (she had been a prostitute and had played everybody-legit con artist- she and her husband pretended to be brother and sister (gross?)-and she married someone else- Athos - to get his money.  She killed D'Artagnan's love interest and they hung her) 

Flash forward twenty years and the three (its actually four) musketeers are not together.  D'Artagnan is a leader for the Musketeers, and he wants to get everyone back together.  France is going through La Fronde, and the musketeers have divided among political parties-the Royalists and the Frondists. There are SO many subplots to this book.  I guess I can just tell you about the big thing. 

The main villain is Mordaunt, Milady's son! This dude like really never dies.  He is the Terminator.  He actually kills a bunch of important characters, so pretty sad.  He ends up dying though, so don't be alarmed.  He tricked the musketeers and put them on a boat with explosives.  The musketeers find out and escape in time on a row boat.  He somehow survives the explosion, but can't swim.  Athos (who is his father!!) pulls him up.  That was a trick! Mordaunt pulls Athos into the water and they fight.  Of course, Athos wins! Yay!

So, that's all I have for that.  I really did not do that justice.  There is TOO much going on to talk about anything haha.  I have three more books to read before school starts in literally ten days.  I don't have wireless internet right now, so that should not be hard. Here it is:

1. The Old Man and the Sea: Ernest Hemingway
2. Animal Farm: George Orwell
3. Northanger Abbey: Jane Austen

I kind of want to start a book club...If you are in Knoxville and have read this and want to read with me, let me know!

xoxo

Erika