Who doesn't love the swashbuckling tales of the four legendary friends of the French 16th Century? Funny how most people adopt a puzzled expression when one mentions the four main characters in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. Despite our usual familiarity with the novels main character most forget that D'Artagnan was only the younger addition to the already seasoned brotherhood of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis; characters that have seeped out of the national identity of France and managed to make their way, in an odd fashion, into the idealistic anachronism of the U.S.
The book itself was a gift some Christmas long ago from my paternal grandmother. This was a particularly exciting gift since, for the previous eighteen or so years I had always had the impression that Grandma Pauline wasn't exactly sure what to get me for Christmas or Birthdays. Usually it was Grandma Jane that would pore over book after book and Lego set after Lego set to find the perfect gift. I don't hold it against Grandma Pauline, of course. Her number of grandchildren was quickly approaching the double digits even then while Grandma Jane had an even three, my sisters and I, and me the only one old enough to appreciate it. But around the same time that I asked Grandpa Harry for a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy I had asked Grandma Pauline for a copy of Dumas. I had no idea what to expect but I definitely did not expect a volume from the Franklin Collection.
In case you aren't in the know, the Franklin Collection is a hoity toity retailer of expensive collectors items; brass Monopoly sets, useless busts of eagles, and decorative shelf-versions of classic Harley Davidson's. Mostly junk...mostly. To my knowledge I had been completely unaware of a line of books and as a result I was astounded with this volume. You may not be able to tell from the photograph above but it is completely bound in sturdy green leather with gilded letters and finely gilded pages. It even contained a number of full color prints of a watercolor series inspired by the novel. Needless to say I was in awe and profoundly appreciative (I hope). But what was greater was that I feel that there was finally something that Grandma Pauline could be excited about getting me for Christmas. An avid reader herself she began committing quite a lot of time finding nice volumes of books I was interested in and in the few years she had left, managed to find fantastic versions of Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Shelley's Frankenstein (which I will surely blog about someday).
As for the story itself, I feel that my experience with The Three Musketeers may, in fact, have been plagued by uninspired translation. I have always had the impression that Dumas was quite a skilled writer and most readers of The Count of Monte Cristo agree but after reading this novel I felt like I had missed a great deal of the wit and excitement that I'm sure characterizes other translations from the French. That said, there is still a great deal to be said for the sense of heroism and camaraderie that characterizes the Musketeers' books (since the three appear in Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragellone, the inspiration for the 1998 film The Man in the Iron Mask). In the end there is a great deal that the novel establishes that has been a staple of re-imaginings of the tale; aspects such as the villainy of Cardinal Richelieu, the youthful arrogance yet lovable heroism of D'Artagnan, and the Musketeers' unfailing loyalty to the king. Despite the fact that aesthetic turds such as The Musketeer still make it to film, many of these elements remain and somehow keep, even us Americans fascinated with visions (albeit altered ones) of French national identity. In many ways (and I may be overstepping, but so be it) these characters serve a similar function as the Round Table knights do for England.
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Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers. Franklin Center, PA: The Franklin Library, 1978.
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