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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
Full of adventure
A Lot of guts,craziness and beautiful friendship
I hat the lady in the story she was so wicked,and she deserved what they did to her.
A Lot of guts,craziness and beautiful friendship
I hat the lady in the story she was so wicked,and she deserved what they did to her.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I wanted to like this more than I did. Even with a narrator I adore, I found it slow going, not the rollicking tale I expected. I found the female characters infuriating though I guess that's understandable given when it was set & when it was written.
Disappointing to say the least!
Can’t believe this is the same man who wrote “The Count of Monte Cristo” - wouldn’t recommend anyone read this. Just watch the movies...
Can’t believe this is the same man who wrote “The Count of Monte Cristo” - wouldn’t recommend anyone read this. Just watch the movies...
3.5 stars, 1 star per musketeer!
It's been an honor to finally read through this book, which was both surprising and exactly what i had expected and hoped it would be. Adventure, intrigue, our four favorite BFFs running around being jerks, heroes, jackasses, lovers. They are both saviors and abusers. Honestly I couldn't get enough of them, each time the boys were NOT included in each chapter it suddenly got kind of bleak and boring.
My edition was from "The Modern Library", which also included a trio of commentaries at the end. Usually something I'd probably skip but these ones were both lovely and very interesting. Here are some exceprts from Margaret Oliphant:
"we know that our four paladins are impossible-as impossible as the seven champions of Christendom, but equally delightful..." "The tragic thread which runs through this record of warlike exploits, and which brings in certain chapters which we would gladly get rid of, [...]" and "The portentous creation of Milady, the depraved and dishonoured woman [...], has little attraction to the wholesome imagination, though she has been the origin of a whole school of wicked heroines... [We] cannot take upon us to say that any of the women who figure now and then in the story do any credit to Dumas."
My thoughts on Milady (and the women in the book in general) are many and they are jumbled, and I wouldn't even know where to begin, so I won't. I will say that Milady is an icon, and uhhhh hope Kitty is doing ok.
It's been an honor to finally read through this book, which was both surprising and exactly what i had expected and hoped it would be. Adventure, intrigue, our four favorite BFFs running around being jerks, heroes, jackasses, lovers. They are both saviors and abusers. Honestly I couldn't get enough of them, each time the boys were NOT included in each chapter it suddenly got kind of bleak and boring.
My edition was from "The Modern Library", which also included a trio of commentaries at the end. Usually something I'd probably skip but these ones were both lovely and very interesting. Here are some exceprts from Margaret Oliphant:
"we know that our four paladins are impossible-as impossible as the seven champions of Christendom, but equally delightful..." "The tragic thread which runs through this record of warlike exploits, and which brings in certain chapters which we would gladly get rid of, [...]" and "The portentous creation of Milady, the depraved and dishonoured woman [...], has little attraction to the wholesome imagination, though she has been the origin of a whole school of wicked heroines... [We] cannot take upon us to say that any of the women who figure now and then in the story do any credit to Dumas."
My thoughts on Milady (and the women in the book in general) are many and they are jumbled, and I wouldn't even know where to begin, so I won't. I will say that Milady is an icon, and uhhhh hope Kitty is doing ok.
The prospect of diving into a 600+ page novel was a bit daunting given that I am still re-strengthening my reading endurance, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that only one small section - Milady’s seduction of Felton - seemed to drag a bit longer than I would have liked. Overall, this was an excellent story that moved with great speed through the adventures of D’Artagnan and his mates.
Separately, I was rather disappointed in this Word Cloud Classics edition as there were multiple typos and misprinted words scattered throughout. I wonder to what extent (if any) this version was proofread and edited prior to publication.
Separately, I was rather disappointed in this Word Cloud Classics edition as there were multiple typos and misprinted words scattered throughout. I wonder to what extent (if any) this version was proofread and edited prior to publication.
I want to begin this review by saying that the translator of this particular edition has done a tremendous job at retaining the tone of the writing, and yet making it accessible to modern readers (like myself). Not very many translators can resist the temptation of using convoluted language just because a book was written more than a century ago. I also want to acknowledge that, for a book of its time, The Three Musketeer is surprisingly fast paced, moving from one scene to the next at breakneck speed, subverting the expectation that classics are often slow and meandering.
But that is about as much positives I can say about this so-called classic literature.
Maybe it is naïveté on my part, but I never knew that the three musketeers were, in fact, assholes. Instead of the heroic, valiant versions of them we have seen in other media, the real musketeers here are cheaters, freeloaders and outright scoundrels. When they are not cheating challenging random strangers to duels, they are cheating their mistresses (often married) of money, gambling their money away at faraway inns and threatening innkeepers so that they can eat and drink and sleep for free at their inns. “Lovable Scoundrels” they are not. Just scoundrels.
While we are at it, why is this book called The Three Musketeers? There are four musketeers. In fact, the book is largely from the perspective of the fourth musketeer. Was Dumas high? Could he not count?
So if our protagonists are 17th century assholes, maybe we can find characters elsewhere to root for? No, because the other characters are peripheral at best, or are women with stereotypical fainting spells and victims to romantic notions. Like, they cannot exist without the love of our protagonists, so they throw fits.
I cannot stand to finish this book. I also cannot fathom why it has developed such legs over the century. It is a door stopper of a book that is largely about nothing at all. It is a shallow piece of work that has somehow remained on bookshelves around the world for undeserved reasons. For the life of me, I do not understand its popularity.
But that is about as much positives I can say about this so-called classic literature.
Maybe it is naïveté on my part, but I never knew that the three musketeers were, in fact, assholes. Instead of the heroic, valiant versions of them we have seen in other media, the real musketeers here are cheaters, freeloaders and outright scoundrels. When they are not cheating challenging random strangers to duels, they are cheating their mistresses (often married) of money, gambling their money away at faraway inns and threatening innkeepers so that they can eat and drink and sleep for free at their inns. “Lovable Scoundrels” they are not. Just scoundrels.
While we are at it, why is this book called The Three Musketeers? There are four musketeers. In fact, the book is largely from the perspective of the fourth musketeer. Was Dumas high? Could he not count?
So if our protagonists are 17th century assholes, maybe we can find characters elsewhere to root for? No, because the other characters are peripheral at best, or are women with stereotypical fainting spells and victims to romantic notions. Like, they cannot exist without the love of our protagonists, so they throw fits.
I cannot stand to finish this book. I also cannot fathom why it has developed such legs over the century. It is a door stopper of a book that is largely about nothing at all. It is a shallow piece of work that has somehow remained on bookshelves around the world for undeserved reasons. For the life of me, I do not understand its popularity.
Oh so much better then that Chris O'donnell (sp?) movie. Quite a bit of history from time to time, but overall a great read. A classic that is also a page turner. I really recommend it