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A review by mint_renegade
The Man in the Iron Mask by Francine du Plessix Gray, Alexandre Dumas, Joachim Neugroschel
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
i dnf'ed book 1 in the sequence for a reason, why did i think that the final book would salvage the story, huh? what madness bid me to pick up this book and waste my time? i mean, i literally found myself googling just to make sure that the ending wasn't some cosmic joke being played out at my personal expense. i am still willing to concede on some points - a poor translation, perhaps; a book read out of context of its preceding works, definitely. but imagine a world in which i had read all previous books, and this, the man in the iron mask, was the final chapter, the closing given to lives traversed across 30 years, this ending, would it still not be paltry? would i still not be incensed? you call a book the man in the iron mask and yet he features in but a handful of chapters, and when he does, his person is devoid of any real character.
history and countless adaptations have given me to believe that the 4 musketeers are cunning, clever, kingmakers, 10-movers-ahead-of-everyone-else-type-of-anti-heroes. and yet without prompting, aramis gives away the gambit to him who he should not, and keeps it secret from one who should be in his inner circle. the result? an innocent philippe is left to the mercy of the wolf, without friend, without ally and destined to return to the depths of the bastille, more fortified against the eyes of the world. having tasted freedom and princely abodes, he is destined to be more despondent than ever. hope is a merciless thing to give to a prisoner.
i need a kit-kat, and i need to stop holding Dumas to the pedestal of Monte Cristo. the (un)fairness of my judgement is colored by an expectation that everything this person wrote is laced in gold. i am at such a loss to believe that the same person wrote two such polarizing works, one a most beloved and now this, a most loathed, and yet, and yet.
(p.s. watch the movie with Jack bauer, it's way better)
history and countless adaptations have given me to believe that the 4 musketeers are cunning, clever, kingmakers, 10-movers-ahead-of-everyone-else-type-of-anti-heroes. and yet without prompting, aramis gives away the gambit to him who he should not, and keeps it secret from one who should be in his inner circle. the result? an innocent philippe is left to the mercy of the wolf, without friend, without ally and destined to return to the depths of the bastille, more fortified against the eyes of the world. having tasted freedom and princely abodes, he is destined to be more despondent than ever. hope is a merciless thing to give to a prisoner.
i need a kit-kat, and i need to stop holding Dumas to the pedestal of Monte Cristo. the (un)fairness of my judgement is colored by an expectation that everything this person wrote is laced in gold. i am at such a loss to believe that the same person wrote two such polarizing works, one a most beloved and now this, a most loathed, and yet, and yet.
(p.s. watch the movie with Jack bauer, it's way better)