FireBlade Coffeehouse: Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers

Wherein D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis meet.

Twenty Years After

The Musketeers vie for power during Louis XIV's minority.

Ten Years Later

Raoul sets off the events that lead to the end of the story. Aramis no doubt continues his plottings.

The Missing Viscount

The probable chapter titles of the missing chapters that belong here.

Louise de la Valliere

Wherein d’Artagnan begins to suspect Aramis of wrongful deeds.

The Man in the Iron Mask

Aramis’ plot succeeds or fails.

A Masked Ball

A short story involving love, a masked ball, and a cemetery.

The History of the Three Musketeers

How much of what Dumas wrote actually happened? Also, pictures of the supporting cast, including the King, Queen, and Richilieu.

Onnea Hast’s Finnish Musketeer Books

Onnea Hast wrote and told me what the heck “Son of Porthos” was.

Frequently Lacked Answers

A cluttered compilation of questions about The Man in the Iron Mask, focusing on the movie.

Review: La Prise de Pouvoir de Louis XIV

Elina Yerdavletova writes with a review of this French movie chronicling the rise of Louis XIV.

Off the Shelf

• Alexandre Dumas père Best collection of Dumas links yet. Most of the links are presented in both English and French. This has a wide variety of bibliographic, biographic, and uncategorizable links listed. If you’re interested in the order of things, there is a listing of all the chapter titles in the “Iron Mask” series. Tiny, tiny text. Also now includes some of the plays of Dumas, including a translation into English of Dumas’ translation into French of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
  Translate from French to English
• Swashbucklers and Fops A nice page about the books and how they fit together. Built around the a swashbuckling legends web page. If you are interested in Dumas or swashbucklers, you should read this page!
• Who Was the Man in the Iron Mask? A summary of the many theories about who the man behind the mask really was.
• Club Dumas On-line chat area for talking about Dumas and his works.
• The Marriage of History and Imagination Includes biographies of some of the historical figures in “The Three Musketeers”.
  Translate from French to English
• D’Artagnan, The Illustrious and Poorly-Known Gascon From a web site about Gascony, a lot of information about the true d’Artagnan upon which Dumas based his d’Artagnan.
  Translate from French to English Inactive as of last visit on December 23, 2001
• Roman et Histoire Something in French about the Three Musketeers and their basis in real history. “The three musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis, are respectively identified as Armand de Sillègue d’Athos d’Autevielle (1615-1644), Isaac de Portau, and Henri d’Aramitz (died 1674). Few common points link these three men and the characters of the novel but the fact that they all belonged to the company of Tréville. Henri d’Aramitz was abbot laic in his native village. He thus belonged just like Aramis to the religious body. Henri d’Aramitz and Isaac de Portau were cousins distant from Armand de Sillègue (who according to his name perhaps belonged to the nobility like Athos). Dumas thus modified these characters in their allotting features of well defined natures and by changing their age.”
  Translate from French to English
• Stratford Festival of Canada This summer/fall (2000), both “The Three Musketeers” and “The Importance of Being Earnest” will be playing. Also, a piece on Oscar Wilde through the eyes of Lord Alfred Douglas.
• Cardinal Richelieu at Lucidcafé A short synopsis of Cardinal Richelieu’s effect on the French monarchy.

A Bit About The Three Musketeers

As the maintainer of the site with the coolest version of Iron Mask, I’ve been asked a few things about it. Namely, where the heck does it come from, and why doesn’t it look the same as yours?

The answer is this: there is no such book as “The Man in the Iron Mask”, at least not as Dumas wrote it. He wrote a book called “Le Vicomte de Bragellone”. It was thousands of pages long. Publishers balked (for good reason, I think) at publishing a single book of that length, so they broke it into the three or four parts. There are two versions of “The Man in the Iron Mask” that you can actually buy. The larger version contains the last half of what is generally called “Louise de la Valliere”--otherwise, what is generally the third part, “Iron Mask”, actually starts practically in the middle of a conversation.

There are generally considered five books in the Three Musketeers saga. The first and the last are usually easy to find. The middle three are usually hidden deep in the bowels of your local library, often disguised as the “collected” Alexandre Dumas. I’ve looked on Amazon.Com and joined their associates program in order to help you buy these books if you want to:

1. The Three Musketeers -- everyone knows about it.
2. Twenty Years After -- No one knows about it.
3. Ten Years Later -- This is generally the same book as “Le Vicomte de Bragelonne”. However, the copy that I have on-line is almost certainly not.
4. Le Vicomte de Bragelonne -- the beginning of the end.
5. Louise de la Valliere -- the continuation of the end.
6. The Man in the Iron Mask -- the end of the end.

There are two other books that I have not read. They are both out of print:

• D’Artagnan the King Maker: A Historical Novel. While listed as authored by Alexandre Dumas, it apparently is a semi-forgery. See Arthur Rypinski’s review for more information. Arthur also notes that the Library of Congress has a listing for another book translated by Henry Llewellyn Williams, the same translator as “King Maker”, “D’Artagnan's Exploit”. Whether this is real, a Dumas play converted to a novel, or an out-and-out forgery is up for grabs.
• Son of Porthos. Still a bit murky, but see below for more information.

If you have any more information about those or other titles, please let me know.

The Three Musketeers is actually two books. The Four Musketeers starts after D’Artagnan receives his commission. It has always been included in The Three Musketeers in my experience; the only reference I’ve heard of is from William Roberts, who says that in Dumas’ own journals, he counts them separately. Which would make six books, not five.

Ten Years Later, Vicomte, Louise, and Iron Mask are really all the same book. You can’t open up the Iron Mask and expect to have any idea of what’s going on, unless you’ve read the other three. You can get away with just reading Louise to understand Iron Mask, and in fact some versions of Iron Mask include the last chapters of Valliere. As far as Dumas was concerned, they’re all one book, called “Le Vicomte de Bragellone”, and subtitled “Ten Years Later”.

And if that doesn’t fully confuse you, read what Onnea Hast compiled about an even later Musketeer book by Dumas, as well as some non-Dumas books.

Comments?

If you have comments or questions about this page, please, leave a message on the Negative Space Comments Page.

Jerry