Book 53: Le Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas

For this year I've changed the way I'm making these posts.  Instead of having one at the beginning of the week and then editing in a review after finishing the book, I'm going to simply make one post each Saturday when I should have completed that week's reading.  Onward!

This book has a rather complicated history.  When first written it was serialized over a period of about 3 years.  When put into book form it comprised 269 chapters.  For obvious reasons it has since been split up into multiple volumes.  Even this, however, has been complicated.  It is possible to find The Vicomte de Bragelonne split into 3, 4 or even 5 books.  The version that I'm reading is split into 4 books with individual titles:  Part 1 is Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, Part 2 is Dix Ans plus Tard (Ten Years After), Part 3 is Louise de la Valliere and part 4 is L'Homme au Masque de Fer (The Man in the Iron Mask).  The narrative for Le Vicomte de Bragelonne covers events around the year 1660 about ten years after the events in Vingt Ans Apres (Twenty Years After) and around 30 years after The Three Musketeers.

The main characters from the original novel are still here.  D'Artagnan is still a lieutenant in the royal musketeers while his friends have retired to private life.  Athos is a nobleman, the Comte de la Fere, and lives on his own estate with his son Raoul de Bragelonne (the title's Vicomte).  Aramis has become a priest and been promoted to Abbé or Abbot d'Herblay.  Porthos married a wealthy woman who later died and left him her fortune.  The story, while named for Raoul, does not principally involve him, though it does show a turning point that may be the launching point for his later career.

I found the plot engaging throughout as was the case for the first two books of this series.  It follows D'Artagnan on his adventures fighting enemies and helping allies in both England and France.  He joins up with Athos for the first half of the book with Aramis and Porthos showing up in the second.  One thing that I find very interesting about the series is that, while friends, the former Musketeers are often at odds with each other.  In the previous book, two of the Musketeers were on one side of a civil war with the other two on the opposing side.  In this book, D'Artagnan is on a mission for his King, while two of his friends are quietly propping up one his the King's ministers, his chief rival.  It makes for a lot of complicated plot twisting as they would never harm one another, but would gladly sabotage each others plans.

I'm still reading these in French in order to take the rust off my language skills, but the story should translate very well.  These are books of high adventure and gentlemanly deeds and should appeal to anyone who likes intrigue, swordplay, daring plots and backstabbing ministers.  Overall, I'd give this book about a 7 out of 10.  It was entertaining and interesting but lacking in any real substance.  Still it's a lot of good fun and I'm looking forward to the next episode.

Book 9: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

This one was recommended by a friend of mine at work who just finished it.  She said it was a great, classic adventure story and, having enjoyed Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island, it sounded pretty good.  It's also part of a trilogy, which I didn't know, including this novel, Twenty Years Later and The Man in the Iron Mask.  Throw in The Count of Monte Cristo and that's 3 more books to add to my reading list.  Bonus!

673 pages this time, so that makes about 97 pages per day.

REVIEW:  This one kicked my butt.  My sister dared me to read it in French.  Unable to turn down a challenge like that, I tracked down a copy and did it.  It took me a few extra days but I managed it.  I'm not entirely sure if it was just my rusty French or if it was the book itself, but I found it to be rather shallow.  There was little to no character development and very little nuance in the plot or characters.  It wasn't a bad story and it was rather entertaining in parts but it felt a little cliché fairly often.  It may be because this book set the mold and others copied it (too often) but it was hard to ignore.  It got so bad at one point that I laughed out loud.  Chapter 65 begins thus: "C'etait une nuit orageuse et sombre."  Literally, "It was a dark and stormy night."  Wow.

So, that's it, a good bit of fun and decent story but a bit shallow and cliché.  Dare I start a rating system?  6 out of 10.