The Three Musketeers (Wordsworth Classics) Paperback,592 pages

One of the most celebrated and popular historical romances ever written, The Three Musketeers tells the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman, D'Artagnan and his three friends from the regiment of the King's Musketeers - Athos, Porthos and Aramis.Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, and the honour of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of seventeenth century France are vividly played out in the background.But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal's spy, Milady, one of literature's most memorable female villains, and Alexandre Dumas employs all his fast-paced narrative skills to bring this enthralling novel to a breathtakingly gripping and dramatic conclusion.Our edition uses the William Barrow translation first published by Bruce and Wylde (London,1846).

About Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas the Elder (1802-70) grew up as the son of a Napoleonic general in the northern French province. Orphaned and poor at an early age, but convinced of his talents, he went to Paris at the age of 19, where he wanted to go to the theater. His capital: a beautiful handwriting, a few overgrown partridges and an almost inexhaustible imagination. The plays he initially wrote are forgotten today. But twenty years later, in 1844, he is the king of the literary arts section with 'The Count of Monte Christo'. Because Dumas had hit the nerve of the readership. It offered an intriguing plot, tension, illusion on a historical background that was broadly known. He offered historical truth, imaginatively filled with poetry, and added to it that fine dash of irony that makes his novels so worth reading to this day.