The story of four comrades-in-arms, who serve the Queen of France, and outwit her enemy Cardinal Richelieu and his clever agent, a female criminal. The agent is discovered to be the evil wife of one of the Musketeers. His private execution of her is the tragic climax of the story. Historic characters are Louis XIII., his queen, Richelieu, and the Duke of Buckingham.
This is one
of Dumas' best-known novels. It is the first in a trilogy which consists
of three novels: Les Trois Mousquetaires, Vingt Ans Après (Twenty Years After), and Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix Ans Plus Tard (Ten Years Later).
This third novel is often split up into three pieces
when published in English: The Vicomte of Bragelonne, Louise de la Vallière, and The Man in the Iron Mask.
There is a sequel which was not written by Dumas Le fils de Porthos (The Son of Porthos).
Oeuvres/Related Works Williams, Henry Llewellyn, Jr.: D'Artagnan The King-Maker - New York, Street & Smith, 1901 (LOC# 01027101) (see D'Artagnan the King-Maker) Mahalin, Paul: D'Artagnan, grand roman historique remplissant la période de la vie du célèbre mousquetaire qui s'étend de "la Jeunesse des mousquetaires" à "Vingt ans après", les deux romans d'Alexandre Dumas - Paris, Librairie des publications modernes, 1890 Courtilz de Sandras, Gatien de: Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan - Cologne, P. Marteau, 1700 The Three Guardsmen - New York, P. F. Collier & Son, n.d., The Works of Alexandre Dumas in Thirty Volumes (vol. 12), blue cloth, gilt spine
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: One of Dumas' most famous romances. In this again Maquet was the collaborator. It would seem that Dumas, while writing his "Louis XIV. et Son Siècle," looking for local colour of the period, found the "Mémoires de d'Artagnan." (In the recently published [1929] "Alexandre Dumas et les Trois Mousquetaires" by H. d'Alméras, it is stated that Dumas borrowed the edition of those "Mémoires" dated 1704, and also the "Tableau de la Vie de Richelieu, de Colbert et de Mazarin" from the Marseilles library in 1843—and forgot to return them!) Turning over in his mind the earlier incidents there described, he found a romance beginning to develop. Being as usual much occupied, he turned his rough draft over to Maquet, who set to work at it, but with scant enthusiasm. We know that he desired to make it a romance of manners, whereas Dumas insisted upon one of adventure. Thus, but for Dumas' determination, there would have been no Buckingham and Anne of Austria, no diamond studs, no ride to Calais, and no hunt for the lost comrades strung along that famous route.
It is a thorough-going historical romance of Louis XIII. and Richelieu (period 1625-1628).
Originally advertised as "Athos, Porthos and Aramis," it first appeared, but under the present familiar title, in "Le Siècle," from March 14 to July 14, 1844, where it had an immense success. While he referred them to the "Mémoires de d'Artagnan," Dumas mystified his readers by stating that he drew the story from the unpublished "Mémoires de M. le Comte de la Fère." (To make the confusion worse there actually existed some "Mémoires de M. le Comte de la Fare," but these were of a, later period, dealing with the height of the reign of Louis XIV.)
In the execution chapter (LXVI.) this sentence appeared originally, as an indication perhaps of a coming sequel : "Voyez, dit Athos, cette femme a un enfant, et cependant elle n'a pas dit un mot de son enfant!" ("Mark," said Athos, "this woman has a child, and yet she has not spoken one word about him.") All early editions contain it, but recent ones do not, and this applies to English translations, which may thus be regarded as of early or late date, Maquet's original draft did not contain it.
Original edition : Paris, Baudry, 1844, 8 vols., 8vo. The eighth volume is filled out with three tales and one art study : "Histoire d'un Mort," "Histoire d'une Âme," "Un Message," and "Fra Bartholomeo." (Refer to page 173.) Several copies were printed on laid paper. The pagination is as follows, in each case with the table of contents additional: 449, 329, 386, 363, 310, 278, 297, 293.
First illustrated edition: Paris, Fellens et Dufour, 1 vol., large 8vo., pp. 522, with 32 plates and a frontispiece portrait of Dumas, and head and tail pieces, 1846.
Paris, Dufour, Mulat et Boulanger, 1849, 1 vol., large 8vo., with portrait and 32 engravings.
Paris, Marescq et Cie., 1852, 2 vols., 4to., with illustrations by J. A. Beaucé, F. Philippoteaux, etc.
Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1894, 2 vols., demy 4to., with 250 woodcuts by Maurice Leloir, and a prefatory letter by Dumas fils.
Paris, Louis Conard, 1923, 2 vols., large 18mo., with wood engravings by Fred-Money.
It now fills two volumes in the standard Calmann-Levy edition, two in their illustrated series, and one in the "Musée Littéraire."
It occupies the first half of Vol. 1. of Le Vasseur's "Alexandre Dumas Illustré."
References :—
Dumas: "Causerie" in "Le D'Artagnan," No. for February 29th, 1868.
Parigot: "Alexandre Dumas," especially pp. 137-41.
Simon (Gustave): "Histoire d'une Collaboration: Dumas et Maquet." Parran: "Bibliographie d'Alex. Dumas," page 49. Quérard: "Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées," Vol. I., especially Columns 1103-1105.
D'Auriac (Eugène): "D'Artagnan;" Paris, 1846.
Samaran: " D'Artagnan, Capitaine des Mousquetaires du Roi ; " Paris, Calmann-Levy, 1912.
De Jourgain: "Troisvilles, D'Artagnan et les Trois Mousquetaires; " Paris, Champion, 1910. D'Alméras (Henri): "Alexandre Dumas et les Trois Mousquetaires;" Paris, Malfere; 1929. Courtilz (Gatien de): "Mémoires de d'Artagnan." Courtilz (Gatien de): "Mémoires du Comte de Rochefort." Reed (F. W.): "Dumas Revises 'The Three Musketeers'," Colophon, New York, 1938.
La Rochefoucauld (Le Duc de): "Mémoires" Edition of 1817 (earlier ones were incomplete).
Grant (James): "The Constable of France, etc." Article on "D'Artagnan."
"Blackwood's Magazine," No. for January, 1845. [vol 57 page 59]
"Blackwood's Magazine," No. for July, 1929.—Article : "The Genius and the Ghost," by R. S. Garnett.
"Bookman," New York, Nos. for March, 1926, and January, 1927.
"Chautauquan," No. XXXIII., pp. 71 ff.
"Cornhill," Nos. for August, 1920, and November, 1927.
"Literary Digest," No. for September 17th, 1921.
"Harper's Magazine," No. for July, 1902.
"Literature," No, for 24th March, 1900.—"The Biographer of D'Artagnan," by G. Brenan.
"MacMillan's Magazine," Vol. LXXX., pp. 202-211.—"The Real D'Artagnan," by G. Brenan.
Woodbridge: "Gatien de Courtilz " (particularly Chapters III. and V.).—John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1925.
"XIX. Century," November, 1922.—"Dumas and Sue in English," by W. Roberts.
Principal English Translations :—
The English editions of this romance are more numerous than any other of its author's works.
"The Three Musketeers" first appeared serially in the "London Journal," issued by Vickers, 1846. This may be only a long extract.
During the same year this firm also issued it in penny weekly and fivepenny and sixpenny monthly parts, printed in very small but beautifully clear type, with rough wood-blocks by John Gilbert. It was also issued as one volume, entitled : "Buckingham and Richelieu," 1846. pp. iv., 132. This is not a full text, and it has an unauthorized chapter.
"The Three Musketeers ; or, the Feats and Fortunes of a Gascon Adventurer," translated by W. Barrow, "Library of Foreign Romance," Vol. I., pp. 687, 1846. Bruce and Wyld.
"The Historical Romance of Buckingham and Richelieu," a reprint of Vicker's edition, with a different title-page ; London, Sinnet, Agent for Dumas' Publications, 1853.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Routledge, 1853. Translated by W. Robson. Frequently reprinted.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Warne, 1883.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Dicks, 8vo., sewed, with illustrations by Philippoteaux, etc.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Walter Scott, a new translation by H. L. Williams, 1893. Has an interpolated chapter taken from the prologue to Dumas' play "La Jeunesse des Mousquetaires."
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Dent, 2 vols., 1894. Reprinted, same firm, 1906 and 1926.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Routledge, 1894-95. With 250 woodcuts by Maurice Leloir, edition limited to 775 copies, 2 vols., imp. 8vo., pp. xxx., 472, xii., 462, with prefatory letter by A. Dumas fils. This edition was reprinted with all the woodcuts. 8vo., 1 vol., 1922.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Methuen, with a long introduction by Andrew Lang, sewed, 1903. Another edition, with coloured plates by F. Adams, 1903, cloth. Reprinted, same firm, 18mo., 1923.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Collins, 12mo., 1907. Later it was reprinted in two vols. instead of in one. Barrow's text.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Sampson Low, "Masterpieces of Fiction," 2 vols., 1912.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Harrap, new translation, with coloured plates by R. Wheelwright, royal 8vo., pp. 553, 1920.
"The Three Musketeers;" London, Nelson.
A finely illustrated souvenir of the stage production at Her Majesty's Theatre, by Sidney Grundy; London, Nassau Press, 1899, A version of the film plot, differing much from Dumas, was published as a small illustrated pamphlet by the Allied Artists' Corporation, London, 1921.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: HYMNE DE MILADY (1). (CXX.)
Three four-line stanzas, rhyming alternately. They are to be found in Chapter LIII. HYMNE DE MILADY (2). (CXXI.)
One four-line stanza, rhyming a, b, b, a. It is to be found in Chapter LV. RONDEAU PAR ARAMIS. (Addenda CCCIX.)
Five lines in Chapter XXVI rhyming a, b, b, a, c.
From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: It is not generally known that there are two - or three if it is preferred - texts of this famous romance; certainly the fact has been forgotten for three-quarters of a century, possibly for longer.
This is the only instance known of a romance deliberately having been 'proof read' by Dumas after completion, which makes the fact the more notable. Without elaborating the investigation and the details which determined this, it may be said that apparently he first intended merely to correct trifling slips in the text of the romance which had placed him at the very head of the popular story-tellers of his day. But Dumas was a born improvisor, and ere half his task was done he began altering phrases, sentences, paragraphs, even pages. However, the result was not always an improvement, as for example when he rather coarsened the milady episode, making it more nearly approach the handling of his original, Gatien de Courtilz. Almost all texts today, save those long out of print, are of the revision. In all there are over two hundred definite modifications, many of no small import or interest.
The original version, that published serially, had been perpetuated in the pirated Belgian issues, whose printers took their material straight from the newspaper issue, and it is to those, or the file of "Le Siècle," that we must turn for it.
The revision is that common today.
Then, when a publisher brought out the first illustrated edition, he selected his text as he fancied it from both those available. Always he chose what seemed to him preferable - I do not for one moment think this was the work of Dumas - and without sparing trouble. He would at times take the whole passage from one or other; but again he might build up a paragraph from sentences supplied by each, or even on occasion make a sentence from phrases of both the original and the revision.
Of translations into English, all recent ones are of the revised text, with two exceptions: that of Collins Bros. "Pocket Classics" is a reprint of Barrow's first English rendering, which was taken from the original wording, while Routledge's "Aramis Edition" is a hybrid, owing something to translations emanating from both the original and the later texts.
