Musketeers Week: Reading List: All for One

Musketeers

“BBC AMERICA’s new co-production drama series, The Musketeers, is set on the streets of seventeenth century Paris, where law and order is an idea more than a reality. In addition to being King Louis XIII’s personal bodyguards, Athos, Aramis and Porthos stand resolutely for social justice, honor, valor, love – and for the thrill of it.” [The Musketeers Official Website]

Related Works by Alexandre Dumas:

  • three.musketeersThe Three Musketeers
  • The Man in the Iron Mask
    “In the Musketeers’ final adventure, D’Artagnan remains in the service of the corrupt King Louis XIV after the Three Musketeers have retired and gone their separate ways. Meanwhile, a mysterious prisoner in an iron mask wastes away deep inside the Bastille. When the destinies of king and prisoner converge, the Three Musketeers and D’Artagnan find themselves caught between conflicting loyalties.”
  • Twenty Years After
    “Two decades have passed since the musketeers triumphed over Cardinal Richelieu and Milady. Time has weakened their resolve, and dispersed their loyalties. But treasons and strategems still cry out for justice: civil war endangers the throne of France, while in England Cromwell threatens to send Charles I to the scaffold. Dumas brings his immortal quartet out of retirement to cross swords with time, the malevolence of men, and the forces of history. But their greatest test is a titanic struggle with the son of Milady, who wears the face of Evil.”
  • The Vicomte de Bragelonne
    “It is May 1660 and the fate of nations is at stake. Mazarin plots, Louis XIV is in love, and Raoul de Bragelonne, son of Athos, is intent on serving France and winning the heart of Louise de la Valliere. D’Artagnan, meanwhile, is perplexed by a mysterious stranger, and soon he learns that his old comrades already have great projects in hand. Athos seeks the restoration of Charles II, while Aramis, with Porthos in tow, has a secret plan involving a masked prisoner and the fortification of the island of Belle-Ile. D’Artagnan finds a thread leading him to the French court, the banks of the Tyne, the beaches of Holland, and the dunes of Brittany.”

I. Where & When: General History

Perhaps you don’t know much about the Musketeer’s complex world: the religious conflict and wars, the unstable monarchies, political intrigue to spare.

II. Biography

Curious about the real-life individuals who make up Dumas’ novel? Dumas himself? We have biographies!

III. Weaponry & Clothing

Is it possible to put together a Musketeers reading list and not include their weapons–swords and muskets and the like–or their clothing? No, I think not.

IV. Swashbuckling Fiction & Other Readalikes

As you may recall from this post, Dumas mentions Don Quixote in his introduction of D’Artagnan, so…If you gravitate towards doorstoppers, you may enjoy reading Cervantes’ novel. Or, if you’ve read the classic, you could try Spinning Out by David Stahler Jr., a YA novel featuring a main character obsessed with his town’s high tech wind turbines, who also lands the lead role in his school’s play: Man of La Mancha.

V. Movies

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