Context: Started this on my way down from Mt. Wilhelm, PNG’s highest peak. Paused at a stream to get my breath back.
REVIEW
This is a rollicking tale of derring-do, as full of stereotypes as you like. The villains are really villains, the cowards are really cowardly and the heroes are really heroic. What it’s not is The Three Musketeers though. It should really be called D’Artagnan becomes the Fourth Musketeer.
There are these three official guys with swords and another one who isn’t official but still has a sword. Then there’s this evil but supposedly holy cardinal and a lady who is most definitely not a lady. D’Artagnan does a few things which impress the officials and earn him a place at the top of this lady’s hit list. But the lady herself is a wanted woman and finds herself in peril of her own life. Will she escape? Will D’Artangnan be her next victim. Da duh daaaaaaaaaaa…
This novel has quite a legacy and that’s why it rated good. If I wasn’t considering its place in history, I’d probably rate it okay mostly because I was put off by some of the melodrama. There’s a particularly pathetic scene in which Lord Buckingham and Anne of Austria pour sickly sweet sentiment over each other. I can do without adultery dressed up as romance.
The book did make me look forward to The Count of Monte Cristo because Dumas can definitely spin a yarn and develop a character. I think he’d do better in a longer book that focusses more on one character a la Cristo. We shall see.
OPENING LINE
On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the market town of Meung, in which the author of ROMANCE OF THE ROSE was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second La Rochelle of it.
99TH PAGE QUOTE
"My Lord, yes; it is possible that the influence of the place, the charm of the beautiful evening, the fascination of your look–the thousand circumstances, in short, which sometimes unite to destroy a woman—were grouped around me on that fatal evening; but, my Lord, you saw the queen come to the aid of the woman who faltered. At the first word you dared to utter, at the first freedom to which I had to reply, I called for help."
"Yes, yes, that is true. And any other love but mine would have sunk beneath this ordeal; but my love came out from it more ardent and more eternal. You believed that you would fly from me by returning to Paris; you believed that I would not dare to quit the treasure over which my master had charged me to watch. What to me were all the treasures in the world, or all the kings of the earth! Eight days after, I was back again, madame. That time you had nothing to say to me; I had risked my life and favour to see you but for a second. I did not even touch your hand, and you pardoned me on seeing me so submissive and so repentant."
CLOSING LINE
This might give the game away. If you want to see the last line, click show
In fact, M. Bonacieux, having left his house at seven o’clock in the evening to go to the Louvre, never appeared again in the Rue des Fossoyeurs; the opinion of those who seemed to be best informed was that he was fed and lodged in some royal castle, at the expense of his generous Eminence.
