The Three Muskateers, by Alexander Dumass

I can't help but think of that scene in the movie The Shawshank Redemption between three prison inmates who were sorting books for their new library. Here's, more or less, how it goes:

Red picks up a book and reads the title; it's about crafts and wood working.

"It goes under Educational," put it over there, says Andy.

Haywood, reading the spine of another book, says "The Count....of Monte.....Crrr..isto, by Alexandree........dumbass! Hmmm....Dumbass, what a name?" His friends laugh in the background.

Andy replies, "Dumas (pronounced 'dume-ah'). It's pronounced, Dumas. It's French. You should read it; it's a story about a prison break.

Red quips, "We should file that under Educational too, don't you think?" as they all chuckle together.

After several weeks of labouring through it's old language and French names and expressions, I recently finished reading the famed story by Alexander Dumas, The Three Musketeers.

The Three Musketeers has become part of my cultural formation. It is referenced as one of those stories that everyone has read and carries great fame. The motto, "All for one, and one for all," was part of the rhetoric in which I grew up. People would mention the Three Muskateers in the same way they would reference Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Eggo Waffles, Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Ninja Turtles, the Holocaust, and Hot Pockets. It was one of those things/stories/events/people that everyone seemed to know about and could make reference to without having to explain.

Somehow, I never actually knew the story of The Three Muskateers as a kid, and when I first watched Slumdog Millionaire I felt as if I was the only person in the theater who didn't know the answer to Jamal Malik's million dollar question: "What was the name of the third muskateer?" Well, now I do!

I read this book on my Nook, and it cost only $1 to buy. However, I would recommend paying for the $3 or $4 dollar version, because my version was lacking. It was a very old translation, so the old English took a while to get used to. Occasionally, I wondered if some foreign word was actually just a miss-type by the computer program transferring it from a scanned copy to a digital copy.

The Three Muskateers is the story of D'Artangan, a young Gascon swordsman with plenty courage, ambition and luck. He befriends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, three respected swordsmen among the muskateers whose purpose is to guard the kind of France. D'artangan wastes no time getting into local trouble as well as trouble with the powers that be, most importantly the Cardinal.

The pages are filled with dozens of sword fights, mysteries, false alliances, political power struggles, love stories and triangles, unbreakable friendships, sadness and sorrow, ethical dilemmas, heart break, and lots of that feel good stuff that happens when you get real attached to characters.

The famed motto, "All for one and one for all," which I grew up hearing and even making reference to myself, was given a much smaller emphasis than I'd anticipated, because it is only ever spoken once by a character. However, the heart of that motto is surely lived out time and time again by our four main characters. When D'Artangan is separated from his friends during a dangerous excursion, he, once all has settled, packs up and goes looking for them. He finds them and gives them whatever money he has so that they may return. And when D'Artangan's heart is broken and his anger raging, mighty Athos tends to him like noble brother offering both council for what to do next and a shoulder to cry upon.

The writing is fairly good. For 549 pages, Dumas keeps the pace of the book moving so that the reader does not get bored. The plot is far more intricate than I would have guessed, with double crosses, closed door conversations and surprises that I didn't see coming. As far as I could tell, Dumas has written a bit of historical fiction, as many of the political figures were actually real as well as one of the great battles covered in the book.

The Three Muskateers is indeed very worthy of a read by just about anyone who cares for a good story. I can see why this book etched its way into the modern day zeitgeist. It promotes selflessness, friendship, true love, and it shows the ugly side of selfish ambition, conceit, and hatred.

I give it a thumbs up.