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A review by spiderstapdance
The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas
4.0
It's somewhat difficult to rate this book appropriately because it's only the first part of the English translation of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne. Dumas didn't intend for it to be a book on its own, and so the ending, due to the intervention of the translator, is artificial and lacks a climax.
Nevertheless, The Vicomte de Bragelonne constitutes an admirable continuation of the D'Artagnan Romances. Dumas once again demonstrates his incredible ability to tell a story, still coupled with his amusingly loose grasp of English geography and history and his use of the same of France only as it suits his storytelling needs. (As the explanatory notes of my edition said "Dumas' calculations as cavalier as his heroes). Things are brought full circle by the entrance of the sons of characters from The Three Musketeers; taken with Raoul and the ascension of Louis XIV, it is clear that a new generation is rising.
Yet The Vicomte de Bragelonne holds several departures from the form of [b:The Three Musketeers|4534897|The Three Musketeers|Alexandre Dumas|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348845606s/4534897.jpg|1263212] and [b:Twenty Years After|7184|Twenty Years After (The D'Artagnan Romances, #2)|Alexandre Dumas|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1165607713s/7184.jpg|666376]. For one, our four musketeers have entered what we would now deem middle age, but what must, in the 1600s, probably have been considered their twilight years. Accordingly, there is less swashbuckling adventure and more political intrigue contained within The Vicomte de Bragelonne. This does not, as some have suggested, necessarily detract from the story on principle, in fact, it is admirable of Dumas to allow his characters to age, and to do it so faithfully to their original characters. One can see how the events of the intervening years have shaped and changed the heroes into what they are in The Vicomte de Bragelonne. The considerable length of the French edition relative to the first two books is probably due to the fact that Dumas follows more characters than in the previous installments and several more different, though interlocking, story lines. The Vicomte de Braggelone is different, but that doesn't make it bad, in fact it makes it rather refreshing, particularly as I struggled painfully through Twenty Years After.
Nevertheless, The Vicomte de Bragelonne constitutes an admirable continuation of the D'Artagnan Romances. Dumas once again demonstrates his incredible ability to tell a story, still coupled with his amusingly loose grasp of English geography and history and his use of the same of France only as it suits his storytelling needs. (As the explanatory notes of my edition said "Dumas' calculations as cavalier as his heroes). Things are brought full circle by the entrance of the sons of characters from The Three Musketeers; taken with Raoul and the ascension of Louis XIV, it is clear that a new generation is rising.
Yet The Vicomte de Bragelonne holds several departures from the form of [b:The Three Musketeers|4534897|The Three Musketeers|Alexandre Dumas|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348845606s/4534897.jpg|1263212] and [b:Twenty Years After|7184|Twenty Years After (The D'Artagnan Romances, #2)|Alexandre Dumas|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1165607713s/7184.jpg|666376]. For one, our four musketeers have entered what we would now deem middle age, but what must, in the 1600s, probably have been considered their twilight years. Accordingly, there is less swashbuckling adventure and more political intrigue contained within The Vicomte de Bragelonne. This does not, as some have suggested, necessarily detract from the story on principle, in fact, it is admirable of Dumas to allow his characters to age, and to do it so faithfully to their original characters. One can see how the events of the intervening years have shaped and changed the heroes into what they are in The Vicomte de Bragelonne. The considerable length of the French edition relative to the first two books is probably due to the fact that Dumas follows more characters than in the previous installments and several more different, though interlocking, story lines. The Vicomte de Braggelone is different, but that doesn't make it bad, in fact it makes it rather refreshing, particularly as I struggled painfully through Twenty Years After.