{"id":6345,"date":"2018-01-16T04:36:21","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T12:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=6345"},"modified":"2018-02-22T11:03:51","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T19:03:51","slug":"classics-club-18-twenty-years-after-by-alexandre-dumas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/classics-club-18-twenty-years-after-by-alexandre-dumas","title":{"rendered":"Classics Club #18: Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Musketeer<\/p>\n

The Three Musketeers<\/em> by Alexandre Dumas is one of my favorite all-time books. I might even put it up there with the likes of\u00a0The Lord of the Rings, Master and Commander, <\/em>and\u00a0Don Quixote<\/em>. And like the characters in those other books, the characters in\u00a0The Three Musketeers<\/em> are old friends of mine. I love hanging out not only with D’Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, but also with their servants Planchet, Mousqueton, Grimaud, and Bazin.<\/p>\n

\"TwentyI’ve read the book maybe three of four times in my life, most recently in December of 2015, and it was after that reading that I found out about the sequels. It took me quite awhile to sort them out, though, because they have been packaged and repackaged in several editions over the years, with several different names. The most famous of the sequels is The Man in the Iron Mask<\/em>, but it’s actually the last in the series. Here are the D’Artagnan Romances (as they are called), as currently published by Oxford World’s Classics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Three Musketeers<\/em><\/a> (704 pages)<\/li>\n
  2. Twenty Years After<\/em><\/a> (880 pages)<\/li>\n
  3. The Vicomte de Bragelonne<\/em><\/a> (768 pages)<\/li>\n
  4. Louise de la Valli\u00e8re<\/em><\/a> (768 pages)<\/li>\n
  5. The Man in the Iron Mask<\/em><\/a> (656 pages)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Though it looks like there are five books in the series, there are really only three:\u00a0The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After<\/em>, and\u00a0The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later<\/em>. But\u00a0The Vicomte de Bragelonne<\/em> is so long it is divided into three volumes, the last of which is\u00a0The Man in the Iron Mask<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    When I was making my Classics Club list<\/a>, the first titles I put on it were the D’Artagnan sequels, so eager was I to read them. I plan on reading one each year from 2018-2021.<\/p>\n

    It was with great anticipation, then, that I began\u00a0Twenty Years After.<\/em>\u00a0I have to admit, though, that I was a little worried. After all, the story takes place twenty years after the events of\u00a0The Three Musketeers<\/em>, and the characters would be, well,\u00a0old<\/em>. How active could they be compared to when they were young and spry?<\/p>\n

    I’m happy to say that my worries were all unfounded. Yes, the musketeers are twenty years older, but they’re still in their early forties and just as energetic as ever, if a bit wiser.\u00a0Twenty Years After<\/em> was a great story, almost as entertaining as\u00a0The Three Musketeers<\/em>. Nearly all the elements were there from the original: the action, the humor, the intrigue, the history. The antagonists weren’t quite as compelling as in\u00a0The Three Musketeers<\/em>, but then it’s hard to top villains like Cardinal Richelieu and Milady.<\/p>\n

    The story takes place in France and England around the year 1650 when Louis XIV is still a child and the English Civil War is coming to an end. Queen Anne of Austria is regent of France, assisted by First Minister Cardinal Mazarin, and Charles I contends with Oliver Cromwell for control of England. D’Artagnan and the three musketeers find themselves drawn back into the unstable political climate and at the center of the hurricane in both France and England.<\/p>\n

    All in all, I was thrilled with\u00a0Twenty Years After<\/em>, and I’m eagerly looking forward to the other books in the series. If you’re a fan of\u00a0The Three Musketeers<\/em>, don’t pass this book by.<\/p>\n

    Twenty Years After<\/em><\/a> by Alexandre Dumas
    \nOriginally serialized in 1845
    \nKindle edition<\/em> Oxford World’s Classics
    \nPrint length: 880 pages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas is one of my favorite all-time books. I might even put it up there with the likes of\u00a0The Lord of the Rings, Master and Commander, and\u00a0Don Quixote. And like the characters in those other books, the characters in\u00a0The Three Musketeers are old friends of mine. I love hanging out not only with D’Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, but also with their servants Planchet, Mousqueton, Grimaud, and Bazin. I’ve read the book maybe three of four times in my life, most recently in...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Classics Club #18: Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas #ccbookreviews","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1057,5],"tags":[631,36,842,47,830,83,625],"class_list":["post-6345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-books","tag-alexandre-dumas","tag-book-recommendations","tag-book-reviews","tag-classics","tag-classics-club","tag-historical-fiction","tag-the-three-musketeers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/musketeer_detail.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1El","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6345"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6364,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6345\/revisions\/6364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}