Ok bibliophiles: Dumas

[Ambrus]

Brust does a good job with the characters, and I especially like the one lackey who lends a hand in the fights by swining his milking stool. A stout fellow, and loyal.

His name is Mica and he wield a bar stool, NOT a milking stool (it would be too short). He appropriates the bar stool to help defend his mistress Tazendra in the first novel's first bar brawl. He then proceeds to carry it with him for the rest of his adventuring career. In the Viscount of Adrilanka IIRC, several hundred years after the first novel, the reader gets to overhear a conversation between Mica and another servant as he demonstrates the bar stool fighting style that he's perfected since he first picked it up.

MICA RULES!

 

[Turhan]

Thanks Ambrus, at my age my memory is not what it should be.

And those later books with Mica are just as good as the first two.

Gotta remember that: Barstool. Barstool. Barstool.

Okay, I'm set.

 

[Rhialto]

The poster who recommends Steven Brust's Phoenix Guards and 500 Years After is right on point, too. These two books were written as an homage to Dumas.

The use of language is tasty. If you like lots of polite dialog before the swashing and buckling begins. Some of my friends think they have too much talk talk and narative, but it is after all an homage to the style of Dumas and the musketeers.

Brust does a good job with the characters, and I especially like the one lackey who lends a hand in the fights by swining his milking stool. A stout fellow, and loyal.

If you decide to watch the movies about the Dumas books, try to find the Richard Chamberlain version of The Count of Montecristo (early 1970's) as it is darker and more vicious than the new remake. Also, the 1948 version of the Three Musketeers covers the whole novel and stars Gene Kelly as D'Artagnan, and Gene does a rip roaring good job with lots of sword swinging. Neither movie is on dvd yet, so find the old vhs.
On a side note, two of Errorl Flynn's swashbucklers are out on dvd: The Seahawks and Captain Blood. Both are quite good. Plus, Scaramouche is on dvd and has a swordfight between Don Ameche and another fellow with both of them on a banister of a balcony in a large theater (the movie is okay too, but the fight is very good).

Enjoy!

That would be Stewart Granger, one of the last and greatest swashbucklers. His 1950s Prisoner of Zenda duel with James Mason is another one of cinema's greatest swordfights.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I feel I should point out that The Vicomte de Bragelonne is a huge book that contains both Louise de la Vallier and The Man in the Iron Mask.

Depends on where you get them. If you pick up the Oxford editions that are widely available in bookstores, as I did, they consist of three separate volumes. All of the stories, though, do comprise the final "Three Musketeers" arc. Very good reading.

 

[Fenris]

Thanks all for the info. I am well into the first book and enjoying it, so it looks like I have plenty to keep me busy for a while.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Don't forget "The Count of Monte Cristo."

 

[ragboy]

I highly recommend the Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After. I haven't read the next two, but someday I'll get to them. The beauty of Twenty Years After is that the Musketeers are actually on different sides throughout much of the book...


Also, if you're immersing yourself in Dumas, I'd check out Queen Margot (French Movie), from this book:
LA REINE MARGOT, 1845 - Margaret de Navarre / Marguerite de Valois - ( film 1994, dir. by Patrice Chereau, starring Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez)

Edit:


The Vicomte de Bragelonne is actually four books:

The Vicomte de Bragelonne is the final volume of D'Artagnan Romances. When Dumas wrote the novel publishers considered it too long and so they divided it into 3 sections. Some years later a different publisher divided it into 4 sections. Depending on which version you work off some of the books may start at different points. Our website is going to use the 4 book edition, which is outlined below:

The Vicomte de Bragelonne
First 75 chapters of the third book of the D'Artagnan Romances.
Covers the year 1660.
Ten Years Later
Chapters 76-140 of the third book of the D'Artagnan Romances.
Covers the years 1660-1661.
Louise de la Valliere
Chapters 141-208 of the third book of the D'Artagnan Romances.
Covers the year 1661.
The Man in the Iron Mask
Chapters 209-269 of the third book of the D'Artagnan Romances.
Covers the year 1660.

from here:
http://www.online-literature.com/dumas/vicomte_bragelonne/

 

[Welverin]

Once you've read them, by the way, pick up The Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years After, by Steven Brust

Don't stop there, either. Read everything by Brust you can get your hands on.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

If you decide to watch the movies about the Dumas books, try to find the Richard Chamberlain version of The Count of Montecristo (early 1970's) as it is darker and more vicious than the new remake.

The remake with Guy Pearce was actually pretty well done. I don't recall it doing well in the theatres, but I was very surprised (pleasantly so) with the movie.

Also, the 1948 version of the Three Musketeers covers the whole novel and stars Gene Kelly as D'Artagnan, and Gene does a rip roaring good job with lots of sword swinging. Neither movie is on dvd yet, so find the old vhs.

"The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers", starring Michael York as D'Artagnan and Oliver Reed as Athos, were pretty good. Stayed fairly accurate to the books, though some spots are a bit more lighthearted than I recall from Dumas' work (although 3M is a fairly picaresque yarn). Richard Chamberlain also stars as Aramis.

 

[Hand of Evil]

If may want to check out his books at Blaskmask.com here: http://www.blackmask.com/cgi-bin/ne...Adventure/Alexander_Dumas_Pere/index.html&d=1