The Three Musketeers
Publisher Description
The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to become a musketeer. D'Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title; those are his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis -- inseparable friends who live by the motto, "One for all, and all for one". The Three Musketeers was first published in serial form in the magazine Le Siècle between March and July 1844. Dumas claimed it was based on manuscripts he had discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It was later proven that Dumas had based his work on the book Mémoires de Monsieur D'Artagnan, capitaine lieutenant de la première compagnie des Mousquetaires du Roi (Memoirs of Mister D'Artagnan, Lieutenant Captain of the first company of the King's Musketeers) by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (Cologne, 1700).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The picaresque adventures of the young d'Artagnan, who strives to become a musketeer in service of the king, unfold in a visually vibrant adaptation of Dumas's novel. It's no easy task to condense such a sprawling story into a picture book, and readers may have trouble keeping up with the swerves of the plot. French artist Andr uses airy, watercolorlike effects to create dramatic visuals suggestive of stills from an animated action film. It's an ambitious retelling, but most readers will probably benefit from outside research or conversations with adults to better understand the context and stakes of the story. Ages 8 11.
