D'Artagnan Romances

For the first time in English in over a century comes a new translation of the forgotten sequel to Dumas's The Three Musketeers, continuing the dramatic tale of Cardinal Richelieu and his implacable enemies. In 1844, Alexandre Dumas published The Three Musketeers, a novel so famous and still so popular today that it scarcely needs introduction. Shortly thereafter he wrote a sequel, Twenty Years After that resumed the adventures of his swashbuckling heroes. Later, toward the end of his career, Dumas wrote The Red Sphinx, another direct sequel to The Three Musketeers that begins not twenty years later but a mere twenty days afterward. The Red Sphinx picks up right where The Three Musketeers left off, continuing the stories of Cardinal Richelieu, Queen Anne, and King Louis XIII-and introducing a charming new hero, the Comte de Moret, a real historical figure from the period. A young cavalier newly arrived in Paris, Moret is an illegitimate son of the former king and thus half-brother to King Louis. The French Court seethes with intrigue as king, queen, and cardinal all vie for power, and young Moret soon finds himself up to his handsome neck in conspiracy, danger-and passionate romance. Dumas wrote seventy-five chapters of The Red Sphinx for serial publication but never finished it, and so the novel languished for almost a century before its first book publication in France in 1946. While Dumas never completed the book, he had earlier written a separate novella, The Dove, which recounted the final adventures of Moret and Cardinal Richelieu. Now for the first time, in one cohesive narrative, The Red Sphinx and The Dove make a complete and satisfying story line-a rip-roaring novel of historical adventure, heretofore unknown to English-language readers, by the great Alexandre Dumas, king of the swashbucklers.

A new translation of Dumas's rousing sequel to The Three Musketeers, picking up twenty years after the conclusion of that classic novel and continuing the adventures of the valiant d'Artagnan and his three loyal friends The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas's most famous and enduring novel, completed its serial publication in the summer of 1844, and by the time of its book publication at the end of that year, readers were already demanding a sequel. They got it starting in January 1845, when the first chapters of Twenty Years After began to appear—but it wasn't quite what they were expecting. When Twenty Years After opens it is 1648: the Red Sphinx, Cardinal Richelieu, is dead, France is ruled by a regency in the grip of civil war, and across the English Channel the monarchy of King Charles I hangs by a thread. As d'Artagnan will find, these are problems that can't be solved with a sword thrust. In Twenty Years After, the musketeers confront maturity and face its greatest challenge: sometimes, you fail. It's in how the four comrades respond to failure, and rise above it, that we begin to see the true characters of Dumas's great heroes. A true literary achievement, Twenty Years After is long overdue for a modern reassessment—and a new translation. As an added inducement, Lawrence Ellsworth has discovered a "lost" chapter that was overlooked in the novel's original publication, and is included in none of the available English translations to date—until now.

Originally published in 1845 as a sequel to The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After is a supreme creation of suspense and heroic adventure. Two decades have passed since the three musketeers triumphed over Cardinal Richelieu and Milady. Time has weakened their resolve and dispersed their loyalties. But treasons and stratagems still cry out for justice: civil war endangers the throne of France, while in England, Cromwell threatens to send Charles I to the scaffold. Dumas brings his immortal quartet out of retirement to cross swords with time, the malevolence of men, and the forces of history. But their greatest test is a titanic struggle with the son of Milady, who wears the face of Evil.

The four dauntless comrades in arms from The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask are reunited in this extraordinary tale. Dumas brilliantly weaves the story into the tapestry of both French and English history. In Paris the four protect Queen Anne and the young Louis XIV from swelling revolution. In England they take on the ambitious Oliver Cromwell. Once again we are treated to the ring of swords, hearts are won or lost, and revenge is sweet. In one of the most satisfying finishes in literature the four heroes fulfil their dreams, Athos, Porthos and Aramis retreating to a graceful retirement and D'Artagnan, rewarded with the promotion he has dreamt of for two decades, ready for new adventures.

Thirty years after their first adventures in The Three Musketeers, we find Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan in very different situations, now. Athos has settled down at his own estate. Porthos married a rich widow, and is now a Baron. Aramis joined a monastery, and is now the Bishop of Vannes. D'Artagnan alone remains a Musketeer for the king, and is now captain of the very force he so longed to join all those years ago. In The Man in the Iron Mask, Dumas rounds out his Musketeers into probing, multifaceted characters. Each now has a wealth of experience behind each of his actions. This is no simple adventure tale. It is political intrigue at its finest.

Brave, impulsive and infinitely susceptible, D'Artagnan triumphs on the duelling ground and in the boudoir by virtue of his charm, his wit and skills at arms. When these resources prove insufficient his faithful friends Athos, Porthos and Aramis, the Three Musketeers, save the day.