At a time of total book shortage, every self-respecting teenager in the country of the Soviets, in order not to be considered a pariah among his friends, by hook or by crook achieved his cherished dream - he read The Three Musketeers, thereby joining the circle of connoisseurs of the work of the great falsifier of history, Alexander Dumas the Father, even without assuming that there is also another writer - Alexandre Dumas the son.
However, why “The Three Musketeers”? Already at the end of the first part of the novel, d’Artagnan also becomes one “by the gracious order” of the king, and the daring trinity turns into a legitimate four. But these, in fact, are details to which Dumas always attached little importance. And which of the current undergrowth will become in the original to study a book of more than six hundred pages, when almost every month one of the many TV channels broadcasts a free adaptation of the novel in the interpretation of director Yungvald-Khilkevich under the again not entirely accurate title “D” Artagnan and the Three Musketeers”... The leitmotif of the film musical is clearly expressed by the rollicking soundtrack with the chorus “It’s time, it’s time, let’s rejoice in our lifetime...”
We will try to follow the truth and with a few strokes refute the established opinion about the nobility and courage of the “magnificent four”, who embody courage, selfless devotion, generosity and other captivating qualities of bosom friends.
Let's start with an impartial description of each. Firstly, Athos. Upon closer examination, he is a degraded drinker, a cynical misanthrope, trying to forget his past and not thinking about the future, retaining a feigned touch of noble nobility, since the title of count obliges him to do so.
Porthos is a glutton, a drinker, a fop and a gigolo of the skinny, not the first freshness, but the rich prosecutor of Madame Coquenard. His main advantage is brute physical strength, which corresponds to a complete lack of intelligence and extreme vanity.
Aramis is a ladies' man, a clever Jesuit, one of the forerunners of the "free masons", better known as the Freemasons, whose main goal was to achieve comprehensive power. For Aramis, getting closer to the goal justifies any means.
And finally - the soul, the accumulator of actions and ideas of d'Artagnan's merry company. A trickster, a rake, a slob and a cunning man, a thug and a deceiver.
Let us illustrate what has been said with references to the novel, upon careful reading of which everything mentioned above clearly emerges. Friends grab swords at every convenient and not so convenient opportunity - just to fight, to amuse themselves with daring fencing. They fight less with the enemy force, and more with their compatriots, since they are not of their clan. Right and left they inflict wounds and mutilations on noble chevaliers only for the reason that the latter are the guards of Cardinal Richelieu. The same Armand Jean du Plessis Richelieu, head of the Royal Council, who is essentially the de facto ruler of France under the weak-willed and incompetent Louis XIII, mention of whom you will not find in every encyclopedia.
The musketeers, led by d'Artagnan, get involved in a "suspended" intrigue, defending the interests of the Duke of Buckingham, the all-powerful minister and favorite of the English king, who started adultery with Queen Anne of Austria of France. By indulging the lust of lovers, the daring four betray the interests of France, for which, and according to the statement Dumas, and in fact England was the original enemy.
In the race for pendants and the behavior of Athos, Porthos and Aramis, who did not reach England, in the places of their forced stops, all those not entirely noble traits that we have already talked about really manifest themselves.
And who is d'Artagnan himself? He enters into friendly relations with the enemy of his king, leads the representatives of real power - the cardinal's guards - by the nose, rescues the unfaithful queen from trouble, seducing in the meantime someone else's wife - Constance Bonacieux, who is, in fact, the state the criminal does not stop there: the leaping lust gives no rest - and now, under someone else’s guise, he climbs into my lady’s bed, seducing her maid Katie in the process, mocks the cuckold Bonacieux, who faithfully serves the cardinal, and therefore the legitimate authority, and continues. from time to time to string the guardsmen on the sword.
And then the bosom friends commit a completely base act - without trial or investigation, solely of their own free will, they execute Milady together with Lord Winter. The same milady who is the executor of Richelieu’s will, identifying power in France, the same milady with whom the drunkard Athos was unable to get rid of him at one time. Five men, hung from head to toe with weapons, plus a professional executioner and a defenseless woman - it’s somehow difficult to reconcile all this with nobility, courage and courage.
All this taken together is called differently - treachery and recklessness, indignity and betrayal, deceit in the end.
As for sincere friendship, the friends fled for twenty years and did not see each other all this time after the events described in the novel. It looks like their conscience has kicked in, but they haven’t lost it yet.
Perhaps what is written above is not at all indisputable. Maybe. But this opportunity became a reality for the reader because at a young age he adores heroes who succeed in everything, who live a full and beautiful life. He also wants to live such a life, he also wants to succeed in everything. Why not - here is an example on more than six hundred pages.
And therefore - viva, musketeers!
© Valery Korneev
The Three Musketeers in Dumas's novel The Three Musketeers
I really liked the novel “The Three Musketeers” by the French writer Alexandre Dumas. It is very exciting, dynamic, and has a lot of adventure. There are many heroes in it - they are good and bad. Good heroes include Monsieur de Treville, the captain of the royal musketeers, and the royal musketeers themselves. They are brave, courageous, honest. There are four main characters in the novel - Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan. They are friends and always stand up for each other. They even have a motto: “One for all and all for one.” They did not immediately become friends: at first they did not like D’Artagnan because he was very young, did not behave as he should, and made a lot of noise. But then they realized that he was a good and honest person, and they became friends. Athos, Porthos and Aramis were the most famous and bravest musketeers. They served the king, wore special musketeer cloaks and fought with swords. Their sworn enemies are the guards of Cardinal Richelieu. So they fought with them, and also in all sorts of duels. The king and the cardinal were at enmity with each other, and if you were on someone’s side, then you could no longer be a friend to others. Musketeers are all very different. The eldest of them is Athos. S is very noble, smart and brave, but he never laughs. Nobody knew his real name. Everyone respected Athos very much and obeyed him.
Porthos is the strongest of the musketeers, he eats a lot and likes to drink wine. He is very honest and simple. I really like Porthos because he says everything directly: “I fight because I fight.” The most cunning and educated of the musketeers is Aramis. He loves beautiful things, takes care of himself and never gets into a fight openly. He is not a coward, but prefers to negotiate. When it is impossible to reach an agreement, he fights very bravely. D'Artagnan is the youngest and most reckless of his friends. Because of him, they find themselves in different situations, but strong friendship helps them get out of them. At the end of the book, the friends break up, and it's very disappointing. Each of them goes on their own path.
3.6 / 5. 8
stratified/3/4.jpg> It is much easier to answer the question why we don’t like them, if, of course, such an option exists. Firstly, there is one annoying feature in “The Musketeers”: for some reason Dumas does not like to talk about the personal life and past of his heroes. Lack of information fuels unsatisfied curiosity, and it’s annoying! On the other hand, gaps in our knowledge make us love heroes even more, because by choice we invent our own stories for them, and this makes up for the lack of knowledge. But still, how we would like to know at least the real name of Porthos, or how the first meeting of the Comte de La Fère with Charlotte Buckson took place, or where Aramis is from. It seems that Dumas was in too much of a hurry to write the novel, and he had to come up with further biographies of the musketeers.Secondly, the idealization of the musketeers is a little annoying. Any of their actions, no matter how terrible they are, are justified. They have no shortcomings. And even the hypocrisy and deceit of Aramis, the arrogance of d'Artagnan, the stupidity of Porthos and the drunkenness of Athos suddenly turn into symbols of nobility and higher spiritual qualities. Has anyone misjudged the fact that the valiant Gascon played tricks with a married lady? And the fact that Angered by unknown reasons, Count de La Fère hanged his wife with his own hands, and then killed her with the help of three noble nobles? And the fact that the royal knights did not help the king and the queen - in betrayal and treason. In fact, the “musketeers” can be rewritten. , without changing a single chapter, but only the attitude of the author, and get a nightmarish book about outrages and anarchy in the Middle Ages. But it is here that we return to the reasons for our comprehensive love for this brilliant book.
So why do we love The Three Musketeers? First of all (and this is not just my personal opinion) for Athos. Only Dumas was able to breathe into a character, seemingly unprepossessing and melancholic, so much love that it was enough to turn him into a demigod. Athos gives the book a certain magic and faith in human qualities. It embodies all of Dumas’s humanism, his desire for the lofty and the victory of the spirit. What nonsense am I talking about here? You might think! Athos is simply a hero living outside the book. He's wonderful and I'm head over heels in love with him.
Then we love the Musketeers for Aramis and Porthos. They are so human and subtle and look so good together that it is impossible not to love them. And of course, for the brave Gascon d'Artagnan, whom everyone wants to be like and whom there are simply not enough words for, how magnificent he is in every sense.
The next point of our love is, of course, the friendship that reigns between the musketeers, friendship that brings tears to our eyes, heroic songs that lead to victories, friendship that we all envy very much, but alas, we do not find anyone who would like to give for us even though maybe a drop of blood.
Whatever you say, we love the “musketeers” even more thanks to Milady. The femme fatale devil, what girl wouldn't want to be like her, or at least play her? What boy wouldn't want to have her? It is Milady who is a real woman, and not this sheep Constance, who threw herself on the neck of the first person she met and married an old haberdasher. Sorry, but is it better to be branded a spy in the service of a cardinal? What a pity that there are so few scenes between the de La Fere spouses in the book. They could have succeeded... Dumas was probably frightened by this turn of events.
Naturally, we adore The Musketeers for the way they are written. The images literally come to life without much tedious description thanks to the excellent dialogue - sharp, fast and caustic.
Dumas's dramatic genius is in full force in this novel, which is literally made for film adaptation.
“The Three Musketeers” is a hymn to friendship, courage, devotion, and nobility. There is something elusive in the book that makes you re-read it several times and forget about everything in the world when it falls into your hands. As if there was some magical power in her. This work makes you fall in love not only with its characters and plot, but also with the location, during the action; into the history of France, into France itself, into Paris with its dirty, narrow streets and noisy taverns, into the distant and gloomy 17th century, in which such noble nobles existed.
Of course, we shouldn’t mistake “The Three Musketeers” for a historical document or a psychological novel, but tell me, what would our childhood and our youth look like if this one-of-a-kind book had not existed, which no one has been able to imitate and which no writer has ever been able to imitate? could you surpass?
"The Three Musketeers" is a typical historical feuilleton novel. But that doesn't stop it from being amazing.
Good and evil
Traditionally, book heroes are divided into positive and negative. At the same time, the line between these two characteristics is never clear. So it is with Dumas. On the one hand, all the characters in the book can be attributed to one or another “camp”: the reader is completely clear that the root of all troubles in the novel is the insidious Cardinal Richelieu, as well as his close associates Count Rochefort and Milady. At the same time, the reader has no doubt that the musketeers, together with D’Artagnan, represent the “forces of good”, as they fight against the Cardinal, prevent the Queen from tarnishing her honor, help the King, etc. At the same time, the three musketeers, if you look more closely, are the most disgusting people: together they kill people right and left (while de Treville tries in every possible way to “cover up” them and justify them before the King), individually they also have few attractive features: Athos - a drunkard, Aramis - a hypocrite prone to posing, Porthos lives at the expense of a woman. And they do not always act correctly and well. At the same time, at certain moments, you begin to understand that the Cardinal is not so bad, and maybe he really is doing everything “for the good of France,” no matter how Dumas tries to denigrate him (who, by the way, in the book “Twenty Years Later” "pays tribute to the deceased Cardinal, noting that the current one (Mazarin) is only his shadow). The king is presented as a weak-willed person who follows the lead of others. Much can be said about Anne of Austria...
Good and evil in Dumas' novel merge, mix, and often mutually replace each other. He makes it clear that not everything that is good is really good, and from all sides, but everything that is bad is not so evil in fact.
Things are bad with love in the novel, in the sense that in Dumas in The Three Musketeers, love is really a problem that can bring nothing but bitterness and pain. The story of Athos speaks most eloquently about this, as well as his words spoken to D’Artagnan: “I want to say that love is a lottery in which the winner gets death! Believe me, dear d'Artagnan, you are very lucky that you lost! Always lose - that is my advice." At the same time, Athos is the only person in the book generally capable of such a feeling. Since D'Artagnan is too frivolous and young, Porthos is only interested in material well-being, while Aramis, despite the fact that he is secretly in love with two women, Marie de Chevreuse and Camille de Bois-Trassy, loves himself most of all (in my opinion, but, despite all these reservations). , love plays an important role in the book.
Friendship in the novel “The Three Musketeers” is its most important component, because without it there would be neither the plot nor the novel itself. It is amazing, of course, how quickly D'Artagnan and the three musketeers become friends, but their friendship cannot but arouse envy. It can even be considered a standard, which is why it is, without a doubt, one of the main ideas of the novel. It is friendship that is the thing for which the heroes of the novel are worth living. The importance of this cannot be overestimated, since even love could not become such a thing.
Faith, religion, and the church in the book are personified by Aramis, who from childhood was preparing to be ordained, but life took a turn in such a way that he had to become a musketeer. But of course, not for long. Aramis dreams of his spiritual future, constantly reminding everyone around him that he is a musketeer only temporarily and that in the future a cassock awaits him. But all this can be understood in two ways. On the one hand, he is really ready to be ordained; he sees his future only in the monastery and does not find his place among the musketeers. “The world is a crypt,” he says, and this is precisely what expresses his entire attitude towards worldly life. However, at the same time, on the other hand, he is sorry to part with everything that is in his current life. Aramis is incredibly prone to posing. Sometimes his desire for spiritual life takes on an indicative character, for example, he uses Latin expressions appropriately and inappropriately, sometimes he sits down to write a theological dissertation, sometimes he drops everything and runs to his beloved. It begins to seem that what attracts him to monastic life is not the internal (spiritual) component, but only the outer shell. The opportunity to get away from everyone and everything that is not in his spirit and not to his liking.
What follows from this? Contradiction. Since the 17th century, the Catholic Church has been losing its position; it no longer plays the same comprehensive role as in the Middle Ages. Distrust in the church appears, and Protestantism has been gaining momentum since the 16th century. Faith becomes superficial.
In the 19th century, when Dumas writes “The Three Musketeers,” everything happens the other way around: the Catholic Church begins to make up for its positions and regains its former authority. Religiosity is being revived.
Thus, Dumas plays on contradictions: he shows the Catholic Church at a time of its weakness, but tries to give it an authority that was not inherent in it at that time.
The novel "The Three Musketeers" is one of my favorite books. And despite the fact that the attitude towards the plot, characters and their actions changes after each new reading, “The Three Musketeers” will never leave the realm of “favorite”, because it is something that you don’t want to let go of.
A 19th-century man, tired of bourgeois boredom and sober practicality, looked for his ideal in 17th-century France, and one can understand why. Dumas paints historical reality so attractive that you want to grab the hilt of your sword and jump into the book towards adventure. And it doesn’t matter that there is intrigue, murder, blood... What matters is that there is friendship, honor and heroism. People look in books for what they are missing around them at the moment. And it doesn’t matter what century these people live in - in the 21st or 19th, everyone is equal before the dream, especially when it is so attractive.
Dumas has an amazing command of language. The novel is incredibly dynamic, it doesn’t let go for a second, and carries you along to new and new places. All the characters in the book are written down to the smallest detail and do not leave the reader indifferent. It is impossible, despite all their shortcomings, not to admire the mind of Athos, it is impossible not to observe and evaluate the development of D’Artagnan throughout the book, it is impossible not to fall in love with the kind Porthos (and it doesn’t matter that he can’t sing!), or to take his eyes off the beautiful Aramis.
Sometimes, you begin to forget who Richelieu was in historical reality, you begin to hate him, and wish good luck to the musketeers, despite the fact that not all of their actions are correct.
"The Three Musketeers" is a novel worthy of multiple readings. I don't think he can get bored. It’s a bit of a pity that this book passed me by as a child, and I managed to read it for the first time not so long ago. But... what else can I say?
Alexandre Dumas is a master of his craft.