My rating: 9.5/10
I took up this book again after having read it some 10 years back. And I was enthralled yet again by the fluid storytelling. Well, that I guess is one of the qualifiers of all classics! It has brought amusement and pleasure to readers from every niche of the society since the 18th century. Maybe all that I say about this book has already been said before. But still I shall try to put forward my feelings and observations on re-reading this masterpiece.
The Three Musketeers is a story of young love and passion in the backdrop of feudal France. Narrated in a very fluid manner, with subtle humor making one's lips curve up at every other paragraph. This book gives a glimpse of 18th century France, in all its regal splendor and riches of the aristocrats - where the people had not yet risen up against their rulers in the bloody revolution that marked the end of the century. The battles fought were against foreign powers, and not your own countrymen. Life was still peaceful for the aristocratic class. The story revolves around this privileged class. It portrays how this society had lost much of its value in its amorous exploits. We find this morality saved only in the character of Athos. However, d'Artagnan, the protagonist is seen to lose his virtue in the ardor of youthfulness. Keeping mistresses and infidelity seems to be a common affair in the society of the upper class. In the dazzles brought about by riches, the value system had been on the downward path, definitely attributing as one of the reasons of the mass rebellion that followed. The story depicts how political decisions were based on romantic exploits of the ruling classes. Treachery and spy-networks of feudal Europe also get portrayed in the narration.
The story takes a very light-hearted form from the very beginning, however, the sarcasm of the author is apparent in every proceeding. How young hearts change rapidly from one mistress to the next, how vengeance overshadows the rationality of the mind, how political decisions are based on a man's whims and fantasies - Dumas is an excellent painter of all these hypocrisies. He has kept his readers glued to the pages of this story for generations, and will still keep them riveted for generations to come. The reader however, does not leave the book with just a light-hearted story-line; he finds himself reflecting on all these hypocrisies and atrocities of the 18th century nobility. None of the characters are devoid of flaws - the most humane quality in us humans. Maybe that is what draws these characters so near to our hearts. This is definitely a must-read for all - and a book whose pages must be revisited from time to time.
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