The Three Musketeers: All for One, and One for All (Lecture on Ch. I-XXII)

'It is by his courage alone that a gentleman makes his way nowadays. Do not shrink from opportunities and seek out adventures. Fight all the more because duels are forbidden, and therefore it takes twice the courage to fight.’

Welcome back to the exhilarating world of seventeenth century France, where we are discovering what it takes to become a member of the King's musketeers.

Today we're discussing history vs myth, courtly love romance, the hero's journey, bravery vs cowardice vs recklessness, gothic secret, comic tones, how young men see the world, wars of religion, the father of Alexandre Dumas, and much more.

Please do feel free to enjoy the discussion even if you haven't read these parts of The Three Musketeers yet. I'm refraining from plot details for later in the story, so you can enjoy our talk before, during, or after your reading in the way that best suits you.

Timestamps:

0:00 welcome to 17th century France

1:00 the original title of the novel

3:00 discovering the story’s history

4:00 the act of writing is a drama 

5:00 reading the preface together

6:00 are our heroes mythological?

8:00 interplay of fiction & history

10:00 truth telling in dangerous times

11:00 history & symbolism of the Bastille

14:00 mind of poet vs mass of readers

15:00 reading the first chapter together

17:00 romance as genre of springtime

18:00 village of Meung as threshold

19:00 chivalric courtly love tradition

22:00 when courtly love becomes cliche

24:00 comic tone of Alexandre Dumas

25:00 leaving the house of your father

27:00 ‘be brave because you are my son’

28:00 the shadow of General Dumas

29:00 what does it mean to be a Gascon?

30:00 departure in the heroic monomyth

31:00 the Great Man theory of history

32:00 Alexandre Dumas’ political beliefs

34:00 Don Quixote vs d’Artagnan

35:00 the trials of being a young man

36:00 the stranger the Jolly Miller Inn

39:00 meeting the figure of Milady

40:00 when d’Artagnan sells his horse

41:00 why we love imperfect heroes

42:00 meeting Monsieur de Tréville 

44:00 the French Wars of Religion

46:00 King’s vs Cardinal’s musketeers

47:00 musketeers at Tréville’s residence

50:00 meeting Athos, Porthos & Aramis

52:00 heroes in the wake of Odysseus 

54:00 the idealised time of Charlemagne

56:00 why men respect their enemies

58:00 bravery, cowardice, recklessness

59:00 the iconic opening triple duel

1:01:00 when the three become four

1:03:00 Louis impressed by d’Artagnan

1:05:00 the character of King Louis XIII

1:07:00 three estates social hierarchy

1:09:00 Ajax, Achilles, and Joseph

1:11:00 significance of the number four

1:12:00 the mission from M. Bonacieux 

1:15:00 on the damsel-in-distress trope

1:17:00 Bonacieux’s comical arrest scene

1:18:00 ‘all for one, and one for all’

1:19:00 meeting Madame Bonacieux 

1:21:00 the secret history of the Louvre

1:23:00 when d’Artagnan falls in love

1:26:00 the imagination of young men

1:28:00 the city of Paris as character

1:29:00 Shakespeareanism in Dumas 

1:30:00 who is the Duke of Buckingham?

1:32:00 the romance with Queen Anne

1:35:00 interrogation of M. Bonacieux

1:37:00 meeting Cardinal Richelieu

1:40:00 revealing Count Rochefort 

1:41:00 the diamond tags plot device

1:44:00 the farce of husband vs wife

1:46:00 one of my favourite passages

1:47:00 musketeer mission to England

1:50:00 our next reading assignment 

Resources to Explore:

• Audio Dramatisations: Fancy some wonderful audio productions of Alexandre Dumas' great story? Well, there's an excellent one starring Julian Glover and Anton Lesser, serialised by BBC radio in the early nineties here. For a more recent audio dramatisation, there is an excellent Audible Original with superb production value here.

• Comparative: You might find it interesting to bring some of the other authors we've read together into discussion with Alexandre Dumas. How do the heroes of this story compare with those we have met in Homer's Iliad or Ovid's Metamorphoses? And how does the storytelling style of Dumas, the characterisation, and his handling of history compare with other great writers of the age, like Dickens, Hugo, and Tolstoy? Indeed, how does The Three Musketeers compare with The Count of Monte Cristo? If you've read both, can you tell they were written the same year?

• Music Appreciation: Treat yourself to a listen to the Ballet de la Merlaison (Ballet of the Blackbird Hunt), a court ballet that has its words, music, costumes, and choreography attributed to King Louis XIII, which he wrote to designate the feast after a blackbird hunt. For more beautiful music from the age of Louis XIII, put this on and relax.

• History: If you find this historical epoch as fascinating as I do, you might find it rewarding to pick one of the era's figures that most intrigues you and learn more about them through biographies or documentaries. If you did this with every book you read, your knowledge of history (because biography is history, and vice versa) would swiftly become impressive. If Cardinal Richelieu fascinates you, check out Éminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France by Jean-Vincent Blanchard. For King Louis XIII, check out Louis XIII, the Just by A. Lloyd Moote. For Queen Anne, Anne of Austria by Ruth Kleinman is good. For the Duke of Buckingham, The Scapegoat by Lucy Hughes Hallet is a great read. Of course, learning about one will naturally involve learning about them all.

• Meet the Translators: How are you enjoying your chosen translation of The Three Musketeers? If you're in the mood for an excellent interview, then check out this discussion with Lawrence Ellsworth (and this one is interesting too). For an interview with Richard Pevear, The Paris Review sat down with him and Larissa Volokohsnky here. They focus on their translation of the great Russian writers, but it's still fascinating to read about Pevear's translation ethos.

• Explore: Step inside the grand Château de Monte-Cristo, and enjoy the grounds of the beautiful and historic home of Alexandre Dumas, located in Port-Marly, via this video tour. Just for fun, check out this clip of one of my favourite parts of the film The Shawshank Redemption in which our beloved Dumas gets an amusing namedrop

• Rare Books: Whenever I read through a great book, I inevitably end up watching videos featuring rare editions of the work. You can see Rebecca Romney showing off the first complete edition of The Three Musketeers in English here, along with a rare seventeenth-century work called The Heroine Musketeer. This work is about a woman who dresses up as a soldier to join the French army. Having these two together on the same shelf is quite the conversation starter!

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion will cover up to and including chapter forty-one of this swashbuckling adventure, which is entitled 'The Siege of La Rochelle.' We will be discussing this next leg of the journey this coming weekend.

Now we're going to find out what it means to have the heart of a musketeer as we continue to accompany our four friends on this thrilling adventure. So continue enjoying the story, making notes on any themes or ideas that capture your attention and imagination.

Questions to Consider:

1) Do you prefer romance or realism in your stories?

2) What did you make of the beginning of The Three Musketeers?

3) Are our heroes really that different from the ancient mythological ones?

4) ‘All for one, and one for all.’ What does this mean to you? And this is a good guiding ethos for one’s life?

And please do share with us your impressions, favourite passages, and striking ideas from the opening of this novel. If this is your first reading, does the story meet your expectations? If this is a reread, is the experience any different this time around?

Happy reading, everybody!